The Toughest On Immigration

December 4, 2011 5:28 PM

Many here are familiar with Joe Arpaio who wrote a book called "Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else That Threatens America". He recently endorsed Ricky Perry for President.

Since 2007 he has also had 400 sex-crime cases "that were inadequately investigated and in some instances were not worked at all, according to current and former police officers familiar with the cases.

In El Mirage alone, where Arpaio's office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations — with victims as young as 2 years old — where the sheriff's office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases. Many of the victims, said a retired El Mirage police official who reviewed the files, were children of illegal immigrants."

Previously.

Previously.

posted by dig_duggler (51 comments total)

please, don't buy that book.
posted by dig_duggler at 5:29 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

Ugh.

If anyone needed more proof that this isn't about "lawfulness", and entirely about someone who sees immigrants as sub-human, well, this is it.
posted by kagredon at 5:32 PM on December 4, 2011 [14 favorites]

I wish we weren't giving that Amazon link more exposure here.
posted by tomswift at 5:33 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

hmmm, what's destroying America again?
posted by entropone at 5:36 PM on December 4, 2011

But Metafilter is the target market for that book!
posted by Burhanistan at 5:37 PM on December 4, 2011 [5 favorites]

I wish we weren't giving that Amazon link more exposure here.
posted by tomswift at 7:33 PM on December 4 [+] [!]


I get that, and thought about it but if you read this thread and buy the book....

I find the reviews on it .... Well they aren't typical mefi.
posted by dig_duggler at 5:40 PM on December 4, 2011

I have nothing but contempt for this man.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:42 PM on December 4, 2011 [10 favorites]

Why is the sheriff of Maricopa County contracting out police services to El Mirage, anyway? Shouldn't providing law enforcement for that town be part of his mandate? It's within his jurisdiction.

That guy is crooked in so many ways...
posted by hippybear at 5:42 PM on December 4, 2011

Why is the sheriff of Maricopa County contracting out police services to El Mirage, anyway?

It's the other way around. Rather than maintain its own local police force, El Mirage contracted with Maricopa County to provide police services for the town. This is a fairly common arrangement for small towns, either contracting with the county or with a larger adjacent town.
posted by jedicus at 5:47 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Well, that's what I meant. But it still seems like that should be part of Arpaio's mandate regardless, and he shouldn't have his office collecting millions more taxpayer dollars for doing a job they should have been doing to begin with.

The article says that they were doing it because El Mirage's police department was a shambles and needed to be reorganized, so the city payed Arpaio's department to step in and fill the void.

So there are all levels of incompetence and graft going on here.

Such a shame for everyone who lives in Maricopa County and doesn't actually have the law there to back them up when they need it. Even more of a shame because so often the forces of law are busy doing shitty things to people instead of doing the real work of investigating crimes such as the ones in this FPP.
posted by hippybear at 5:52 PM on December 4, 2011 [4 favorites]

Maybe he should hire a Mexican workforce to do the dirty jobs he can't be bothered doing.
posted by smithsmith at 6:24 PM on December 4, 2011 [18 favorites]

This makes me even more sceptical about the next year's elections of police chiefs in England and Wales. I like democracy and all, but making administrative roles subject to political posturing surely has a whole range of risks.

Can anyone inform my ignorance? People are always scared of crime and strangers, and the majority always seems to believe that we should be "getting tougher" on crime. Do these elections always end up as a race to prove who can be most reactionary and unreasonable? If not, why not? Are there other major factors I'm not appreciating?
posted by howfar at 6:38 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

hippybear: As much as I despise Arpaio and the situation described in the original post, the arrangement with incorporated or outlying small towns to provide law enforcement services is common and not double-dipping. Those towns collect their own taxes which would usually go to their own police departments, but they have decided that it is more financially sensible to contract with a larger nearby department.
posted by Mercaptan at 6:42 PM on December 4, 2011 [5 favorites]

Those towns collect their own taxes which would usually go to their own police departments, but they have decided that it is more financially sensible to contract with a larger nearby department.

Well, not in the case of El Mirage. They only used Arpaio's department's services for a couple of years while they reorganized their own police force. In fact, the article in the FPP seems to say that it is the newly reorganized, rebooted El Mirage Police Force who have uncovered a lot of the lack of investigation about these child molestation cases.
posted by hippybear at 6:43 PM on December 4, 2011 [6 favorites]

You just answered your own question. It's not the practice of contracting, but who they contracted to that's the problem.
posted by Mercaptan at 6:58 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yuck. Reading about the actions, policies, corruption and open political stances of Joe Arpaio is reliably like smearing my soul with slime.

It's genuinely upsetting and disgusting.
posted by jaduncan at 6:58 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Everything Else That Threatens America" = except radical wealth disparity, global warming, environmental degradation, the gradual erosion of civil rights for citizens, the slow increase of strangling power over the lives of citizens exerted by large corporations and banks, or ANYTHING THAT ACTUALLY THREATENS AMERICA.

Also, Sheriff Arpaio is one of two men I'd really love to hit over the head with a baseball bat...the other is this guy.
posted by daisystomper at 7:01 PM on December 4, 2011 [7 favorites]

daisystomper: ""Everything Else That Threatens America" = except radical wealth disparity, global warming, environmental degradation, the gradual erosion of civil rights for citizens, the slow increase of strangling power over the lives of citizens exerted by large corporations and banks, or ANYTHING THAT ACTUALLY THREATENS AMERICA.

Also, Sheriff Arpaio is one of two men I'd really love to hit over the head with a baseball bat...the other is this guy."

First off, Arpaio is an irredeemable asshole. Put simply.

Secondly, as an apnic, how does apnea make you hit people? Especially without realizing it? Let's get to the root of the problem. He wasn't paying any attention. Problem solved.
posted by Samizdata at 7:08 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can anyone inform my ignorance? People are always scared of crime and strangers, and the majority always seems to believe that we should be "getting tougher" on crime. Do these elections always end up as a race to prove who can be most reactionary and unreasonable? If not, why not? Are there other major factors I'm not appreciating?

Usually pretty much yes. If there's one thing that you learn in studying sentencing and attitudes to sentencing, it's that it's an area of politics driven by emotion and a desire for retribution rather than evidence of reoffending rates etc. People don't just want reduced crime, they generally support greater sadism. On the upside, the UK currently clearly has not got the money to put a lot more people in jail, and doesn't have too much in the way of a private prison industry with the critical mass to lobby for revenue raising three strikes policies and the likes.

It is as well to remember that the private prison industry is essentially a branch of the hotel/hospitality industry; the one blessing that the UK has is that the people paying for extra guests retain most of the political and media control rather than the owners of the hotels repeatedly making claims that if they are not used the world will end, cars will burn, cats will sleep with dogs and the dogs will sexually assault middle class mothers, etc etc.

PS: The other bad thing about this is that the old and reactionary are far more likely to vote in smaller elections such as this, and rump parties such as the BNP do well with lower turn out. They also offer a genuine alternative here; say what you want about them, but if you wish to vote for a party who will reliably enforce the law against the Other with extreme prejudice the BNP is likely to do it more than any other in the UK. There isn't even the threat of them being able to spread their influence to other areas, it's just a strong hand against crime. I could see them doing well in their Northern strongholds, sadly.
posted by jaduncan at 7:31 PM on December 4, 2011 [4 favorites]

Oh, and given that BNP members are banned from the police there is likely to be quite the constitutional fight if one of them attempts to stand for a police chief position, succeeds in standing, or actually wins. That would have Strasbourg written all over it.
posted by jaduncan at 7:34 PM on December 4, 2011

Plain and simple. This pervert is protecting child molesters. The one-sentence summary that should be shouted from every Maricopa County rooftop. Everything else is another issue.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:37 PM on December 4, 2011 [6 favorites]

Why are members of the Banque Nationael de Paris banned from the police? I used to work for those guys.
posted by msalt at 7:47 PM on December 4, 2011

msalt: going to assume ignorance here, so jaduncan means the British National Party, who are a bunch of screaming racists who Joe Arpaio probably would think might be a little soft on noncitizens.
posted by mephron at 8:12 PM on December 4, 2011

It's genuinely upsetting and disgusting.

When you're done being upset with them, then consider that he keeps being re-elected.

There are some sick, sick fucks in Maricopa County.
posted by Malor at 8:23 PM on December 4, 2011 [7 favorites]

Arapio's time is coming. Prediction: He'll be indited before the end of '12 and will be in jail by '13.
posted by Poet_Lariat at 8:26 PM on December 4, 2011 [7 favorites]

Thanks. I figured there must be another meaning. Is that a descendant of the National Front?

(I was gonna say, the Specials aren't around to educate me any more, but it turns out they're back together. And BNP merged with Paribas and is now the world's biggest bank. Sorry teacher I wasn't paying attention.)
posted by msalt at 8:28 PM on December 4, 2011

When you're done being upset with them, then consider that he keeps being re-elected.

Oh, I know. I've always thought that Arpaio stands as proof that Arizona is not that far away from acceptance of fascism (and, indeed, Maricopa County apparently repeatedly explicitly votes for it). I'm not sure what an independent South would look like, but I suspect it would be quite scary.

Gah. In fact, Texas/Arizona on one side and the Deep South on the other? Yikes.

Thanks. I figured there must be another meaning. Is that a descendant of the National Front?

Oh, sorry, I thought you were joking. Insert Judean People's Front comments. The BNP and NF hate each other. Imagine that the BNP is modern Sinn Fein and the NF are the Real IRA. The BNP are the current airbrushed face of the UK far right, but have still managed to get an MEP elected with a history of writing printed materials glorifying Hitler and who previously advocated both bombing attacks against synagoges and false-flag bombings against churches. The NF no longer field candidates but still have a hardcore who meet up in bars and then beat up brown people. The English Defence League is one of the offshoots of both, and are a bunch of guys who are heavily against Islam (and brown people). They all have a consderable crossover in membership. All are, obviously, a great and handily well known to the police bunch of lads. In some ways they are quite useful groups; when the police take photos of everyone at the meetings it's quite easy to know who to check the alibis of when a racist beating takes place.
posted by jaduncan at 8:39 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. Thanks.
posted by msalt at 8:42 PM on December 4, 2011

Arpiao is a grotesque bastard. I still don't understand how his department got away with tampering with materials during a trial (on of the deputies was filmed removing materials from a defendants attorney), and threatening judges in Maricopa county who criticized his handling of it.

His day behind bars can't come soon enough. I just wonder what finally will be his undoing and when the DOJ is finally going to crucify this fucker. Maybe this will be it?
posted by Skygazer at 9:35 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

joe arpaio gets a tank

why dont i get a fuckin tank
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 9:39 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

wheres my tank obama
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 9:41 PM on December 4, 2011 [14 favorites]

Plain and simple. This pervert is protecting child molesters. The one-sentence summary that should be shouted from every Maricopa County rooftop. Everything else is another issue.

Surely the good news here is that he is finally fucked? If there is one thing Real Americans hate even more than immigrants it is child molestors and their enablers, right?
posted by Meatbomb at 9:43 PM on December 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

What I love about that whole tank story is that Steven Seagal was part of the raid.

Like, it's not enough to have a tank. You have to have Steven fucking Seagal with you when you move in?

There's a whole fantasy la-la-land thing going on in Maricopa County when it comes to law enforcement. I can't wait to see it end.
posted by hippybear at 9:50 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

As a native Tucsonan I must ask that you do not attribute the actions of Arpayaso and his friends to the rest of the state.
posted by nestor_makhno at 10:15 PM on December 4, 2011 [6 favorites]

Arapio's time is coming. Prediction: He'll be indited before the end of '12 and will be in jail by '13.

Other prediction: he ironically complains about how unfair the criminal justice system is.
posted by jaduncan at 10:21 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Other other prediction: Arpaio himself will not recognise said irony.
posted by jaduncan at 10:36 PM on December 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

Read Ordinary Justice. This is not confined to just Maricopa county.
posted by pianomover at 10:46 PM on December 4, 2011

Arpaio will get to keep his job, and he'll be re-elected in a landslide. His office has been repeatedly accused of some pretty sketchy stuff (I'm currently thinking of this), but he's always been able to go talk to Bill O'Reilly and get himself in Arizona's better graces. I doubt this will change anything.
posted by Gilbert at 11:01 PM on December 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

I come damn close to hating this disposable man. The damn tank was the last straw. Now the protection of child molestors? Why hasn't anyone dry-gulched this sorry bastard?
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:02 PM on December 4, 2011

From Ordinary Justice.
posted by pianomover at 11:06 PM on December 4, 2011

Arpaio will keep his job, if there's something that people are good at, it's selective blindness for the people who are on their team.
posted by arcticseal at 11:25 PM on December 4, 2011

Arpaio's time is coming. Prediction: He'll be indited before the end of '12 and will be in jail by '13.

Oh how I wish this would be true. But he's a slimy, slippery demagogue and he's slipped away from serious scandal many times before. My loathing for him is boundless. His policies towards illegal immigrants are nothing but institutional racism. There are so many scandals he's dodged.

There's one thing that I've always found telling though. They redid the site this year, but the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police site had a bio of the previous Sheriff Tom Agnos, (thankfully captured in Google's cache,) which includes this small bit of snark against Arpaio --

Unfairly, Sheriff Agnos was publicly blamed for investigative deficiencies in a mass murder investigation, the Buddhist Temple Murders, and he lost his bid for re-election. Sheriff Agnos' Chief Deputy, well known within the Office as having a tyrannical personality, was most likely the reason Agnos was unable to rally employee support during the election.

But you know why I ended up reading that page? Because the men who served as sheriff of Maricopa county before Arpaio had no need to be the 'toughest'. (Or spend tax dollars on news clipping services, keep 'jackets' on political enemies, openly befriend neo-nazis, or any of myriad number of scandals that he's one way or another, dodged.)

Remember, when speaking of Joe, it's spelled 'toughest', but pronounced "Corrupt-ist".
posted by Catblack at 1:07 AM on December 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

I am puzzled that one still hears present-tense news about this man.
posted by Goofyy at 4:26 AM on December 5, 2011 [4 favorites]

Surely the US justice department could investigate this guy for civil rights violations? Or racketeering? There's a standard federal procedure for out-of-control local officials that's been in place since the 60's, no?
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:54 AM on December 5, 2011

I wonder if Sheriff Joe has ever seen the film Machete?
posted by Man Bites Dog at 7:09 AM on December 5, 2011

Surely the US justice department could investigate this guy for civil rights violations? Or racketeering? There's a standard federal procedure for out-of-control local officials that's been in place since the 60's, no?

He's been under investigation for civil rights violations for over a year. This September 2010 article outlines what they were looking into back then. The Phoenix New Times (alternative weekly) has an entire portal devoted to Arpaio's hijinx.

Of course, Arpaio has been doing some "investigating" of his own. Apparently as recently as the end of October, he was still sounding the birther bugle call.
posted by hippybear at 7:18 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Surely the good news here is that he is finally fucked? If there is one thing Real Americans hate even more than immigrants it is child molestors and their enablers, right?

Child molesters who target middle-class kids.

Illegal immigrants? The hell with them.
posted by cereselle at 8:46 AM on December 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

As a native Tucsonan I must ask that you do not attribute the actions of Arpayaso and his friends to the rest of the state.

Don't worry, friend, he was talking about those nutters in Alta Arizona and not us beautiful, free people in Baja Arizona.
posted by kjh at 9:39 AM on December 5, 2011

Some actual progress seems to have been made.

Arpaio's former top deputy Dave Hendershott is on paid leave pending investigation of abuses, and Arpaio's former ally AG Andrew Thomas (and two deputies) are waiting for the results of their disbarment hearings, which should come out this spring. At least two county officials have received 6 figure settlements from Arpaio's force for abuses, and 6 more are pending.
posted by msalt at 11:08 AM on December 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

"PHOENIX — In a harshly worded critique of the country’s best-known sheriff, the Justice Department accused Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office of engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by unfairly targeting Latinos for detentions and arrests and retaliating against those who complain.

After an investigation that lasted more than two years, the civil rights division of the Justice Department said the sheriff’s office has “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.” The department interfered with the inquiry, the government said, prompting a lawsuit that eventually led Mr. Arpaio and his deputies to cooperate.

“We have peeled the onion to its core,” said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, noting during a conference call with reporters on Thursday morning that more than 400 people were interviewed as part of the review. Mr. Perez said the inquiry raised the question of whether Latinos were receiving “second-class policing services” in Maricopa County. "
posted by rtha at 10:48 AM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like their approach -- Arpaio has 60 days to negotiate with the DOJ, then they file suit. Reasonable, but with any luck Arpaio will be convinced to resign in about 2 months.
posted by msalt at 12:22 PM on December 15, 2011 [1 favorite]