Ed Masley

The Republic | azcentral.com

Why did the Raw Story website post a story called “Prince died — and Sheriff Joe Arpaio had to be an (expletive) about it?”

It seems the sheriff took to Twitter yesterday to use the developing story that Prince allegedly was treated for a drug overdose before he died as a means to celebrate his own drug-rehab program in local jails.

No, really. This is what Raw Story says he originally tweeted.

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“Condolences to family of Prince, who allegedly died of overdose. Just celebrated 20 yrs of drug rehab in my jails. Drugs destroying our nation.”

He later deleted that tweet but not before Raw Story grabbed it. Then he changed the wording from "died of overdose" to "was treated for a drug overdose days ago."

After 13 hours, nearly 200 people have liked the sheriff's Prince tweet but plenty of others have taken to Twitter to call him out on the insensitivity of using Prince's death to brag about his own accomplishments. One person called him a sociopath while others used words we can't get away with sharing here. Here's a sample of the fallout.

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He even angered a supporter.