Let me introduce you to celebrity sheriff and media personality Joe Arpaio (pdf):
From at least 2006 and continuing through the present, MCSO officers have unlawfully discriminated against Latinos and otherwise violated their constitutional rights through a broad range of police practices, including the following: Unconstitutional and unlawful targeting of Latinos, because of their race, color, or national origin, for pretextual traffic stops during routine enforcement activity, in connection with purported immigration and human smuggling law enforcement activities, and during purported crime suppression operations (suppression sweeps) Unconstitutional and unlawful detention of Latino drivers and passengers, because of their race, color, or national origin, to determine immigration status, when there is no lawful basis for the detention…
The Defendants’ violations of the Constitution and laws of the United States are the product of a culture of disregard in MCSO for Latinos that starts at the top and pervades the organization. MCSO jail employees frequently refer to Latinos as “wetbacks,” “Mexican bitches,” and “stupid Mexicans.” MCSO supervisors involved in immigration enforcement have expressed anti-Latino bias, in one instance widely distributing an email that included a photograph of a Chihuahua dog dressed in swimming gear with the caption “A Rare Photo of a Mexican Navy Seal.” MCSO and Arpaio’s words and actions set the tone and create a culture of bias that contributes to unlawful actions.
In another instance, MCSO officers stopped a car carrying four Latino men, although the car was not violating any traffic laws. The MCSO officers ordered the men out of the car, zip-tied them, and made them sit on the curb for an hour before releasing all of them. The only reason given for the stop was that the men’s car “was a little low,” which is not a criminal or traffic violation….
For example, an MCSO officer stopped a Latina woman – a citizen of the United States and five months pregnant at the time – as she pulled into her driveway. After she exited her car, the officer then insisted that she sit on the hood of the car. When she refused, the officer grabbed her arms, pulled them behind her back, and slammed her, stomach first, into the vehicle three times. He then dragged her to the patrol car and shoved her into the backseat. He left her in the patrol car for approximately 30 minutes without air conditioning. The MCSO officer ultimately issued a citation for failure to provide identification. This citation was later changed to failure to provide proof of insurance. The citation was resolved when the woman provided her proof of insurance to the local court…
In another instance, during a crime suppression operation, two MCSO officers followed a Latina woman, a citizen of the United States, for a quarter of a mile to her home. The officers did not turn on their emergency lights, but insisted that the woman remain in her car when she attempted to exit the car and enter her home. The officers’ stated reasons for approaching the woman was a non-functioning license plate light. When the woman attempted to enter her home, the officers used force to take her to the ground, kneed her in the back, and handcuffed her. The woman was then taken to an MCSO substation, cited for “disorderly conduct,” and returned home. The disorderly conduct citation was subsequently dismissed….
For example, during a raid of a house suspected of containing human smugglers and their victims, HSU officers went to an adjacent house, which was occupied by a Latino family. The officers entered the adjacent house and searched it, without a warrant and without the residents’ knowing consent. Although they found no evidence of criminal activity, after the search was over, the officers zip-tied the residents, a Latino man, a legal permanent resident of the United States, and his 12-year-old Latino son, a citizen of the United States, and required them to sit on the
sidewalk for more than one hour, along with approximately 10 persons who had been seized from the target house, before being released.In another raid, a U.S.-born Latina was taken into custody for four hours to determine whether she was lawfully in the United States.
In a nationally televised interview in 2009, Arpaio stated: “They hate me, the Hispanic community, because they’re afraid they’re going to be arrested. And they’re all leaving town, so I think we’re doing something good, if they’re leaving.”
This wasn’t a mystery. There’s nothing in these allegations that we haven’t read in news accounts. It’s been going on for years, and it’s extensively documented and available. Hell, Arpaio brags about this stuff on national television, and that’s the part that is absolutely amazing to me. Apparently his statements and (alleged) behavior are now completely acceptable to Republican leaders and all of the many media companies who have promoted and celebrated the “controversial” sheriff since 2006, and this isn’t the half of it. There’s also the massive corruption and arrest and prosecution of his political opponents, which has also been going on for years. The sheriff brutally targets one specific group of people for arrest, detention, abuse and humiliation, and he’s not a political liability to Republicans, he’s a national conservative celebrity who appears at Tea Party rallies with former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
What are Republicans and media thinking, lending this person credibility and giving him a propaganda and grifter-career platform? Do they have any standards at all?
schrodinger's cat
He is not the only, though he may be the most egregious. The GOP has been immigrant bashing for quite some time now. At least 5 years or so, if not more. Their vision for the US is not that different from the white supremacist one.
BTW Cray Cray Bachmann has renounced the Swiss citizenship.
SatanicPanic
It’s all part of that Latino outreach plan
Keith
Eh, no.
rlrr
@SatanicPanic:
Obama should manipulate Romney into publicly supporting Arpaio…
gnomedad
Well, sure. They’re exemplified by Arpaio, Palin, Limbaugh …
the Conster
The national media is going to ask the Romneytron about whether he supports Arpaio, like Obama has to answer for everything Kanye says, amirite?
Yutsano
Sounds like an ideal VP candidate to me. Would definitely give Willard more Teatard credibility.
rlrr
@Yutsano:
I’m hoping Romney will go full Teatard when choosing his running mate…
Cacti
As one who lives, and has practiced law in Maricopa County, this guy is every bit as bad as advertised.
Joe Arpaio is this generation’s Bull Connor. His deputies are the worst sort of racist, jack-booted, scum.
Brian R.
Bull Connor 2.0
rlrr
@Cacti:
His deputies are the worst sort of racist, jack-booted, scum.
In other words, Republicans.
SatanicPanic
@rlrr: I imagine there will be accusations from the right that Obama is using the DOJ for political reasons and will try to drag Romney into agreeing. Oh well, anything that makes the Republicans embrace this racist creep is good news for Obama.
Yutsano
@rlrr: I think he has no choice. Hell right now he could possibly lose Georgia if the vote is as depressed as they’re fearing. This might not be the best year to be a Republican. Can I haz November 7th now?
Jado
They’re thinking, “WOO HOO!! This moron will say and do the things my constituents want to hear, AND THERE ARE NO NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES!! I’m getting elected AGAIN!!”
The press has abdicated their role in favor of ratings and corporate profits. There are no consequences until the VOTERS lay down some consequences.
So, as Uncle Neil stated so long ago, “…we’re finally on our own.”
JGabriel
GOP standards: What liberals hate, updated daily.
(h/t? Is it Cleek?)
.
Kay
@Cacti:
Who is regularly described in media accounts as “controversial”.
“Americas Toughest Sheriff”. Really. I could puke. I’ll assume they admire him.
Where’s the DEMANDS for DENUNCIATION by Republican leaders? Jesus Christ. Half of them appear in happy photos with him. Or are we still vetting Obama?
schrodinger's cat
I predict Sheriff Joe is the Vice Presidential nominee or at least has a speaking slot at the Republican Convention.
wonkie
A lady who is involved at our local dog rescue is a snwobird and lives in “Sheriff Joe’s” furf in the winrter. She loves him. I part this is because she is a winger and believes eery craxy conspiracy theory icluding the one about Mexicans taking Arizona back. It’s also becaues Joe is appartenlty really tough on dog fighters. He’s good on enforcing laws to protect dogs and cats from cruelty and neglect. Good, at tleast, if the human invovled is Latino. I don’t kow how he is if the human is Anglo.
Ash Can
So Kay, what’s the next step in the DoJ’s suit against Arpaio? Is there any hope of Arpaio landing in jail at any point, or at the very least being stripped of his job?
shortstop
@Yutsano: Oh, let us enjoy summer first. We live for it in Chicago.
One of my biggest fears is losing the sense of outrage I feel over people like Joe Arpaio. We become desensitized–at least partially–to corruption the same way we learn to accept gratuitous violence in media. Step by step, it becomes…well, if not the norm, at least something we shake our heads at helplessly.
redshirt
FREEDOM! = More people in jail
Culture of Truth
Do they have any standards at all?
Yes! They like violent abusive racist authoritarian wackos. You don’t find those people just anywhere.
ruemara
Do they have any standards? Honey. These are the standards. That’s what it is.
Brian
No,
That was easy next questions. Man I am gonna ace this test.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yutsano:
One of my friends suggested this very thing over dinner last night. The ideal Teatard outreach running mate!
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
Normally, one has to go to a beer hall in Munich to find persons of this caliber.
Face
Just wait how bad things will get once the SCOTUS thumbs-ups the Arizona Stop And Beat You Like A Rented Mule Law.
clone12
So the tea party guys in their triangle hats and their love for all things constitutional should be all over this right?
Culture of Truth
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/arizona-sheriff-arpaio-and-steven-segal
Yossarian
This guy is such an awful, irredeemable piece of shit. I hope DOJ succeeds in raking him over the coals.
Villago Delenda Est
@clone12:
Well, the teabaggers generally believe that everything after the 12th amendment doesn’t count, so, no.
Woodrowfan
Has anyone else noticed that whenever a story comes out about a Republican as a teen, it shows what a bully he was? RMoney’s assault on the kid with long hair, Bush II’s blowing up frogs with firecrackers, Rand Paul’s Aqua- Buddha, George Allen’s leaving deer heads in black family’s mailboxes, etc. The right-wing is the natural home of bullies, and Arpaio is just another one…
r€nato
This business with profiling Latinos is just what DoJ is going after him over.
Arpaio has abused his powers in many other ways. For those of you who are not local or haven’t heard:
**He’s repeatedly used his powers to go after anyone who crosses him or doesn’t do his bidding. Election opponents. Judges. County supervisors with whom he fought over his budget (I’ll get more into that – briefly – below). He even sent his deputies to arrest a local actor who appeared in an ad for one of his election opponents, because the guy dressed up as a sheriff’s deputy for Halloween. (“Impersonating a law-enforcement officer” was the charge)
**MCSO has not been audited throughout Joe’s two-decades-long tenure as sheriff. Joe owns two commercial office buildings in Scottsdale. How does he make that kind of money, that allows him to invest in prime Scottsdale real estate? Yes, he’s a double-dipper (DEA retirement plus sheriff’s salary). Speculation is that there’s skimming going on there, but we’ll never find out until Joe leaves office. That’s why you can count on him never running for any other office, despite the strip-tease he does every two years about running for US Senate or AZ governor. He has to keep the dirty laundry in the closet at all costs.
**Maricopa County has been sued *repeatedly* over inhumane conditions and atrocious behavior by deputies, in his jail. He has literally cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in judgements and raised insurance premiums due to these payouts in lawsuits.
**Between 2004 and 2007, MCSO inadequately investigated or didn’t even bother investigating hundreds of sex crimes. But yeah, he’s tough on crime. If by that, you mean staging media stunts involving arresting street vendors and day laborers.
**The corruption and incompetence doesn’t stop with Joe. Google “Lisa Aubuchon” and “Andrew Thomas”. Thomas was the County Attorney and Arpaio’s accomplice who helped him pursue a vendetta against two County Supes. Aubuchon worked for Thomas. Then go google “Dave Hendershott”. Hendershott was Arpaio’s henchman. Aubuchon and Thomas have been disbarred. Aubuchon is fighting her disbarment; Thomas chose not to, and rumor is that’s because he may flip on Arpaio and cooperate with the feds. By the way, we Maricopa County taxpayers were obligated to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend Aubuchon, Thomas and another former employee of Thomas’ in the disbarment hearings, since it involved their official duties.
For more on Thomas – who also filed a bogus RICO suit against a county judge who didn’t rule the way he wanted (this was also part of the basis for disbarment hearings against Thomas et al), see Wikipedia.
OK, about the county supervisors, briefly as I promised. The county sheriff is an elected position so he has a certain amount of independence from the county supervisors, who otherwise would exercise control over other officials. The fight, if I recall correctly, started with the bursting of the housing bubble which of course greatly affected the greater Phoenix area’s housing values. That, in turn, slashed home valuations which caused property tax revenues to take a huge tumble.
The Supes wanted to dictate cuts in MCSO’s budget, as well as that of the County Attorney. They asked both offices – along with other county departments – to submit budgets which reflected a 20% cut in funding, just in case that was needed. Note that they weren’t saying they *would* ask for a 20% cut, they just wanted to be prepared for the coming shortfall in tax revenue.
Well, thin-skinned Arpaio saw this not as responsible government, but as an attack on his office. He demanded full funding and he refused to submit the budget as requested. That’s where the shitstorm really got started, and that’s the genesis of what ended up as disbarment hearings against the above-mentioned County Attorney and his employees. Arpaio and Thomas trumped up dozens and dozens of corruption-related charges against county supes Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox. They staged a media event where Stapley was publicly arrested as he went to work, for the benefit of TV cameras.
Thomas ended up having to recuse himself, and try as they might they could not find a single county attorney in Arizona who would indict on these charges; the evidence was too flimsy. Note that few political observers around here think that Wilcox and Stapley are completely clean politicians; but this ham-handed vendetta had the effect of inoculating them against any serious investigation of corruption on their part and making them look like innocent victims.
And yet – despite all this evidence that Arpaio grossly abuses his powers and wastes a great deal of taxpayer money – there is a significant bloc of voters here who love Joe, believe he’s tough on crime because he has chain gangs and serves green bologna at Tent City and stages media events where his goons arrest day laborers and street vendors. Tea partiers actually turned out in support of Andrew Thomas after he was disbarred; they’ve never turned out to protest Arpaio’s obvious abuse of his government powers and wasting of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
Well, as Loren Michaels once pointed out, Segal is an asshole.
russ
The timing of the lawsuit couldn’t start at a better time and I hope they can stretch the proceedings until election day.
Culture of Truth
@Villago Delenda Est: “good luck in prison”
4tehlulz
10bux says neo-Himmler responds with his version of Lidice.
Culture of Truth
good for the DOJ, but why didn’t Obama go after Arpaio?!?!
/snark
r€nato
@clone12: see my post above. The only time they’ve come out at all in an Arpaio-related way, was the press conference Andrew Thomas held after his disbarment. They turned out to support him.
WereBear
@Woodrowfan: Huckabee’s son killed a dog at a Boy Scout outing of some sort. Pat Buchanan still reminisces about his teen years, roaming in packs and beating up some other group. And there was some right wing icon who revealed their father killed someone’s pet cat and served it to them unknowingly. (Can’t find it googling, and I can’t stand looking at the stuff that comes up when I try.)
No wonder they love authoritarian, beatdown, style parenting. It’s what they got.
Forum Transmitted Disease
There’s “tough on crime”, and then there’s “wholesale violent oppression of a group of people”. Arpaio went way past “tough on crime” back in the 1990s.
This isn’t even the beginning, just the opening round. Arpaio’s still in office. It’s taken almost 20 years to make a significant dent in the police culture after Darryl Gates left, and there’s still problems in L.A. with the cops.
Villago Delenda Est
@r€nato:
The problem with Arpaio isn’t just the racism. It’s the endemic corruption, and it extends to the Brewer harpy as well.
Arizona is basically run like an organized crime family. Corrupt to the core.
ruemara
@Yossarian:
FTFY
Dave
Arpaio probably thinks he’s so clever, not using gas chambers.
r€nato
@Villago Delenda Est: I would agree – and have been told more than once – that this is true.
But usually the corruption is polite and behind closed doors. Arpaio’s corruption and abuse is brash, very public and in-your-face.
And the people who love him, reward him for it by showing up and voting for him over and over. The people who deplore him, too many of them don’t remember and don’t show up when the election rolls around.
So, sadly, it’s left up to the feds to do what we seemingly can’t get done ourselves.
BruceFromOhio
Banana republic, banana republicans.
Standards? Hell, yes. Just not ones that do anyone any good.
kindness
Republicans would only care about Arpaio’s forces actions if he was doing this to white people. Since he’s only doing this to brown skinned people, it doesn’t matter.
That is today’s Republican party. Not every Republican, but the leaders.
quannlace
What a fucking sociopath. I hope the AG fries his ass. He can continue his birther investigations in jail.
You forget this is the party that has people who applaud letting an uninsured patient die.
r€nato
sure they do. Is he/she a Republican? Republican good. Democrat bad.
is he/she beating up/keeping down the brown people?
Those are the standards…
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@shortstop:
The most depressing thing I’ve seen is the very that that this has already happened severalfold, mostly in the media. The entire political landscape is already desensitized to it, even if we, the electorate, or at least the saner parts of it, aren’t yet. That’s how they’ve not only gotten away with this shit but actively benefited from crazy. They’ve mainstreamed this horrific shit and won power unimaginable nationwide off the backs of shits like Arpaio.
Kay
@r€nato:
Conservatives themselves, the reality, are the best argument for a strong federal government.
Just parade them past, one by one. I don’t know that people in Texas or South Carolina would be voting at all at this point without federal protections.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@r€nato:
And the worst thing my cynical mind keeps coming to is that, for doing the right thing, we’ll get reamed electorally for it because the country is that fucked up that they’ll rise to celebrate Arpaio and exalt him as a martyr for actually trying to tamp down on his bullshit.
This is a country and discourse where doing the right thing gets you vilified for decades, and advocating mass murder gets you a plum job as an Army Expert, Fox News Analyst, or US Senator.
@Kay:
Oh, don’t worry, Congressional Republicans are working on rectifying that little issue as we speak.
JCT
@Dave:
Wait until they dig under his jail…
The person upthread who described him as the tip of the iceberg for the entire administration in Arizona is correct. It is mind-boggling. Oh and the wingnuts here ADORE their Sheriff Joe. Remember, these are the same people who were more than happy to embrace the “theory” that scumbag J.T. Ready didn’t kill his family — it was a Mexican Cartel hit. Or…maybe a govt hit. Jesus.
A big part of this state is a veritable insane asylum of paranoia and hate.
amk
Here is your today’s teann’s breaking news screaming headline.
Do what you will with it.
Jennifer
I see someone has already beaten me to the Bull Connor analogy.
I’ll just add: if Fox News had been around in the 1960’s, Bull Connor would have had his own show.
rikyrah
I have been patient.
I await the day when Sherriff Joe is on videotape in an orange jumpsuit and shackles.
I do believe my patience will be rewarded.
SmallAxe
There is no bottom to the Arpaio story, lived through his reign 95-2k1 still have a house there like an idiot. He is no doubt the new Bull Connor, despicable, I’ve always called him the modern day Sheriff of Nottingham. r€nato feel your pain and Village is right on the money whole place is corrupt sadly. Going to have to wait for that generation Arpaio, Pearce and Gov scrunchy face to pass before AZ can dig itself out of the gutter. I don’t have much hope that this DOJ case will go anywhere.
Need to sell the house me thinks I’ve lost all hope of ever moving back there because of the political not natural climate because I loved it there outside of this BS.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
IIRC, it was Jerry Falwell. Which actually made me feel sorry for Fallwell, being raised by someone that evil.
DFH no.6
@r€nato:
I know you know this, renato (as your excellent longer comment shows), but Sheriff Joe Arpaio County (aka, Maricopa County) is solidly Republican and will remain so for the foreseeable.
And the vast majority of fascists around here will happily vote for Arpaio as long as he draws breath and runs for office, which, as you so perceptively put it, will only ever be Maricopa County sheriff.
He wins every election handily. It’s democracy in action, and he’ll win again this November.
Arpaio’s approval rating among the voters here is super-high (even higher in most polling than his landslide election results), and the DOJ investigation and now lawsuit will only make the teabaggers support the bastard more.
The only bright spot is the evil motherfucker is pretty old – he’s 79.
I expect whoever eventually replaces him will be as much a fascist asshole authoritarian, just probably less flamboyantly so.
Seanly
@redshirt:
There’s a color wheel for the amount of freedom one is allowed.
shortstop
@Mnemosyne: But it does explain a lot.
Woodrowfan
@Mnemosyne:
good God, I never heard that one before.
Linda Featheringill
@Villago Delenda Est: #26
:-)
sherparick
@Keith: Beat me to it. Except, no hassling rich white millionaires. That is a standard of a sort.
WereBear
@Mnemosyne: Thanks for info on Falwell. And the tip about the cut price FDR book on Kindle on the Obama gay marriage thread!
Ridnik Chrome
Back when the first Abu Ghraib photos came out, my first thought was that the folks in charge of AG seemed to have learned how to run a prison from Joe Arpaio.
Argive
I always liked the episode of Penn and Teller: Bullshit! dealing with the war on drugs. Somehow they got Arpaio to agree to an interview, and he did himself no favors at all.
burnspbesq
So, the complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.
Let’s assume that DOJ gets all the relief it wants. Think for a minute about how you would monitor compliance with the injunction. There’s no reason not to assume that Arpaio will falsify any report his department is required to provide, and there aren’t enough FBI agents or AUSAs in the entire country to effectively do ongoing, in-the-field monitoring.
As noted by several people above, there’s no reason to think that losing this case will cause the fine, upstanding citizens of Maricopa County to turn against Arpaio. Unless the cost of paying damage awards in private 1983 actions leads to a budget crisis.
So what’s really going on here? is this just an attempt by DOJ to tilt the playing field in favor of private plaintiffs? And will it work?
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
Perhaps, but not any time soon. If DOJ had the goods on Arpaio, they wouldn’t have filed this milquetoasty civil action.
Patricia Kayden
Way to close the gap in the Latino vote!
Patricia Kayden
@wonkie: Interesting because Arpaio is not Anglo.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
In the Southwest, I’m pretty sure everyone of European origin (except maybe actual Spaniards) is called an “Anglo.” I know it’s that way here in good ol’ Southern Cali.
ETA: IIRC, Arpaio is of Italian descent, to all Italian-Americans’ shame.
r€nato
@Mnemosyne: fuck that, he’s a Sicilian, not an Italian.
Even the Sicilians will tell you it’s not really the same thing…
oops I was wrong. His family is actually from Campagnia, way down near the arch of the boot. So he’s not a Sicilian, merely a southerner.
Which means – if you’re a northern Italian like me – he’s as good as a Sicilian.
**ducks**
Mike Lamb
@r€nato: As a fellow resident of the PHX metro area, what I really really don’t understand is that the Teabaggers, which, as we both know, are legion in this area, are against gov’t waste/spending, how do they support Arpaio who is costing the county MILLIONS?
Ken
David Duke is surely kicking himself for not waiting twenty years for his presidential run.
Mike Lamb
@burnspbesq: Arpaio has been sued dozens of times and the County has paid out the nose settling cases. I don’t think the field needs to be tilted much more, unless there’s some type of class action in the works.
Mnemosyne
@r€nato:
Hey, my family’s from Lombardia, so I’m with you.
ETA: Is there a particular reason why there are so many Sicilians in the Phoenix area? My dad used to have some Sicilian friends (though they drifted apart after his friend decided to leave his wife for a woman who was 30 years younger).