Councilwoman Ginny Dickey’s recent My Opinion column titled “A matter of respect” was far from respectful of the truth.

Dickey again embarrassed Fountain Hills in the media in her unending quest to attack Sheriff Arpaio. She did it years ago when she went on television to criticize the sheriff’s sweeps of illegal immigrant day laborers who were disrupting Fountain Hills, and she did it several weeks ago when she joined anti-Arpaio protestors in a street demonstration in a residential neighborhood of Fountain Hills.

Dickey laments the disruption of the neighborhood by the school training exercise but ignores the fact that she herself disrupted the neighborhood by joining with anti-Arpaio and pro-illegal immigration demonstrators from outside Fountain Hills protesting in front of neighborhood homes.

What hypocrisy!

Dickey falsely describes the Sheriff’s Office training exercise as a staged media event sensationalizing the Sandy Hook tragedy. How can she say that? Can she read minds? Or has her long held disdain for Sheriff Arpaio clouded her judgment? That’s not respect.

Regardless of Dickey’s personal vendetta, she is wrong about the training exercise. It was a professional exercise run by the Sheriff’s SWAT team. It started with lectures and ended with role-playing. As a retired police officer, I am grateful to the sheriff, his SWAT team and his Posse for doing this to make our children safer.

And as to the publicity Dickey hypocritically disdains while fueling, it is inevitable in a free society with an open government and free press.

Would Dickey have banned The Times and other media from reporting this and other events that she personally doesn’t like? Personally, I’m glad the training was televised. It sends the clear message to dangerous criminals and lunatics who would think to harm our children that Fountain Hills is prepared, in spite of Dickey.