Shaq has been un-deputized, Barney Fife style

OK, Shaq, it was only a joke.

Freestyle on this: Your special deputy's badge in Maricopa County, Ariz., is null and void.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the Phoenix Suns center's use of a racially derogatory word and other foul language in a rap against Kobe Bryant found by TMZ.com and circulated in the media left him no choice.

Arpaio made Shaq a special deputy in January and promoted him to colonel of his largely ceremonial posse earlier this month.

"I want his two badges back," Arpaio told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they're fired. I don't condone this type of racial conduct."

The video shows O'Neal asking Bryant "tell me how my a** tastes," and mentiones other derogatory terms.

"I was freestyling. That's all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever," O'Neal told ESPN.com Monday.

"Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I don't think that either conduct should be out there publicly, even if media wasn't there," Arpaio said.

O'Neal previously served as a reserve officer with the Miami Beach Police Department while playing for the Miami Heat. He also volunteered with the Tempe Police Department after being traded to the Suns in February. With the Lakers in 2001, O'Neal was also talking classes to join the Sheriff's Reserves on Harbor Patrol. That's him above with a cardboard cutout of himself -- presumably a recruiting tool for those who wanted to spend some time in San Pedro looking for those swimming with the fishes.