Are dangerous predators like Andrew Thomas or Joe Arpaio living in your neighborhood? Check these public records.

Joe Arpaio, "America's Toughest Sheriff", has blustered on occasion that his address is a matter of public record, and that he travels without guard, so that if anyone--such as mothers of his victims--wants to take him out, they could.

When someone publishes that address in a newspaper, however, chief goon (and bigot enabler) Andrew Thomas goes on the warpath. He's learned, however, that attempts to intimidate a major city's weekly are politically perilous. We still take freedom of the press seriously here in the States.

Now Thomas is upset--crocodile tears, if you ask me--that Azcentral.com, the website run by the Arizona Republic and Phoenix channel 12, published links to public documents giving his home address, complaining that it put him and his family in peril. The paper, as a courtesy, deleted the links.

I don't advocate doing anything to anyone's wife and children, nor do I believe that assassinations are an appropriate way to take even folks as low as Thomas and Arpaio out of office. However, Thomas, for the prosecution of Matt Bandy, for the failure to prosecute Patrick Haab, and for numerous offenses against the public trust and the liberty of the people, is beneath the courtesy shown to him by the Republic. For well-known reasons--including the attempt to intimidate the New Times--the same applies to Arpaio.

Both men's addresses are public record, on the Maricopa County Recorder's website. Both of Thomas's and Arpaio's residences may be found on their 2004 Financial Disclosure Statements.

Kids, if you go trick-or-treating to the addresses given, have your parents check things over. The homes are known for harboring bad apples.