Stop Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling

Actually, I think I'll send Sheriff Joe a note telling him to keep up the good work.

It's hard to understand why the government doesn't close this contract. Even if they did, though, we'd have to deal with the punitive immigration policies, the fear, and the lack of basic respect for our brothers and sisters, that make Sheriff Joe's actions possible and in some cases popular...that is going to be a long hard job.
Nate, thank you for the post.

Nate,

I'm hopeful that as these actions are exposed, that Christians across the country will make their voices heard to end these despicable practices.

God bless you sir! The Lord Jesus will have an appropriate reward for you.

As I wrote on a previous post, Sheriff Joe's actions are more show business than legitimate law enforcement. The local paper (the East Valley Tribune) recently ran a series of investigative reports exposing how his department has been neglecting its other law enforcement duties. According to the reports, Sheriff Joe's concentration on rounding up undocumented immigrants has caused budget deficits for his department, increased response times for emergency calls, allowing crimes to go uninvestigated, and failure to track down and arrest real criminals--including drug smugglers.

Here is another resource about the downsides of Sheriff Joe's antics: http://immigrationpolicy.org/images/File/factch...

I think you want little green footballs.

"I wish that the Phoenix Police Department would arrest everybody, even if they're not sure [of that person's legal status]."

Well, we can all agree that the police department shouldn't arrest literally everybody. What is the context for this statement? Outside of Nieto and his ACLU lawyers, I am not seeing the outrage the author describes.

The real beef here seems to be with Arpaio's humiliation of prisoners, which made him an ACLU target in the first place. But nobody particularly cares if prisoners are trotted out in pinstripes or pink boxers, so we get this.

This thing has Jena 6 written all over it. Fool me once, as George W. Bush would eventually say.

I am really pleased that SOJO posted this. The sheriff's antics are truly a disgrace to Arizona and to the country at large.

"Well, we can all agree that the police department shouldn't arrest literally everybody." Kevin47

Yeah, I am glad that we agee on this bedrock American value-- the one that holds that law enforcement shouldn't arrest everybody.

It really makes me proud to be an American that we can agree on that.

The "real beef" seems to be he's arresting people regardless of their immigrant status. He seems to be arresting people, like Neito, who are American citizens. This is a problem and unjust. He also hurts the cause of stronger border control by making himself an easy target by his antics. He'll become the face of border control if the pro-amnesty groups have their way.

Are there any objective sources indicating that this is so? I haven't seen any press coverage of the Nieto story.

But yes, if this is what he is doing, that's no good.

________________________________

You asked below if there were any "objective sources" confirming the above information regarding Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his controversial techniques.

The New York Times' editorial board published an article calling Arpaio the worst sheriff in the country (http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/am...),
and published another article regarding the uncalled for parading of latin/mexican-american inmates around (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06fri...).

Arpaio also has a penchant for the dramatic, and loves notariety - so last December he contracted with Fox Network reality television producers to make a tv show "a prank-fueled effort to bring nonviolent offenders with outstanding warrants in or near Phoenix to justice."The New York Times had a response to that as well (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/business/medi...).

Well, the NYT editorial board is not objective, by definition. I am aware that Arpaio is controversial. I was wondering if there were any news articles regarding this incident or the quote cited.

________________________________

@ smokem - As a respondent who is from the state of Arizona (Sheriff Joe's County to be exact), who has seen Sheriff Joe's career take shape, I hope that you might actually *look* at Sheriff Joe Arpaio's record before you call his activities "good work." The record shows that it is, in fact, anything but good or honorable work.

Some facts which might merit your concern and review:
1. Mr. Arpaio's jails have lost their National accreditation for their gross negligence with regard to the standards set for Prisons (http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-10-09/news/...).
2. In a review by The Goldwater Institute (a conservative think-tank founded in the stead of Sen. Barry Goldwater), Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office fell grievously short of achieving their charter, instead building a reputation for "self-promotion" and diverting resources "away from basic law-enforcement functions to highly-publicized immigration sweeps."(http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/ArticleView.aspx?id=2440) The report also states that the "MCSO's detention facilities are subject to costly lawsuits for excessive use of force and inadequate medical services. Compounding the substantive problems are chronically poor record-keeping and reporting of statistics, coupled with resistance to public disclosure."
3. The New York Times has written three editorials about the Sheriff, who they have come to call "America's Worst Sheriff." (http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/am... , http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06fri... , http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/business/medi...).

When all is said and done, Arpaio has cost the people of Arizona over $41 million in court fees for legal battles regarding the brutal abuse of prisoners under his watch and subsequent legal battles regarding wrongful deaths (an article discussing the wrongful deaths: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-12-20/news/...). Dozens have died under Sheriff Joe - just a new death last fall and another TWO just this week (http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-11-20/news/... , http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/20...).

Sheriff Joe is an egomaniac, and under his watch Arizona has gone from bad to worse, and to now having one of the highest violent crime rates in the Nation. As these articles point out, Sheriff Joe is part of the problem - not the solution.

-david

NYTimes aside, the editorials cite FACT, which IS objective. With Arpaio you are hard-pressed to find fully objective reporting, as it is hard to not take a stand one-way or another, for or against him. If you're looking for a bare statement of the facts without reaction or commentary I don't believe you're going to find it.

Last fall the Arizona Republic recorded the actions of Sheriff Joe in his raid on City Hall in Mesa, Arizona, and the regional library - leading about 60 deputies in bulletproof vests with semi-automatic weapons to arrest several cleaning workers, outraging the Mesa city Mayor (http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/a...). I think the non-partisan report by the Goldwater Institute regarding Arpaio's force's ineffectiveness proves absolutely true: "It has diverted resources away from basic law-enforcement functions to highly publicized immigration sweeps, which are ineffective in policing illegal immigration and in reducing crime generally" (report at http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/Artic...).

I hope the conversation alone might be helpful. I'm from Maricopa County Arizona, and consider it shameful what Sheriff Arpaio has gotten away with. He's a thug in the truest sense of the word.

My brother,

Maybe someday you will understand why Jesus, while on the cross before his last breath, offered the "criminal" next to Him a place in heaven.

Thank you for your articulate and well-referenced response, but with all due respect:

Don't feed the trolls!

Peace

With all due respect, it's fine to publish things that make us more aware of discrimination, but until something is done about NAFTA & unfair hiring practices in the USA, we are simply going to see more craziness like this. I wish Sojourners would devote at least as much time to reforming unjust social structures rather than treat the symptoms.

My parents live in Arizona, and they think that Sheriff Arpaio is a great sheriff. Sheriff Arpairo enforces the law, which is something that all police officers should do. I think that all religious Christians should support him, not the criminals. In Matthews 22:20-21, Jesus said, "Give to Ceasar what is Ceasar's, and to God what is God's'." Therefore, Jesus wants people to obey all laws.

Phil:
Although I respect your parents' thinking, and obviously they are closer to the situation than I am, I have to ask whether you read the reports in the East Valley Tribune that were referenced in an earlier post here. The report takes issue with the notion that Sheriff Arapaio is "enforcing the law" properly.

And why should all Christians support him? You are offering a false choice when you say that we either support him or we support the criminals. Isn't he a public office holder? As citizens, and especially as Christian citizens, aren't we responsible to exercise our voting rights responsibly? If we don't think the Sheriff is doing his job properly, isn't it our responsibility to vote for someone else? How would that be supporting the criminals? If we think some of his actions in office are not in keeping with the purpose for that office, how is it supporting the criminals to oppose those actions?

And I fail to see how any Christian can support his deliberate humiliation of prisoners, regardless of the nature of their crimes.

Finally, regarding your comment that Jesus wants us to obey all laws, I would remind you that it was legal--indeed required--in Nazi Germany to turn Jews in to the authorities, and it was illegal to shelter them. Our brother Dietrich Bonhoeffer was martyred because he believed those laws were unjust. Was Bonhoeffer wrong? Should Christians have obeyed even those laws?

I read some of that article. I already told you why Christians should support him. I think that God wants us to obey laws. If the Mexicans didn't violate any American laws, they wouldn't have been arrested.

I fully agree with Weinbauer21, Phil. I think your understanding of what Christ demands of us is deficient. Christian support for a law enforcement officer who humiliates his prisoners is totally contrary to the spirit of Christ.

I expect you to disagree, and that's fine. But don't expect me to follow where you are going.

This is a very interesting perspective; specially in the 21st Century. I really enjoy when people cited the Bible.
I do thank you for amusing my day and keep on living in ignorance!

Obeying our laws isn't ignorant. I haven't seen any Bible verses that state that Jesus or God approves of disobeying laws. If you think you saw that, you're ignorant.