PHOENIX -- "Garbage."

That's how Sheriff Joe Arpaio described a doctored picture e-mailed to several media outlets showing him dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit and holding a noose to a Hispanic man's head.

VIDEO: Arpaio Reacts To KKK Comparison

The picture was distributed to some media organizations by immigrant rights advocate Elias Bermudez of Immigrants Without Borders.

Bermudez said he didn't create the photo, but forwarded the image to 50 of his friends and colleagues in the Hispanic community.

The image depicts Arpaio as a member of one of the most hated groups in history -- the KKK.

"It is a picture in bad taste," Bermudez told CBS 5 News. "It is a picture that should not be remembered."

Bermudez said the depiction is what some people are feeling with the sheriff's new anti-immigration hotline.

"It is a true depiction of how our people feel," he said. "We are just waiting to be hung by a rope."

"I'd rather have my community put out a bad tasting picture than to go out and riot and burn cars and destroy property," Bermudez said.

READ: 7/22/07 - Foes Nix Sheriff's Hotline

Arpaio said he is fearful the picture could lead to rioting and violence against him or his family.

"This is going a little too far what these people are doing," the sheriff told CBS 5 News.

"If they think they're going to scare me and take that hotline down, I don't back down," Arpaio said.

While he wouldn't elaborate on what, if any, threats have been made against him, he said for the first time he has hired an extra security detail.