January 6, 2014

Above the Law: Steven Seagal Considers Run to Be Arizona’s Governor

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/8129406153/">Gage Skidmore</a>/Flickr

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Steven Seagal has a lengthy resume: real-life martial arts expert, action star of 40-some movies, one-time director, nine-time nominee and one-time winner of a Golden Raspberry award, reserve deputy sheriff, namesake of an energy drink, musician with two full-length albums, and Mother Jones endorsed Joe Biden look-a-like. Now he wants to add politician to the mix.

Last Friday Phoenix TV station ABC15 published an interview with Seagal ahead of the new season of his reality TV show, Steven Seagal: Lawman. The first two seasons of the show, aired on A&E, featured Seagal working alongside police units in the suburbs of New Orleans. But for the latest season, now airing on Reelz, Seagal has transferred to Arizona, where he is a deputy for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, one of the country’s leading anti-immigrant zealots. That could springboard Seagal, a Republican, toward a career in politics.

“Joe Arpaio and I were talking about me running for governor in Arizona,” Seagal said in the interview, “which was kind of a joke, but I suppose I would remotely consider it, but I probably would have a lot more other responsibilities.”

When ABC15 asked Seagal what topic he viewed as the most pressing political problem for the country he turned to one of Arpaio’s favorite topics: open borders. “I think that this is a tremendous oversight by the current administration,” he said. “I think that it’s a crime.”

It would probably be for the best of Arizona citizens if Seagal ignores the advice of his buddy Arpaio. The action star has joined one of the most controversial law offices in the country by teaming up with Arpaio. The sheriff has been accused of blatant racism in his police tactics as he hunts down undocumented immigrants. In 2011, the US Justice Department issued a report that said Arpaio oversaw an office with “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos,” one where Latinos are singularly the aim of investigations and then mistreated in custody. Arpaio rounds up undocumented immigrants with such zeal that, instead of a normal jail, he houses arrestees in Tent City. Federal judges have stepped in and now require an independent monitor to keep tabs on Arpaio, lest racial profiling continue. His office misspent nearly $100 million. Not exactly an ideal political mentor for a martial-arts-expert-cum-governor.

What’s Seagal think of all those accusations against Arpaio? “Is Joe Arpaio racist? No he’s not,” he said. “I’m not going to say I think he’s not. He’s not. He doesn’t care what nationality you are, he cares if you’re a criminal, and that’s the way that I look at this whole thing.”

Here’s the video of the interview:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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