Maricopa's Andrew Thomas; Still Crazy After All These Years
We've become painfully aware of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's butt boil, prosecutor Andrew Thomas, rounding up the judges and local officials as part of their quest to wipe out the conspiracy of evil bent on criticizing Crazy Joe. One might surmise that Thomas, being a wily scoundrel, is a late-comer to the cause, hitching his wagon to Crazy Joe and enjoying the ride.
Not so. In fact, Andrew Thomas comes by his position honestly, as we learn from this Walter Olson (now of Overlawyered fame) article in Reason from the last century (July, 1997 issue):
There's not much more to say about this, except that Walter called out Thomas more than a decade ago, and the people of Maricopa County are still bearing the brunt of this arch-enemy of "rights-happy radical individualism." I thought you ought to know.
Not so. In fact, Andrew Thomas comes by his position honestly, as we learn from this Walter Olson (now of Overlawyered fame) article in Reason from the last century (July, 1997 issue):
Brace yourself: The root cause of everything from street muggings and gang delinquency to rudeness at traffic lights to excessive lawsuit filing has finally been found, and it's...libertarianism. At least that's the view of Andrew Peyton Thomas, an attorney with the state of Arizona and a frequent contributor to conservative magazines.And you thought Libertarians were only responsible for questionable fashion choices at political rallies and interesting blog posts.
He blames crime, rudeness, and litigiousness on the "live-and-let-live urban lifestyle" as spawned by "the moral laissez-faire disorder of libertarianism."
Mr. Thomas, author of Crime and the Roots of Order, has made a momentous discovery: "The root of our crime problem," as he informed Standard readers on March 17 of this year, "is a rights-happy radical individualism."
There's not much more to say about this, except that Walter called out Thomas more than a decade ago, and the people of Maricopa County are still bearing the brunt of this arch-enemy of "rights-happy radical individualism." I thought you ought to know.
We would say that Thomas should rename the criminal justice building down the there "The Palace of the World Council." However, we have concerns that such speech will cause us to be thrown into the Palace of Corrective Detention.
Sincerely,
Equality 7-2521
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Maybe he meant libertinism. That would make more sense. Just trying to be charitable.
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Charity has its limits. I hope he ends up in a jail cell with Arpaio. We'll see how much he despises "rights talk" after that.
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Thank you so much for posting this. Though this scumbag has been described as Arpaio's poodle, I assumed as a DA he didn't need to be dragged to his totalitarian activities kicking and screaming. I guess as a libertarian leaning type I am flattered about his targeting my type as the root cause of all things criminal. I am conservative on many issues, and am often arguing with them as to why, LAW ENFORCEMENT is the one group of employees (despite frequently being "union thugs") that many so-called conservatives seems to exempt from their anti gubmint philosophy.
Hope your post spreads far and wide through the blogosphere and beyond. Sounds like it's time Reason does a reprise of this article.
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