Ariz. sheriff: I'll jail immigration protesters

[Highlord Laan]

I'm generally in favor of capital convicts being treated like shit, but Arpaio pisses even me off, and I'm not even from or in the same state. He only does it for the attention and fame, rather than any sort of devotion to the Rule of Law, and I find that sickening. Were he some sort of mindless fanatic, he'd be easier to deal with, but instead he's a slimy political sadist with an authority complex.

I've always seen being in Law Enforcement as a pretty grim and generally thankless job; they do deal regularly with the worst we have to offer after all. This Sheriff though is more into being an iron handed despot with delusions of grandeur than actually doing his goddamed job.

Serve and Protect not Persecute and Purge the Unclean.

[The Yosemite Bear]

please FBI if a denial of civil rights is good enough for the fuckheads who beat rodney king, and the scum who covered up the bridge incident in NO, can you please confirm Sherriff Joe's paranoia and try him on charges of denial of civil rights?

[loomer]

I'm generally in favor of capital convicts being treated like shit, but Arpaio pisses even me off, and I'm not even from or in the same state. He only does it for the attention and fame, rather than any sort of devotion to the Rule of Law

How is the rule of law served by treating men like shit, precisely? If they have been convicted, the rule of law has already been served - it has been proven that they are not beyond justice and they are no longer a threat to society.

[SirNitram]

I'm generally in favor of capital convicts being treated like shit, but Arpaio pisses even me off, and I'm not even from or in the same state. He only does it for the attention and fame, rather than any sort of devotion to the Rule of Law, and I find that sickening. Were he some sort of mindless fanatic, he'd be easier to deal with, but instead he's a slimy political sadist with an authority complex.

I've always seen being in Law Enforcement as a pretty grim and generally thankless job; they do deal regularly with the worst we have to offer after all. This Sheriff though is more into being an iron handed despot with delusions of grandeur than actually doing his goddamed job.

Serve and Protect not Persecute and Purge the Unclean.

I always thought he followed the Decepticon police symbol. To Punish And Enslave

Anyway. He was on a radio show today. The quotes are transcribed, the !'s are from his own emphasis.

HARTMANN: By and large the people who are the most energetic, the most outspoken, and the most active like you are…are gung-ho to go after poor brown people. But when it comes to talking about laying their hands on the rich white guys — the guys who own the companies, the guys who own the companies that own the companies, the guys who are creating the demand — I’m not hearing your governor out there yelling and screaming about that. I’m not hearing you talk much about that. [...] Why aren’t you and Jan Brewer advocates for laws against the rich white guys that are making all this happens?

ARPAIO: I’m the only one grabbing the people and raiding these businesses! [...]

HARTMANN: I know, but my point is, you’re doing a lot of media, you’re out there, and you could be a voice for “Hey, let’s go after these rich white guys.”

ARPAIO: I say that!

HARTMANN: Will you go on the record right now and say “the rich white guys should be in jail?”

ARPAIO: Of course, I’ll go after anybody. Give me the evidence and I’ll go after them.

Suuuure you will, Arpaio. Suuure.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Suuuure you will, Arpaio. Suuure.

He probably will, it's just that the burden of evidence needed for him to go after a rich white guy is a lot higher than is needed for, say, a brown guy.

The burden of evidence needed for him to go after a brown guy is self-evident; brownness. The burden of evidence he needs to go after a rich white guy is for that rich white guy to start saying bad things about him in the press.

[Kanastrous]

Somehow I doubt that when any given Arpaio arrestee appears in court and turns out to have been unlawfully arrested or detained, the judge says well this guy's brown so no harm, no foul, and the sheriff's dept won't have to explain themselves. I likewise doubt that, given such a case, the ACLU wouldn't have been noisily all over it.

Since I figure someone is going to offer links proving me wrong, while we're at it how about some links to materials underwriting calling Arpaio a criminal, a murderer, etc etc etc since if there's evidence to support the charges it ought to be easy enough for the accusers to lay hands upon it.

[Broomstick]

In a sense, I feel sorry for the guy: he's doing his job, even if the job description now requiers him to be an asshole. It's not his fault that the USA's immigration system is fucked up twice and forever.

EDIT: Wait, Thanas's post confused me. Is the guy, the sheriff, responsible for making the law or is he just enforcing it?

I don't feel sorry for the asshole at all. True, he doesn't make the law but the WAY he has enforced it has lead directly to a number of deaths of inmates in his jail. He was an asshole BEFORE this new law came into effect. He has been criticized for human and civil rights violations by Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League, he has been the subject of more than one FBI investigation, and his sheriff department has been sued by the ACLU for racial profiling in the past.

For example, forcing inmates to live outdoors in 43 C heat for extended periods of time. This has lead to death from heatstroke in several inmates. There is also a disturbing trend of disabled or medical fragile inmates dying in his jail - keep in mind, many of these people have merely been arrested, they have not yet been found guilty of any crime. Have a from Joe Arpaio's opposition. In one case that I remember hearing about on the news in 2005 a diabetic woman was denied insulin for several days, after which she fell into a coma and died. This is a woman who was incarcerated before so the jail had her prior records, and her family even called the jail medical staff to alert them to the woman's need for medication. All ignored. And it happens too damn frequently in Arpaio's jail.

Never mind being convicted, if you're merely arrested in Phoenix the sheriff considers you sub-human and really doesn't give a fuck if you live or die.

[Broomstick]

Doesn't he run an open-air prison in the middle of the DESERT where convicts sleep on cots over dirt floors in tents?

Yes.

Also, they're fed only twice a day on sub-standard food and are routinely denied medical care even for life-threatening conditions.

[Zixinus]

I don't feel sorry for the asshole at all. True, he doesn't make the law but the WAY he has enforced it has lead directly to a number of deaths of inmates in his jail. He was an asshole BEFORE this new law came into effect. He has been criticized for human and civil rights violations by Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League, he has been the subject of more than one FBI investigation, and his sheriff department has been sued by the ACLU for racial profiling in the past.

Keep in mind that I said that BEFORE I knew who he was exactly.

Once I wikied him up, I started feeling sorry for him at all and actually wanting him to try and arrest protesters on national TV, hoping that then at least at some region of the world, another pitiful police-dictator would be thrown down.

[Broomstick]

Yes, I knew you were unaware of all that - hence my links. I mean, why would the average Hungarian know anything about one sheriff in the US? You have no reason to know about him. But now you do.

[The Yosemite Bear]

mind you he also tends to pose with skinheads and other people like Minuteman child killer Shawna Ford....

[Ritterin Sophia]

Yes, I knew you were unaware of all that - hence my links. I mean, why would the average Hungarian know anything about one sheriff in the US? You have no reason to know about him. But now you do.

I think he's talking about how you attempted to correct him after he'd already recanted that statement before your post after someone else had informed him.

[Broomstick]

Oh.... you know that was probably me taking to long to post and not reading someone else had gotten there before me. Oops.

[Thanas]

Somehow I doubt that when any given Arpaio arrestee appears in court and turns out to have been unlawfully arrested or detained, the judge says well this guy's brown so no harm, no foul, and the sheriff's dept won't have to explain themselves. I likewise doubt that, given such a case, the ACLU wouldn't have been noisily all over it.

Since I figure someone is going to offer links proving me wrong, while we're at it how about some links to materials underwriting calling Arpaio a criminal, a murderer, etc etc etc since if there's evidence to support the charges it ought to be easy enough for the accusers to lay hands upon it.

Links have been posted in this thread. The problem is the guy never gets involved personally and then you hit a wall of silence.

[Darksider]

mind you he also tends to pose with skinheads and other people like Minuteman child killer Shawna Ford....

Seriously? I could see him posing for pictures with Minuteman border fanatics 'cause of his whole "frontier sheriff" act, but actual skinheads?

[The Yosemite Bear]

yes, when the ACLU filed lawsuits against the crazy joe sheriff, Teh Minutemen had a support rally for him, and he posed with Militia wack-jobs and skinheads who are his supporters, and who were menecing/threatening pro-ACLU people.

[Kanastrous]

Which doesn't really relate to the validity of the ACLU's complaints, one way or the other.

[Arkadzakriel]

I would love to see the Twilight Zone episode where Sheriff Joe woke up one fine morning to find himself on the receiving end of his own policies as a criminal under a duplicate Sheriff Joe, in a world where Sheriff Joe's wildest authoritarian wingnut fantasies had come true. I wonder if Sheriff Joe's worldview would undergo any changes as a result of that experience.

I bet Rod's opening monologue alone would be epic television. There are days when I truly miss that man.

[Thanas]

Which doesn't really relate to the validity of the ACLU's complaints, one way or the other.

Did you fail to look up the links posted in this thread or referred to or what is this?

[neoolong]

I would love to see the Twilight Zone episode where Sheriff Joe woke up one fine morning to find himself on the receiving end of his own policies as a criminal under a duplicate Sheriff Joe, in a world where Sheriff Joe's wildest authoritarian wingnut fantasies had come true. I wonder if Sheriff Joe's worldview would undergo any changes as a result of that experience.

I bet Rod's opening monologue alone would be epic television. There are days when I truly miss that man.

Actually, they basically had that in the movie. Time Out.

[Ritterin Sophia]

mind you he also tends to pose with skinheads and other people like Minuteman child killer Shawna Ford....

Seriously? I could see him posing for pictures with Minuteman border fanatics 'cause of his whole "frontier sheriff" act, but actual skinheads?

A lot of the border fanatics are skinheads.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Which doesn't really relate to the validity of the ACLU's complaints, one way or the other.

I lived in Maricopa County (his fiefdom) for 12 years. Yes. The complaints are extremely valid. He boasts about serving surplus (read: rotting) food to his inmates, and regularly denies medical care. His prisons are cesspools of disease, to the point that lawyers going into to see their NOT YET TRIED clients come out with MRSA or TB...

[The Yosemite Bear]

note this link is to a hate crime committed by a friend of the sheriff's who used to appear on TV with him, and others. though they deny knowing her now)