The Joe I Know
Recently someone asked me what I thought about last week’s arrest of District 9 City-County Councilor Joe Simpson’s arrest for allegedly interfering with a police investigation of a burglary on his block. My response was that it was no big shocker. In fact, knowing Joe, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner.
According to the police report, the cops asked Simpson to stay away from the crime scene several times. Each time he reportedly got louder and more obnoxious. I would argue he was just being true to form. Finally police had apparently had enough and they arrested him. I can just see in my mind’s eye, Simpson pulling one of those, “Do you know who I am?” And the officer saying, “Yes, you’re under arrest!” That didn’t happen, but according to the IMPD report, Simpson did say something to that effect.
Now granted, as an officer of the Court, I am obligated to say that everyone is entitled to due process and is innocent until proven guilty. However, as a political pundit and muckraker, I am also obligated to say that I am in no way shocked that of all things to get Simpson in trouble would be his mouth.
Anyone who knows Simpson they way I know Simpson knows he has always been notorious for having an over-sized ego, a highly inflated sense of self-importance (and this is coming from me of all people) and an extremely limited grasp of the issues. He frequently berates city agencies and threatens Department heads. He also calls in to local talk radio to bash the Mayor and accuse him in not so many words of being “insensitive to his community”. And while he was on the Washington Township Board he accused a local cameraman of calling him the n-word after Simpson got in the photographers face and tried to intimidate him. By the way, I know the cameraman and the n-word is not in his vocabulary.
So the fact that Simpson got arrested for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, after the police asked him several times to get back is not surprising in the least. Now to be fair to Simpson, he did apologize to the officers. Of course it was after he was handcuffed, sitting down on the curb and near tears, but he was sorry for his actions.
Now, once again, everyone is innocent until proven guilty and is entitled to his day in Court. But hearing that Simpson got arrested for allegedly shooting off his mouth to police, not surprising in the least. What I do find interesting though is that Simpson has been approached by several of my brothers in the media and has refused to talk on advice of his counsel. If I knew all it took to get Simpson to shut up was getting arrested, I would have had filed charges against him years ago.
