Arpaio the Mad

I once thought the saga of Maricopa County's racial-profiling sheriff Joe Arpaio could not get much worse. What a pipe dreamer I was!

On Saturday the L.A. Times did a good job of updating the Arpaio record. Some quotes:

* "The day after the federal government told...Arpaio that he could no longer use his deputies to round up suspected illegal immigrants on the street, the combative Arizona sheriff did just that. He launched one of his notorious 'sweeps,' in which his officers descend on heavily Latino neighborhoods, arrest hundreds of people for violations as minor as a busted headlight and ask them whether they are in the country legally."

* "For two decades, he has basked in publicity over his colorful tactics, such as dressing jail inmates in pink underwear and housing them in outdoor tents during the brutal Phoenix summers."

* In recent months he has been "launching repeated investigations of those who criticize him. He recently filed a racketeering lawsuit against the entire Maricopa County power structure."

* "Last year, when Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called for a federal investigation of Arpaio's immigration enforcement, the Sheriff's Office demanded to see Gordon's e-mails, phone logs and appointment calendars."

* "A local television station (has) documented two dozen instances of the sheriff launching investigations of critics, none of which led to convictions."

* "The most notorious case involves county Supervisor Don Stapley, a Republican who has sometimes disagreed with Arpaio's immigration tactics. Last December, deputies arrested Stapley on charges of failing to disclose business interests properly on his statement of economic interest."

* "A judge in September dismissed several of the allegations against Stapley, and prosecutors dropped the case. Three days later, Arpaio's deputies arrested Stapley again after he parked his car in a downtown parking structure near his office. No charges were filed until County Atty. Andrew Thomas -- Arpaio's ally in his fights with the supervisor -- charged Stapley this week with misusing money he raised to run for president of the National Assn. of Counties."

* "Arpaio, a Republican, is highly popular in Arizona. He won reelection last year with 55% of the vote in the state's most populous county."

* "The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into Arpaio's tactics. The sheriff has refused to cooperate and has called for an investigation of the investigators."

* "Arpaio... has become embroiled in a sometimes-surreal battle with the five county supervisors who oversee his budget. Amid the recession, they have cut the sheriff's budget by 12.2%. Arpaio and Thomas filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the county supervisors, administrators and several judges who have ruled against the two in prior cases... County officials noted that Arpaio and Thomas have sued them six times in efforts to regain power over their budgets -- and they lost every time."

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I believe that Joe Arpaio is either a fascist or a lunatic. Or both. And what a miserable fact that his fear-mongering and xenophobic rants got him over half of the county votes in the last election.