Crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio facing FBI investigation for abusing his power by arresting his critics
By David Neiwert Saturday Oct 31, 2009 11:00am
Phoenix's KPHO-Channel 5 broke the news yesterday:
The FBI is looking into accusations that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is using his position to settle political vendettas.
Over the past year, 5 Investigates examined more than two dozen complaints against the sheriff from business owners, government workers, mayors and law-enforcement officials.
They claim they spoke out against Arpaio, and shortly after, deputies paid them unwelcome visits.
Among the public officials who have been victimized by Arpaio's little reign of terror in Maricopa County:
-- Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who sicced the Justice Department on Arpaio for his racial-profiling practices.
-- Mesa Police Chief
-- Dan Saban, who ran against the sheriff in 2004 and 2008
-- Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
-- Maricopa County Manager David Smith
-- The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
-- Superior Court Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell
-- ACLU attorney Daniel Pochoda
We described Arpaio's incredible thuggery late last year in his dealings with the public, especially those who dare criticize him. An anti-Arpaio group called Maricopa Citizens for Safety Accountability, which formed last year in response to investigative reports and studies demonstrating that Arpaio's insane obsession with illegal immigrants was destroying his office's ability to actually deal with real law enforcement work, began showing up at county board meetings and asking to speak. Arpaio actually sent out his deputies in force to patrol these meetings, and they arrested people for merely applauding Arpaio's critics.
If that sounds fascist to you, that's about right -- after all, some of the local neo-Nazis are Arpaio's biggest fans -- and he's been known to return the love.
The KPHO reporters also talked to former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, made famous as one of the people fired by Karl Rove for failing to be political enough in his prosecutions. His assessment was damning indeed;
"I've been in and around law enforcement for about 20 years -- state, local and federal level (and) even some military prosecution work. I've never seen anything like this," Iglesias said after he looked through 5 Investigates' research and did some on his own.
If he were handling the case, Iglesias said, "I would work very closely with the civil rights division in Washington, D.C., and based on the information I have, I would seek an indictment."
Arpaio did offer a response in his inimitable smear-the-critics style:
There were a number of blatantly false and incorrect assertions in Thursday night’s incredibly long and laborious TV story on Channel 5 in which the reporter insinuated that Sheriff Arpaio and his office are breaking the law by “investigating anyone who criticizes the Sheriff.”
Rather than dignify the reporter and his piece with a lengthy response to assertions made, we will simply respond with a few ‘facts’ of our own.
Their expert interview who insisted that an indictment be sought against Sheriff Arpaio also said that no where in America should Arpaio’s tactics ever be tolerated. His name is David Iglesias. This is the same attorney who was fired in 2006 by the US Attorney General for several different reasons.
Iglesias was criticized for looking the other way in an investigation involving ACORN, an organization that embraces illegal immigration and is currently under intense scrutiny and investigation by the US government for fraudulent schemes.
Paul Charleton, a colleague of Iglesias and was often quoted in the Channel 5 piece, was also a U.S. Attorney fired in that same 2006 house cleaning by the U.S. Attorney General. Now he is the attorney of record for Don Stapley in his fraud investigation which obviously leaves Charleton as an impartial and bias observer of the facts.
Channel 5 has a few reporters and photographers working there who have an axe to grind against this Office. That’s fine. But when it shows up as obviously as it did in last night’s report, it underscores why many today feel that fair and impartial journalism has gone the way of the dinosaur.
I somehow don't think carping about reporters is going to hold much water with the FBI and the Department of Justice, though.
Karma is headed Joe Arpaio's way. It won't be pretty, but it's long, long overdue.
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LOOK !!! OVER THERE ....... an ACORN !!
LOOK !!! OVER THERE ....... a Mexican ACORN !!
FIFY...
LOOK!!! OVER THERE...... an ILLEGAL Mexican ACORN!!
I hope this prick gets everything he deserves but I won't hold my breath. So far he's gone untouched. Somehow.
How come this stupid asshole has not been forcibly removed as sheriff?
And he has morons like Kyl and McLame to help him.
Joe needs to be in the same pink jail out fit he makes male prison inmates wear - in Sheriff Joe's world, pink on a man infers homosexuality and, therefore, any real hetero is being punished if he's forced to wear pink - so, I think Old Joe needs his very own shade of fuschia, or maybe magenta, for his uniform.
Next, Joe needs to spend a summer in one of his no a/c tent prisons in the southern Arizona desert and work on a chain gang. There he can dine on the same fabulous cuisine as the other prisoners - two baloney sandwiches a day.
If he doesn't like any of this, he can follow his own advice and stop breaking the law.
Personally, I always thought the unindicted Cindy McCain should have been in one of Joe's jails - but since she's a rich, white, Aryan looking drug addict and thief, she will never have to see the inside of one of Sheriff Joe's jails - and John McCain will never cross Sheriff Joe.
Nothing to see here, move along......
As a Phoenix resident there is nothing I want more than to see this corrupt dirt bag taken down.
To answer people's questions about why he is still around. . . he answers to nobody. He is elected and the people who vote for him are a bunch of Right wing immigrant haters who love to see a guy who is "tough on crime." He is a masterful show-boater and he knows just how to play to people's fears prejudices and revenge fantasies. In other words, he's your typical republican demagogue in a heavily republican area. One of his deputies was on the news telling the mayor of Phoenix to "just shut up" when he complained about the immigrant issue. It's a real. . .classy department. . that Maricopa sherrif department.
is the reddest place in Arizona, followed closely by Cochise County and the Mormon Mafia headed up by Larry Devers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0h6H_vcSKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csJJIp7jCYA
This sheriff is one reason the Constitution is necessary.
but not adhered to in this day and age it seems
It's not surprising a state full of stupid, gun-toting, racist, selfish morons would produce a character like Der Fuhrer Joe. I've been to Kingman many times. It's a meth-ridden, ignorant, anti-latino, overblown fucking truckstop with a huge gestapo-like police presence and whole neighborhoods of dumpy trailers. Yeah, that's what good conservative policy and thuggish policing practices get you. It's a crime that these desert reptiles get any of my federal tax money while asshats like McCain and Arpaio screw everything up.
like to have things put into perspective. All I imagined was sand and snakes.
Actually, I still love AZ. There are large, beautiful areas and some good people. Sadly though, much of it is like Mississippi or Alabama, without the kudzu...
Well, Kingman is known as "The Gateway to Needles (CA)"...
But Phoenix is a complete shithole.
Can't stand the place.
Granted, I'm living in San Diego which is paradise compared to Phoenix, but still..
It really sucks. My inlaws live in Sun City West and I hate it there.
Some of the higher country in AZ can be very pretty, of course, but I wouldn't live in that shitty state for anything.
Yes, PHX leaves much to be desired. But the surrounding Sonoran Desert is a wildlife haven. Hiking the area I've seen mule deer, wild horses, bald eagles and blackhawks. Bright green collared lizards and chuckwallas sun themselves on rocks and I've had the thrill of hearing the buzz of a rattler and seeing it's handsome and deadly composer.
I've seen harris hawks perched & stacked one on another and perigrine falcon mating displays. There are bobcats and mountain lions in the back country and elk in the high country.
The people here have been treated like chattels and have bought into the conservative lies in a stockholm syndrome sort of way. However the PHX area voted less Republican in the last election than I can remember.
It could get interesting here. I hope so.
But, man I really don't like Phoenix.
You are correct, the wild areas are very lovely.
We took a drive up to Sedona and it was really cool.
We also did a train trip up some canyon (drawing a blank here) and that was very enjoyable.
But, since I couldn't live in a rural area without dying, that means I compare cities. :P
Jerome, a mining town on the side of the hill above there, is famous for its ghosts. Cottonwood, on the Verde River, was our home for several years. Nice Old Town. Sedona is home of newage-rhymes-with-sewage... Don't go without money to spend. People who work there have to live in Cottonwood and other more reasonable towns.
Jeez. . . all the Phoenix Hating. . .
For the price of a shitty 2 bedroom apartment in San Diego or NYC I have a really nice house, 2 cars and enough leftover to start a family in Phoenix.
It's hot as hell . . . and I'm not saying I love it here. . but it's not a shit hole by any stretch. It's actually very clean.
with the exception of every part which has a heavily Republican prescence. Then you see small enclaves for the very rich, mostly white, upper classes - and the rest is poverty-ridden, trailer trash dumps with crappy schools, crappy services and ignorant bigots who don't even know how ignorant they are.
In other words, just like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina - every Republican run state - they are all shameful drains on the Federal budget, and only seem to function as examples of corruption for their bigoted right-wing masters while the rest of their citizens are kept in extreme poverty.
And their leaders are all the most vocal opponents of health care for all Americans, because the idea of the poor having ANYTHING they have, is a fundemental offense to them.
Kingman? I think that's like 500 miles from Arpaio's territory. Try Phoenix. We're not at all stupid, gun toting meth heads. . . well . .. we're not stupid or meth heads. . . and a big bunch of us are not racists either . . and there's a lot less trailers. . .
Arizona is almost a blue state. Sherrif Joe's reign of terror is almost over.
to God's ear
try Pima County (Tucson). You get the bonus of Raul Grijalva as your Congresscritter.
if there were any justice in America, Arpaio would already be in jail.
in Mexico.
he will go the way of Rudy's right hand man, Barny Fife in NY.
Will just bribe the Feebs with green bolonga sandwiches and a nice stay in his tent city. he'll get off
She's in the next county over and she reports that the people live him, they love his lawlessness, they love that he defies the Constitution, they love that he has no respect for human or civil rights, they love that he rounds up non-white US citizens for no legal reason.
Republicans have no use for the Rule of Law, they have no respect for the Constitution, the last 8 years of Bush have shown that to be true, and that can not be refuted.
She's told me the same thing. Fortunately, they're not in his jurisdiction. I'm sure Ho wouldn't approve of their interracial marriage either.
right-wingers want "their" country back - unfortunately, their country is an anarchist state.
They have no respect for government - except for their monthly checks.
When he gets convicted he'll go a federal prison not the prison where all his victims are. That's to bad, they'd love him long time if he was an inmate.
Maybe he'll end up as Bernie Kerik's cellmate.
Probably not cause Bernie is most likely in the psych ward.
In my mind, Bernie Kerik is synonymous with Giuliani.
HOPE THEY THROW THE BOOK AT HIM.
Thanks for this C&L's!
When do we jail Palin?
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop on this guy. Somebody who believes he is so far above the law that he can actually do whatever he wants to anybody he wants - well - it can't be long before allegations of sexual misconduct start coming to the surface.
F*ing hookers? I wouldn't be surprised.
so some sort of sexual deviancy is a requirement, isn't it?
I think his obssession with making male prisoners all dress in pink speaks volumes about Old Joe's innermost secret desires. I bet he loves to see sweaty dark men dressed in pink, muscles gleaming in the hot sun........
Kyl, Franks, McLame, Arpaio...they're all a bunch of corporate thugs who despise the Constitution and diversity.
Congressman Rick Renzi already got busted and is awaiting trial.
Arpaio is the worst for the locals though. He deserves a secure room with the Feds somewhere.
Nickel-Bag Joe has had a number of "suicides" in his jail; these "suicides" were of the type who had never shown any suicidal ideation.
More and more people move here from CA, the Great Lakes and the Northwest and Northeast and are rudely awakened by Arpaio's SS.
Lock him up and throw away the key.
is long, long overdue.
Amen to that...
There are lots of people that do not like this man, but he keeps getting elected because he provides the illusion of safety for those folks that want to blame everything on illegal immigration.
Some of my friends that used to support this man now are saying that it is time for him to go...
in 'a few good men'. sorta like: '...you need me to help build that wall, you need me to patrol that wall...' all the while not caring about his tactics and if theyre legal or not. he just does it the way he wants to. sorry sherriff youre wrong. youve broken laws you were sworn to uphold. now ive criticized you, come and get me. oh and shove it.
in "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou". You know, the one that was really Satan.
... Joe will be somebodies "bitch" when they throw him in the big house.
This guy has been stepping all over the constitution and peoples rights for too long.
It's always refreshing to see people who think they are above the law get put in their place and get hit with a dose of reality be it law enforcement itself or even a judge. I hope karma isn't kind.
He's a mean-spirited megalomaniac who believes himself to be above the law.
He's a bully hiding behind his badge of office. He brutalizes the people with the least power and no resources.
He is not crazy. He has made a choice to be a scourge to the weak and powerless and he is responsible for that choice.
And he panders to a (largely) aging constituency fearing, well, just about everything.
Asshat.
I'm old, and when you lose physical abilities through age and injury it can be frightening.
But how on earth does it make any sense to make enemies of entire groups of people?!
Wouldn't it make more sense to band with other powerless people?
There are hundreds of old men in Sun City who have "Sherriff Joe's Posse" decals on their cars - effectively advertising their racism.
WTF? Oh well, there are plenty of young Rapepublican types who idolize Sherriff Fartnozzle as well.
they're proud of their hatred. They feel righteous in how they hate - righteous and superior. Makes them all the more dangerous.
Uh huh. Does Sheriff Joe even speak English?
Maybe Sheriff Joe should be deported, using his own standards.
a Homeland for Dipshits....
Maybe S Carolina. Go South Carolina!
S. Carolina makes AZ look...less...aw, forget it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=324Om_B9_hc
That Dude is a total prick.
Jose is a bigger crook than the Earp brothers.
Know what she says??? "The only reason California doesn't fall into the ocean is because Arizona sucks."
Totally ruined by white farmers and mine companies that screwed the land and the tribe. Now the Border Patrol has turned the southern part of the rez into a war zone.
where you can only be proud of being white if you embrace all this bigotry and hatred. Because if you look at all the accomplishments of whites - they all seem to boil down to hate and oppression of non-whites.
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