Though undoubtedly he would have been met with thunderous applause if he'd been given a speaking slot at the RNC, "America's toughest sheriff," the notorious (some say racist) sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, Joe Arpaio, will be speaking in Tampa on Thursday — at Lowry Park Zoo.
Waiting in the security line early Wednesday evening to enter the Tampa Bay Times Forum, CL realized that the controversial cop, 80 years young and running for a sixth four-year term this November, was standing before us. We then exchanged in some extremely small talk.
We asked what he thought of the most recent national story written about him, a piece in Rolling Stone published earlier this month.
"It's all a rehash," he said of that story, which is actually pretty accurate, only interesting to those who have never heard of some of the sheriff's outlandish antics over the years.
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2012.