In a possible example of an election gimmick gone wrong, controversial Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a heavily armed SWAT team to raid a city hall and library in his jurisdiction, which includes over three million people in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Supposedly they were looking for "illegal aliens". Three janitors were arrested at the library.
The city government of Mesa, headed by officials who had criticized Sheriff Arpaio's immigration sweeps in the past, had no prior notification of the allegations. The lack of notification of city police means that there was potential for conflict, but no one was hurt.
Arpaio, who is himself a son of Italian immigrants, has put pretrial detainees in tents outside the Maricopa County Jail in midsummer, fed inmates substandard food, marched 700 prisoners four blocks to a new jail wearing only flip-flops and pink underwear, and set up a civilian "posse" of dubious legality to go after illegal immigrants. His antics have resulted in over 2,000 lawsuits against the county for a total of over 50 million dollars. In fact, one of these suits, which resulted in an award of $635,532, was the result of a claim that an inmate was injured because the jail had done nothing to prevent the stakes from one the tents from being used as weapons. Oops.
Arpaio's antics have also resulted in Maricopa County being declared a human rights violator by Ireland and Iceland, blocking extraditions from those two countries. In the Irish case, the blocked extradition was of Father Patrick Colleary, an accused child molester.
One wonders if this year, the voters will finally realize that the man who is actually described on official county websites as "America's Toughest Sheriff" is a danger to himself and others.
2 comments:
Arpaio had arrest warrants for 25 people, and arrested 13 more later that day, including 10 for identity theft.
If you're going to tell the story, at least tell it right.
AZ Republic Article
They did, in fact find illegal aliens, who weren't at City Hall, and weren't at the library. They were home. Where they should have raided first.
By the way, before I read this article, I had no idea the raids were timed to distract attention from the beating death of an inmate at this so-called "tough" sheriff's jail. In front of security cameras. At least this time they didn't use a tent stake. Once again, Sheriff Joe can't stop violence on his own turf. Thanks for the info!
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