Feds: Yeah, Joe Arpaio is kind of a dick

[Yuri-G]

http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-fe...164947314.html

APNewsBreak: Feds say Arpaio violated civil rights


PHOENIX (AP) — The federal government issued a scathing report Thursday that outlines how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office has committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including a pattern of racial profiling and discrimination and carrying out heavy-handed immigration patrols based on racially charged citizen complaints.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its release, is a result of the U.S. Justice Department's three-year investigation of Arpaio's office amid complaints of racial profiling and a culture of bias at the agency's top level.

The Justice Department's conclusions in the civil probe mark the federal government's harshest rebuke of a national political fixture who has risen to prominence for his immigration crackdowns and became coveted endorsement among candidates in the GOP presidential field.

Apart from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury also has been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009 and is specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad.

The civil rights report said federal authorities will continue to investigate complaints of deputies using excessive force against Latinos, whether the sheriff's office failed to provide adequately police services in Hispanic communities and a large number of sex-crimes cases that were assigned to the agency but weren't followed up on or investigated at all.

The report took the sheriff's office to task for launching immigration patrols, known as "sweeps," based on complaints that Latinos were merely gathering near a business without committing crimes. Federal authorities single out Arpaio himself and said his office, known as MCSO, has no clear policies to guard against the violations, even after he changed some of his top aides earlier this year.

"Arpaio's own actions have helped nurture MCSO's culture of bias," wrote Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights division, adding that the sheriff frequently gave such racially charged letters to some of his top aides and saved them in his own files.

"MCSO is broken in a number of critical respects. The problems are deeply rooted in MCSO's culture," he said Thursday.

The Justice Department's expert on measuring racial profiling said it's the most egregious case of racial profiling in the nation that he has seen or reviewed in professional literature, Perez said.

Investigators interviewed more than 400 people, including Arpaio, reviewed thousands of documents and toured county jails as part of its probe, he said.

If the sheriff's office doesn't turn around its policies and practices, the federal government could pull millions of dollars of federal funding.

Arpaio's office did not immediately respond to AP requests for comment.

The report will require Arpaio to set up effective policies against discrimination, improve training and make other changes that would be monitored for compliance by a judge. Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement. If not, the federal government will sue him and let a judge decide the complaint.

Arpaio, the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America, has long denied the racial profiling allegation, saying people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of them are illegal immigrants.

Arpaio has built his reputation on jailing inmates in tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can go to confront illegal immigration.

The report also said he and some top staffers tried to silence people who have spoken out against the sheriff's office by arresting people without cause, filing meritless lawsuits against opponents and starting investigations of critics.

One example cited by the Justice Department is former top Arpaio aide David Hendershott, who filed bar complaints against attorneys critical of the agency along with bringing judicial complaints against judges who were at odds with the sheriff. All complaints were dismissed.

The anti-corruption squad's cases against two county officials and a judge collapsed in court before going to trial and have been criticized by politicians at odds with the sheriff as trumped up. Arpaio has defended the investigations as a valid attempt at rooting out corruption in county government.

The civil rights report said Latinos are four to nine times more likely to be stopped in traffic stops in Maricopa County than non-Latinos and that the agency's immigration policies treat Latinos as if they are all in the country illegally. Deputies on the immigrant-smuggling squad stop and arrest Latino drivers without good cause, the investigation found.

A review done as part of the investigation found that 20 percent of traffic reports handled by Arpaio's immigrant-smuggling squad from March 2006 to March 2009 were stops — almost all involving Latino drivers — that were done without reasonable suspicion. The squad's stops rarely led to smuggling arrests.

Deputies are encouraged to make high-volume traffic stops in targeted locations. There were Latinos who were in the U.S. legally who were arrested or detained without cause during the sweeps, according to the report.

During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city — in some cases, heavily Latino areas — over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008, according to figures provided by Arpaio's office.

Police supervisors, including at least one smuggling-squad supervisor, often used county accounts to send emails that demeaned Latinos to fellow sheriff's managers, deputies and volunteers in the sheriff's posse. One such email had a photo of a mock driver's license for a fictional state called "Mexifornia."

The report said that the sheriff's office launched an immigration operation two weeks after the sheriff received a letter in August 2009 letter about a person's dismay over employees of a McDonald's in the Phoenix suburb of Sun City who didn't speak English. The tip laid out no criminal allegations. The sheriff wrote back to thank the writer "for the info," said he would look into it and forwarded it to a top aide with a note of "for our operation."

Federal investigators focused heavily on the language barriers in Arpaio's jails.
Latino inmates with limited English skills were punished for failing to understand commands in English by being put in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day or keeping prisoners locked down in their jail pods for as long as 72 hours without a trip to the canteen area or making nonlegal phone calls.

The report said some jail officers used racial slurs for Latinos when talking among themselves and speaking to inmates.

Detention officers refused to accept forms requesting basic daily services and reporting mistreatment when the documents were completed in Spanish and pressured Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms that implicate their legal rights without language assistance.

The agency pressures Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms by yelling at them and keeping them in uncomfortably cold cells for long periods of time.

The Justice Department said it hadn't yet established a pattern of alleged wrongdoing by the sheriff's office in the three areas where they will continue to investigation: complaints of excessive force against Latinos, botched sex-crimes cases and immigration efforts that have hurt the agency's trust with the Hispanic community.

Federal authorities will continue to investigate whether the sheriff's office has limited the willingness of witnesses and victims to report crimes or talk to Arpaio's office.

"MCSO has done almost nothing to build such a relationship with Mariciopa County's Latino residents," Perez wrote.

[Minions]

Shit sucks, but pretty much only radicals like this guy are doing anything at all. Government basically said fuck it as far as illegal immigrants are concerned.

Guys and asshole, and no one else is even trying.

[Ragnus]

Yeah... as much as I feel like a douche saying it, Minions has a point.

[Yuri-G]

would rather he was doing nothing than harassing legal citizens based on the color of their skin, though.

[Coren]

The last time I checked, everybody not a native american is a bunch of damn illegals. Why are we more special because we got here a few hundred years earlier? Let them come, work for a real wage, and pay taxes like the rest of us.

[Surealistic]

thing is, they are narrowing in on one aspect of him, he is hard on everyone

google tent city jail

[Amastacia]

Shit sucks, but pretty much only radicals like this guy are doing anything at all. Government basically said fuck it as far as illegal immigrants are concerned.

Guys and asshole, and no one else is even trying.

On the list of things we need to worry about at the moment, gay marriage and illegal immigration should be right at the bottom of the list. Gay marriage shouldn't even be on the list at all.

We've got much bigger fish to fry than chasing after illegal Mexicans. Some will be bad apples, a lot just want to find jobs and not get shot by cartels. But all the attention that the topic has been receiving lately means less focus on issues that actually matter.

Naturally, we'll all disagree on what the most important issues are. But I think we can all agree that if illegal immigration is anywhere near the top of your list, you're an idiot.

[Yuri-G]

But all the attention that the topic has been receiving lately means less focus on issues that actually matter.

yep. and if you think this isn't on purpose... I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. the politics of distraction are a terrible thing.

[Jonny]

i have been pulled over just THIS year about 5 times for being Brown/Mexican i kid you fucking not and every time got no tickets and the fucking excuse was either my car has too much tint or that the car of the matching color had been reported stolen ... bullshit my tint it well below State standards and who the fuck steals a beat to shit 1993 Suburban....

i love the faces when i give them my ID and they are all sad..i kinda want to say "UMAD BRO?"

don't get me wrong i love the cops i just hate the asshole ones.

i live in AZ btw

[Churchill]

Shit sucks, but pretty much only radicals like this guy are doing anything at all. Government basically said fuck it as far as illegal immigrants are concerned.

Guys and asshole, and no one else is even trying.

i have been pulled over just THIS year about 5 times for being Brown/Mexican i kid you fucking not and every time got no tickets and the fucking excuse was either my car has too much tint or that the car of the matching color had been reported stolen ... bullshit my tint it well below State standards and who the fuck steals a beat to shit 1993 Suburban....

i love the faces when i give them my ID and they are all sad..i kinda want to say "UMAD BRO?"

don't get me wrong i love the cops i just hate the asshole ones.

i live in AZ btw

.

[Brill Weave]

thing is, they are narrowing in on one aspect of him, he is hard on everyone

google tent city jail

This. Joe Arpaio treats everyone this way.

[Churchill]

And aside from recent allegations that his office ignored sex crimes and him always pining for media attention he has done a good job in his 6 terms, hence why he has been sheriff 6 terms.

Maricopa country is bigger than some states/5th? biggest county in the US, being sheriff that long requires a fuck to be given by the sheriff.

[archibaldcrane]

i have been pulled over just THIS year about 5 times for being Brown/Mexican i kid you fucking not and every time got no tickets and the fucking excuse was either my car has too much tint or that the car of the matching color had been reported stolen ... bullshit my tint it well below State standards and who the fuck steals a beat to shit 1993 Suburban....

i love the faces when i give them my ID and they are all sad..i kinda want to say "UMAD BRO?"

don't get me wrong i love the cops i just hate the asshole ones.

i live in AZ btw

I've always wondered what happens if you say and do absolutely nothing in this situation. Don't present ID, don't communicate, do absolutely nothing. Never identify yourself, etc. etc.

Sure they can arrest you for driving without a license, but beyond that do they say "This fucking beaner must be an illegal, he hasn't presented papers!" - at what point do they either try to deport you or let you go?

[Jonny]

ill just leave this here.
i don't know how this didn't get more press when it happened
http://www.azfamily.com/video/featur...-91769419.html

[Lestat]

The last time I checked, everybody not a native american is a bunch of damn illegals. Why are we more special because we got here a few hundred years earlier? Let them come, work for a real wage, and pay taxes like the rest of us.

Because there is a problem with drugs and a huuuggggeee problem with children being kidnapped for reasons of sex slaves or ransoms. I live here in Arizona, there is much more to arpaio then the crap the media spews.

Also how the hell is he suppose to do his job without racially profiling? Look at where he is living, looking for illegal Asians, Africans, Canadians is not exactly going by common sense.

Huge problem with illegal mexicans, not like you are going to catch these guys by asking them to turn themselves in. Not to mention half the state can't speak english.

Im actually terrified of whats going to happen when he finally leaves office. The next guy is going to be an fing tool for any politician to use.

[Yuri-G]

Because there is a problem with drugs and a huuuggggeee problem with children being kidnapped for reasons of sex slaves or ransoms. I live here in Arizona, there is much more to arpaio then the crap the media spews.

Also how the hell is he suppose to do his job without racially profiling? Look at where he is living, looking for illegal Asians, Africans, Canadians is not exactly going by common sense.

Huge problem with illegal mexicans, not like you are going to catch these guys by asking them to turn themselves in. Not to mention half the state can't speak english.

Im actually terrified of whats going to happen when he finally leaves office. The next guy is going to be an fing tool for any politician to use.

out of curiosity, what race are you?

[Lestat]

out of curiosity, what race are you?

I'm assuming you were meaning what ethnicity i am, in which case my skin color is white. Of European and Arabic descent.

[archibaldcrane]

Im actually terrified of whats going to happen when he finally leaves office. The next guy is going to be an fing tool for any politician to use.

I'm sure every other county in Arizona is completely falling apart for they don't have the steel fist of Arpaio.

[Lestat]

I'm sure every other county in Arizona is completely falling apart for they don't have the steel fist of Arpaio.

The point being is that when Arpaio leaves the Politicians are going to make it a point to station a tool to do there bidding for to appeal to whoever cries the loudest.

[Yuri-G]

I'm assuming you were meaning what ethnicity i am, in which case my skin color is white. Of European and Arabic descent.

so if you were Hispanic, born here legally, would you be ok with random traffic stops and having to carry documentation at all times, because racial profiling is a valid tool to keep out illegals? given that there is clear evidence of not only racially profiling suspected criminals, but also law-abiding citizens via unnecessary traffic stops among other means.

I ask because if I were Hispanic, I wouldn't feel that the harassment was worth it, but maybe you feel differently.