I really do live in the South

Ok, this shouldn't reflect on the entire region because, after all, the Raleigh area really is a diverse, fairly progressive community. There are still southern politics at play, but fortunately there is a diverse enough group of vocal people that those opinions are often counter balanced.

However, an article in the Sunday News&Observer, Raleigh's uber conservative piece-of-shit paper, published an article about the Johnston County sheriff. Johnston county is located to the southeast of Raleigh, touching Wake County, where Raleigh is located. As evidenced in this article, you don't have to move out far from Raleigh to live in the sticks, or at least with, or next to, people who have the capacity of a stick for a brain.

Enter Johnston County sheriff Steve Bizzell.

I can't adequately describe how horrific the language and accusations are in the article. "Everywhere you look it's little Mexico around here," and "Mexicans are trashy," and "Mexicans breed like rabbits," are just a few of the inflammatory comments Bizzell made. It is downright appalling. I am not upset about the paper for writing an article that outs this public figure as the racist bigot he is, but I'm pissed that the reporter didn't bother to interview, or include comments from, people who have differing opinions.

(Read the article here.)

Fortunately, the fall out has been swift. There are numerous calls for the sheriff to step down. The ACLU and NAACP are investigating, and in fact, the ACLU has filed a public records request for numerous documents from the department over the past four years to see if the sheriff's attitude has influenced the way he polices his community. Good for them. We haven't heard the last of this for sure.

(Read the fallout here, here and here.)