From [HERE] SEATTLE — Seattle’s mayor may soon have something in common with tough-talking Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The U.S. Justice Department has threatened to sue Mayor Mike McGinn over allegations that Seattle police officers regularly use excessive force. McGinn is due to respond this week to DOJ demands for reforms in the Police Department. If McGinn doesn’t agree to make changes that satisfy the DOJ and agree to the appointment of an outside monitor, he can expect a lawsuit from the U.S. attorney in Seattle as early as next month.

That’s the same ultimatum — standard in DOJ reviews of police departments — that drew an objection from Arpaio, who said he couldn’t stomach the idea of an independent monitor undermining his authority.

“I am not going to surrender my office to the federal government,” he said last week after the DOJ sued him over allegations that his department racially profiled Latinos.

It was only the second time since the verdict in the Rodney King police brutality case and Los Angeles riots that the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against a law enforcement agency with which it was unable to reach an agreement.