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America's Worst Sheriff (Joe Arpaio) may be finally held personally accountable

Tony Stark

Philosopher
Tony Stark
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
9,626
The good people of Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix metro area) have elected this man their sheriff six times in a row:

A controversial figure, Arpaio has been accused of abuse of power, misuse of funds, failure to investigate sex crimes, improper clearance of cases, unlawful enforcement of immigration laws, and election law violations, amongst others. He has been found guilty of racial profiling in federal court, with a monitor appointed to oversee the MCSO's operations. His jails have twice been ruled unconstitutional. The U.S. Department of Justice concluded that Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history, and subsequently filed suit against him for unlawful discriminatory police conduct.

Arpaio is also known for his investigation of U.S. President Barack Obama's birth certificate, and his claim that it is forged.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio
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While the people in Maricopa County apparently have no problem with this scumbag whackjob, a federal judge does and may finally hold him personally accountable.


Last week, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio most generously agreed to admit that his office has repeatedly thumbed its nose at the federal judge who ruled that Arpaio's deputies systematically violated the constitutional rights of Latinos in his traffic stops.

Arpaio and his chief deputy, Jerry Sheridan, seem to think a civil penalty will suffice, that a videotaped apology and a $350,000 taxpayer-supplied compensation fund is good enough to wiggle out from a possible criminal contempt hearing.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Murry Snow said that was a big no-go.

"Let me make this clear, the schedule remains the same," he said, during a Friday afternoon status comment. He was referring to the schedule which includes a contempt hearing next month that could result in criminal charges.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/laurieroberts/2015/03/23/joe-arpaio-contempt-civil-criminal/70328990/
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While I understand the appeal of Joe Arpaio to a certain demographic I have always failed to understand how people can be completely blind to what Arpaio essentially is:

A fascist.
 
newyorkguy said:
While I understand the appeal of Joe Arpaio to a certain demographic I have always failed to understand how people can be completely blind to what Arpaio essentially is:

A fascist.
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But he attacks the right kind of people, that gives him a lot of appeal.
 
Calling him "America's worst sheriff" does the man broad injustice! He has a reasonable claim for the running in "America's worst person". Let's not shade his accomplishments.
 
Summer is coming up. 6 months in a camp of his own creation would be a good starting point.
 
newyorkguy said:
While I understand the appeal of Joe Arpaio to a certain demographic I have always failed to understand how people can be completely blind to what Arpaio essentially is:

A fascist.
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Fascism has broad popular appeal, but not under that name of course.
 
After spending four years in jail awaiting trial, Saville was about to sign a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for 20 years.
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I thought Americans had a "right" to a speedy trial?
 
Arcade22 said:
I thought Americans had a "right" to a speedy trial?
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Articulated rights and rights in practice are two different things. People only know that they have a right if it is demonstrated continuously that that right is being exercised. Otherwise, it's just so much air.
 
Arcade22 said:
I thought Americans had a "right" to a speedy trial?
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I think the way it works is that the defense can delay while preparing a case- looking for other witnesses, forensic to prove innocence, etc. Thereafter, court schedule and prosecutorial delays can snowball too. And then, whenever the prosecutor comes up with another tidbit, the defense can delay again. A well prepared defense is paramount in our system.
 
Its so weird how differently outside media views Arpaio than how he's viewed internally.

In AZ, he is seen as being WAY too soft on illegals compared to sheriffs and governors of other states, such as New Mexico's Bill Richardson, or anyone California has had in the last 50 years.

He consistently ignores massive violations in hiring and complete illegal factories and work farms.

In all honesty, Arpaio is a media hound who wouldn't touch the issue of illegals with a 50 foot pole, its a political hot potato and instead he pulls publicity stunts like his dog rescue program or his police mansions.

He is a piece of work to be sure, but illegals are far better off under his jurisdiction than they are in most states, and certainly far better than in europe
 
pipelineaudio said:
Its so weird how differently outside media views Arpaio than how he's viewed internally.

In AZ, he is seen as being WAY too soft on illegals compared to sheriffs and governors of other states, such as New Mexico's Bill Richardson, or anyone California has had in the last 50 years.

He consistently ignores massive violations in hiring and complete illegal factories and work farms.

In all honesty, Arpaio is a media hound who wouldn't touch the issue of illegals with a 50 foot pole, its a political hot potato and instead he pulls publicity stunts like his dog rescue program or his police mansions.

He is a piece of work to be sure, but illegals are far better off under his jurisdiction than they are in most states, and certainly far better than in europe
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So it is minority citizens who have the most to fear from him?
 
pipelineaudio said:
Its so weird how differently outside media views Arpaio than how he's viewed internally. In AZ, he is seen as being WAY too soft on illegals compared to sheriffs and governors of other states, such as New Mexico's Bill Richardson, or anyone California has had in the last 50 years

He consistently ignores massive violations in hiring and complete illegal factories and work farms.

In all honesty, Arpaio is a media hound who wouldn't touch the issue of illegals with a 50 foot pole, its a political hot potato and instead he pulls publicity stunts like his dog rescue program or his police mansions.

He is a piece of work to be sure, but illegals are far better off under his jurisdiction than they are in most states, and certainly far better than in europe
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I cited a Phoenix newspaper, I think the largest in the state???
 
pipelineaudio said:
Its so weird how differently outside media views Arpaio than how he's viewed internally.

In AZ, he is seen as being WAY too soft on illegals compared to sheriffs and governors of other states, such as New Mexico's Bill Richardson, or anyone California has had in the last 50 years.

He consistently ignores massive violations in hiring and complete illegal factories and work farms.

In all honesty, Arpaio is a media hound who wouldn't touch the issue of illegals with a 50 foot pole, its a political hot potato and instead he pulls publicity stunts like his dog rescue program or his police mansions.

He is a piece of work to be sure, but illegals are far better off under his jurisdiction than they are in most states, and certainly far better than in europe
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As I lived in NM during his entire term as governor, what???? Care to explain? :confused:

ETA: his policies on immigration: http://www.ontheissues.org/Cabinet/Bill_Richardson_Immigration.htm
 
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Just a circus clown; rest assured though that the only way he's leaving office is feet-first. I voted for him the first few times, but have been voting against him since about 2000.

He got elected and re-elected a few times simply because he was competent, something that Maricopa County Sheriffs had not been noted for. The guy before him, Dick Godbehere, was a former lawn-mower repairman. He got the brilliant idea to advertize for truckers. When they showed up, he told them the job was to haul pot. They loaded up the trucks, then busted the guys a quarter-mile down the road. Of course the DA took one look at the case and had to explain the concept of entrapment to Godbehere.

The guy before him (forget the name) was on his eighth wife and used his police vehicle to court his ninth (way out in Apache County IIRC).

So I was happy to vote for Arpaio. It didn't hurt that it annoyed all the liberals around here, who didn't like Tent City, the chain gangs or the green balogna they served for lunch.

But I turned against him when he let one of his deputies resign and then rehired the guy. Somehow this allowed the deputy to double-dip on his pension. And his crusade against animal cruelty was the last straw. Not that I'm in favor of mistreating animals, but a county sheriff should have other priorities. The birther nonsense was more of the same.

But it's delusional to think that they will bring him down on racial profiling.
 
Brainster said:
So I was happy to vote for Arpaio. It didn't hurt that it annoyed all the liberals around here, who didn't like Tent City, the chain gangs or the green balogna they served for lunch.
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So you're cool with mistreating prisoners as long as it annoys liberals. Thanks for sharing.
 
Brainster said:
But it's delusional to think that they will bring him down on racial profiling.
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It isn't the racial profiling itself but rather he has from defied orders from a federal judge. He's already admitted to a finding of civil contempt. Criminal contempt hearings are already scheduled and will go forward unless he offers a settlement "equal to deserved punishment".

At the very least, this is going to cost him a lot of money and he could very well end up being held criminally responsible.
 
If convicted, does he become ineligible for law enforcement?
Would he lose his voting rights and the right to carry a gun?
 
Tony Stark said:
It isn't the racial profiling itself but rather he has from defied orders from a federal judge. He's already admitted to a finding of civil contempt. Criminal contempt hearings are already scheduled and will go forward unless he offers a settlement "equal to deserved punishment".

At the very least, this is going to cost him a lot of money and he could very well end up being held criminally responsible.
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I will root against him, but he's going to get off in any jury trial.
 
DragonLady said:
We don't all feel that way. I can't stand him.



??? Why is it okay to serve anyone rotten food? :(
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As yet nobody has died from the food. The green balogna may be apochryphal, although I have it on good authority that the pink underwear is not.
 
DragonLady said:
We don't all feel that way. I can't stand him.



??? Why is it okay to serve anyone rotten food? :(
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Because it annoys liberals. Anything that you do to prisoners that annoys liberals is OK. They get upset about the criminal detaining and beating of minorities, then that must clearly be a good thing.
 
Would multiple 6month sentences qualify him for state prison? The usual cut off is one year, but I don't know about AZ.

But wait, aren't we talking Federal time?
 
Trebuchet said:
I don't know about this case, but usually it's "all of the above".
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Don't know about down there, but here any delays are typically caused by the defense. Prosecution motions and requests do not reset the speedy trial deadline, unless the prosecutor can make a compelling case why they need to delay the trial date. The vast majority of time, it's the defense's requests and motions that push out the deadline.
 
lobosrul said:
As I lived in NM during his entire term as governor, what???? Care to explain? :confused:

ETA: his policies on immigration: http://www.ontheissues.org/Cabinet/Bill_Richardson_Immigration.htm
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Exactly, Richardson had sensible, pragmatic solutions, but he wasn't a cog in the way when it came time to prosecute illegal sweatshops and other factories of illegal employment on a grand scale the way it is in AZ.

The simple fact of having a drivers license gave people an investment in the community and likely led to the success of Richardson's policies having such a great impact compared to AZ's pandering by both the left and the right
 
ponderingturtle said:
So it is minority citizens who have the most to fear from him?
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Only if you want to take the extremely unpopular stance of not sticking all "white" people into one single supermajority

People from outside think in this false dichotomy of either glowing albino white wasps vs black as night mexicans, I've seen it over and over even on this forum, in truth, you'd be hard pressed to tell a "mexican" from a "white" because in AZ, they're usually the same thing.

If you mean mestizos, then yeah, they may appear visually different than the majority of the AZ population, but theyre a hell of a lot safer here than they are in Mexico, who has a very scary history for dealing with them
 
pipelineaudio said:
Only if you want to take the extremely unpopular stance of not sticking all "white" people into one single supermajority

People from outside think in this false dichotomy of either glowing albino white wasps vs black as night mexicans, I've seen it over and over even on this forum, in truth, you'd be hard pressed to tell a "mexican" from a "white" because in AZ, they're usually the same thing.

If you mean mestizos, then yeah, they may appear visually different than the majority of the AZ population, but theyre a hell of a lot safer here than they are in Mexico, who has a very scary history for dealing with them
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The point is that one of the numerous practices that are in these charges is racial profiling. I guess he could have be targeting whites with his racial profiling but that seems unlikely.

Now sure his profiling might not have been any worse than most police departments like all those who assert that Ferguson is only typically racist, and that all his other things brought enough attention to him that it became clear, and clearly racist things are OK to be mad about instead of casually racist things.

But that isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of his department.
 
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