PHOENIX — Hecklers in the audience broke into a loudly sung version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and forced a high-profile Arizona sheriff to abandon a First Amendment forum sponsored by Arizona State University’s journalism school.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was asked by a panel of journalists Monday night to explain his relationship with the media, his various law-enforcement policies and whether his office conducts racial profiling.
Arpaio told the panel that his office is an “equal-opportunity law-enforcement agency” that will arrest anyone who violates the law.
Later in the interview at ASU’s Walter Cron kite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, protesters began singing a version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with derogatory lyrics and chanting as Arpaio was asked about a federal investigation and his policies on illegal immigration.
The sheriff told the panel the outburst was “ridiculous,” and he left the stage.
ASU journalism-school dean Christopher Callahan later called the protest misplaced.
Arpaio, who took office in 1993, has described himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” and has made headlines with such steps as feeding jail inmates green bologna sandwiches, clothing them in pink underwear and making them work on chain gangs.
