Why Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio must go - and soon = Petition

[L. Coyote]

Why Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio must go - and soon
Thursday, March 12th 2009, - http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/03/11/2009-03-11_why_arizonas_sheriff_joe_arpaio_must_go_.html


Thirty-five thousand people from all over the country signed a petition calling on the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate Arizona's infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Meanwhile, Arpaio received a letter from the Justice Department Wednesday informing him of a probe into allegations of discriminatory and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

Finally, it seems that the abusive Maricopa County lawman could get what's coming to him.

The petition, initiated by America's Voice, a Washington-based group for immigration reform, was delivered to the agencies Wednesday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Min.), Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), other members of Congress and national immigration advocate leaders.

"Sheriff Arpaio has consistently abused his office in violation of federal law. It is time for the federal government to step in and uphold the rule of law in this country, even in Maricopa County," said Nadler.

Investigating this man - and stripping him of the power to violate with impunity the rights of Americans and immigrants - is not only urgent, it is a matter of fundamental decency. ....

To add your name to the list of 35,000 people who have signed the petition, visit http://www.sheriffjoemustgo.com.

[vadawg]

1. erm, i need to see were hes broken the law before i sign anything

i guess he deserves due process whether hes given others it or not.

[backscatter712]

2. Holder's working on it.

Arpaio's under investigation by the DOJ for civil rights violations - his infamous raids on "brown people" and such are finally getting the eye of an Attorney General who actually enforces the law.

The wheels of justice are slow, but knocking on wood, ARPAIO'S GOIN' DOWN!!!

[L. Coyote]

3. I guess the victims of his racism deserve some due process too.

[vadawg]

4. and so does he whether you like him or not

jeez,

[L. Coyote]

5. Who says he does not? Geeez. Is it illegal to investigate public servants now?

Especially when they are receiving thousands of lawsuits for their conduct? We need some due process!!

[tularetom]

6. What, due process means he can't be investigated?

Bullshit. Whether you like him or not he is not exempt from the same laws that you and I have to follow. If someone makes allegations against him, and if this happens often enough, they must be investigated. If the allegations are found to have merit he will be charged and tried and if convicted he will be punished. That is how it works here in Amurka.

Unless, if the allegations are to be believed, you happen to be a Meskin in Sheriff Joe's county.

I don't know if any of this is true or not. But if it is, he should be subjected to the full measure of punishment provided for by law.

[vadawg]

7. lol i think i said the same as you, just i wasnt signing a petition until i saw some evidence.

im all for investigating wrongdoers i just dont like witchhunts with petitions.

[MajorChode]

14. You seem to acknowledge he denies "due process" and you need more "evidence"?

Kinda self-contradictory, no?

[Cid_B]

8. As of 2007...

the population of Maricopa county was 3,880,181.

I wonder how many of those 35,000 people ( from around the entire nation/world) on the petition are actually from maricopa county. That number means nothing, nada, zip.

[illuminaughty]

9. Just happened to see a piece tonight about

his department being found guilty of entrapment. They set up some young naive kid in an assassination plot on Arpaio but the kid was made to think he'd be killed if he didn't follow along. When they arrested him an assload of cops and cameras were there. Detectives finally came forward and said this kid had been duped, all for publicity for Arpaio.

[pnutbutr]

10. he also

drinks the blood of illegals for breakfast. :rofl:

[vadawg]

11. bhwaaaaaaa you owe the county a monitor for that one mate.

[illuminaughty]

13. That will make for a delicious episode for his new reality show

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/what-you-may-not-learn-watching-foxs


And it looks like vampiric tendencies would be the least of his vices.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/126986/finally,_the_law_goes_after_joe_arpaio_--_the_most_abusive_sheriff_in_america/?comments=view&cID=1136674&pID=1136289

"Arpaio was little more than halfway through his first term in office when his policies and jail conditions first came under investigation for abuse by the US Department of Justice. Shortly after that, and still during his first term in office, young Scott Norberg died in Arpaio's jail as a result of said policies:

was in Arpaio's jail just 15 hours before he was handcuffed by guards, kicked, stomped on, and then strapped into a restraint chair. There, guards held a towel over his head, literally suffocating him. Medical records later revealed that he had been shot with a stun gun at least 14 times and beaten so badly that his larynx cracked.

That one cost the taxpayers of Maricopa County $8.25 million, but did not deter the Most Abusive Sheriff in America; instead, he seemed to get off on the notoriety. There were more unnatural deaths in Arpaio's jails, from a variety of causes, after Norberg. The belligerent Arpaio finally stopped the deplorable use of the restraint chair in 2006 after fighting demands by citizens and federal overseers on the issue for nearly a decade.

What caused Arpaio to finally give up his demonic obsession with the restraint chair that killed Scott Norberg? Ah, glad you asked:

On March 29, 2006, a $9 million court judgment was leveled against Arpaio and the county in the beating and restraint-chair death of inmate Charles Agster III.


Agster, 33 and mentally retarded, was arrested for trespassing on August 6, 2001. Detention officers at the Madison Street Jail pulled a hood over his head and slammed him into a medieval-looking restraint chair. The hood around Agster's throat smothered him to the point that he became brain dead. He was pronounced legally dead three days later on August 9, 2001.

Agster's death should have been prevented. Two years before he was killed, the county had paid $8.25 million to settle the Norberg suffocation suit.

There was at least one more death at the restraints of Arpaio's cherished chair, Clint Yarborough in 2005. It should be noted that neither Norberg, Agster, nor Yarbrough were ever tried or convicted for the charges they were arrested on; none of them lived to see their first court date and died innocent men under the law. Those are just the deaths associated with the medieval restraint chair, there have been numerous deaths from improper or complete lack of medical care, neglect and other perils.

[L. Coyote]

12. AZ Republic: Feds' new tone puts Arpaio in hot seat

Feds' new tone puts Arpaio in hot seat
D.C. leaders now more likely to hear profiling complaints

by Dan Nowicki - Mar. 15, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic - http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/03/15/20090315arpaio-politics0315.html

Few are feeling the change that President Barack Obama has brought to Washington more acutely than Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Not yet two months into the Obama administration, the veteran Republican lawman finds himself under investigation by the Justice Department following complaints that his office employs unconstitutional practices in enforcing immigration laws. On Capitol Hill, a high-profile congressional committee is preparing to hold an investigative hearing into whether Arpaio's operation discriminates against Latinos. And, based at least partly on Arpaio's record, the Homeland Security Department is revising the rules of the federal program, known as 287(g), that gives federal immigration-enforcement authority to Arpaio and other local officials around the country.

The controversial and popular five-term sheriff chalks the probes up to politics. But others say a renewed focus on civil rights has prompted the scrutiny.

Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear in his Senate confirmation hearing that he intended to make safeguarding civil rights a priority ...........

Arpaio also is drawing criticism from the Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee, where partisanship often flares. But here, too, observers say Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., the panel's chairman, is motivated by a long-term commitment to civil rights. Conyers, like Holder, is Black.