we found your weakness, and it's right outside the door, now testify

Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa Co. in AZ, has long been a toxic villian, posturing and preening on TV while he routinely violates the rights of prisoners he captures. Of course, his actions delight the anti-immigrant vigilante groups holding their watches at the border.

In fact, members of the House Judiciary Committee are interested in Sheriff Joe:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) called on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate allegations of misconduct by Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

America's Voice has created a special website, with a petition you can sign, demanding something be done about this tyrant:

With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while hard-working immigrants live in fear. America's Voice is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into his tactics, giving Sheriff Arpaio the attention he really deserves.

There's even an event scheduled here in L.A.:

Event: Teach-in at UCLA on Human and Civil Rights Violations

Date & Time: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Location: UCLA Labor Center, 675 South Park View Street, Los Angeles, CA 90057

America's Voice also tells us that:

As reported in the Phoenix New Times, former lead singer of Rage Against the Machine, Zack de la Rocha, joined a rally yesterday in advance of today's protest against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

The terror campaign that Mr. Arpaio is waging here in Arizona is keeping people in the shadows. They want to speak out.

Just what are they speaking out about? Arpaio's atrocious law enforcement tactics, though his "forced immigrant march" two weeks ago tops the list. In broad daylight he rounded up and paraded all of the undocumented immigrants in his jail in a chain-gang to a segregated ‘Tent City' surrounded by electrified fences in the Arizona desert.

Glad to see an artist take a public stand on an important issue. Zack has never been afraid to speak up against, well, The Machine.

On that note, here's Zack's former band doing some live Raging: