America's Toughest Sheriff

[Hawkmoon]

Not so tough any more ...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/07/31/maricopa-county-sheriff-joe-arpaio-found-guilty-criminal-contempt-court/486278001/

[Former] Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has been convicted in federal court of contempt for willfully ignoring a court order to cease and desist from targeting Latinos.

[RoadKingLarry]

One law for the little guys (or guys that aren't "liberal" enough) and one law for our betters.

[Firethorn]

From what I've been reading, part of the problem is that he was targeting latinos to the point of ignoring rapists and such.

And even his targeting of latinos wasn't very effective.

As such, he might be 'tough' on crime, but I'd rather they actually solve the serious ones first.

[RevDisk]

The amount of civil rights violations his department pulled were amazing. I remember a YouTube video where one of his deputies started reading a lawyer's notes, and even stole it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIoyJ-LyAaE

The local judges, which have been remarkably tolerant of Maricopa County sheriff's illegal antics, ordered detention officer Adam Stoddard to either apologize or report to jail. That's not even a slap on the wrist. Annnd Sheriff Joe Arpaio who has said that his officer will defy the order. Which he did, and was briefly sent to jail for 10 days for contempt of court.

The list of various civil right violations are actually kinda impressive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maricopa_County_Sheriff%27s_Office_controversies

The part I don't understand is why the voters put up with it. Maricopa County has been paying out tens of millions in fines for many years. Not to mention that he's illegally arrested political opponents, used milsurp APCs on routine warrants, staged an assassination plot, illegally arrested reporters, etc. He gets away with it by buying off the folks with settlements for couple million bucks, which the taxpayer pays.

Yet these idiots kept voting him back into power until 2016.

 

[RoadKingLarry]

Damn, he sure sounds like a Democrat...

[TommyGunn]

Damn, he sure sounds like a Democrat...

Or an autocrat.......

[RoadKingLarry]

I think the only reason Big Joe got hammered so hard is that he was goring the wrong ox.
Had it been a liberal doing similar against those evil rightwingwhackjob conservative types he probably still be in office.

[Hawkmoon]

I don't envy the new sheriff of Maricopa County. That's a fairly large department, and Arpaio was in charge for 22 years. That's an entire generation. It's going to be a VERY tough job to reform the culture of that department to something more in harmony with the laws and the Constitution.

[Perd Hapley]

I think the only reason Big Joe got hammered so hard is that he was goring the wrong ox.
Had it been a liberal doing similar against those evil rightwingwhackjob conservative types he probably still be in office.

No, I think he'd have just retired from 8 years of being head of the Border Patrol, or some-such. He'd currently be doing lobbying, or consulting, or similar.

[Firethorn]

Yet these idiots kept voting him back into power until 2016.

 

A number of those elections he only won with a plurality. Too many opponents split the anti-joe vote.

[RevDisk]

Damn, he sure sounds like a Democrat...

Not true Scotsman fallacy. 

36th Sheriff of Maricopa County
In office January 1, 1993 – January 1, 2017
Preceded by    Tom Agnos
Succeeded by    Paul Penzone
Personal details
Born    Joseph Michael Arpaio June 14, 1932 (age 85) Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party    Republican

I think the only reason Big Joe got hammered so hard is that he was goring the wrong ox.
Had it been a liberal doing similar against those evil rightwingwhackjob conservative types he probably still be in office.

If the beating people to death, stealing material from defense lawyers, arresting political opponents under false pretenses, failure to investigate serious crimes, misuse of official funds, loss of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars due to law suits, etc are "goring the wrong ox", I have additional questions. Which part do you think are unfair to be unhappy with?

Seriously, qualified immunity needs reform. Nearly any one of those warrants serious jail terms.

[TommyGunn]

Not true Scotsman fallacy.  

36th Sheriff of Maricopa County
In office January 1, 1993 – January 1, 2017
Preceded by    Tom Agnos
Succeeded by    Paul Penzone
Personal details
Born    Joseph Michael Arpaio June 14, 1932 (age 85) Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party    Republican


If the beating people to death, stealing material from defense lawyers, arresting political opponents under false pretenses, failure to investigate serious crimes, misuse of official funds, loss of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars due to law suits, etc are "goring the wrong ox", I have additional questions. Which part do you think are unfair to be unhappy with?

Seriously, qualified immunity needs reform. Nearly any one of those warrants serious jail terms.

I think the "democrat" comment was tongue incheek, not serious.  Whatever the case though,  neither party ought to wish him as a member if he is  the type of thug Revdisk's post indicates (and I've heard similar from other sources so as not to discount it).
The types of things he's done should be reprehensible to everyone.
Being "tough on  crime"   can be done within the law,  and within the parameters of what is called "humane."
Arpaio just seems a type of Negan with a badge....a thug, in other words.

[Perd Hapley]

If the beating people to death, stealing material from defense lawyers, arresting political opponents under false pretenses, failure to investigate serious crimes, misuse of official funds, loss of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars due to law suits, etc are "goring the wrong ox", I have additional questions. Which part do you think are unfair to be unhappy with?

Seriously, qualified immunity needs reform. Nearly any one of those warrants serious jail terms.

The point being made was that Democratic politicians get more leeway in skirting the law than their Republican counterparts. It doesn't mean Arpaio doesn't deserve what he got.

[Firethorn]

Being "tough on  crime"   can be done within the law,  and within the parameters of what is called "humane."
Arpaio just seems a type of Negan with a badge....a thug, in other words.

Indeed.  When I first read about his jail in a reader's digest article, I cheered for him.  But, gradually, starting like a decade later, I started losing respect for him when I started reading about his other hijinks, showboating, and violating the law.

Continuing to target a latino population even after they've proved that they're all legal?  That's harassment.  

When I was young I was "standard" tough on crime - harsh punishments to 'discourage' criminals.

Since then, I've learned that criminals, by and large, don't even consider the punishments they might face, so punishment isn't a very good disincentive.  It's better to have good schools so that they don't develop such broken risk assessment mentality.  Decent jobs, so they have something to lose and aren't desperate enough.  Ending the war on drugs so that there isn't the financial gain.  Etc...

I'm still "tough on crime".  I've just realized that being "tough on criminals" has limited relevance to actually stopping crimes from being committed.

[Hawkmoon]

The point being made was that Democratic politicians get more leeway in skirting the law than their Republican counterparts. It doesn't mean Arpaio doesn't deserve what he got.

He hasn't gotten anything yet, and it appears the most he might get is six months in the slammer (and that's generally acknowledged to be highly unlikely). He deserves a LOT more than that.

[T.O.M.]

If the beating people to death, stealing material from defense lawyers, arresting political opponents under false pretenses, failure to investigate serious crimes, misuse of official funds, loss of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars due to law suits, etc are "goring the wrong ox", I have additional questions. Which part do you think are unfair to be unhappy with?

Seriously, qualified immunity needs reform. Nearly any one of those warrants serious jail terms.

A friend in the area who works in the courts has told me tales of misappropriated funds (but, from what I hear, he had a very nice office), search warrants used to harass more than actually do law enforcement, and all that Rev mentions.  I, too, cheered in the beginning, as did my friend.  He even sent me a pair of autographed pink boxers from one of the campaigns in the 90s.  The more we learned, the less we liked.

[Perd Hapley]

  He even sent me a pair of autographed pink boxers from one of the campaigns in the 90s.

Well, if that's what you're into. 

[RevDisk]

A friend in the area who works in the courts has told me tales of misappropriated funds (but, from what I hear, he had a very nice office), search warrants used to harass more than actually do law enforcement, and all that Rev mentions.  I, too, cheered in the beginning, as did my friend.  He even sent me a pair of autographed pink boxers from one of the campaigns in the 90s.  The more we learned, the less we liked.

Yep. I have little problem with enforcing the law. Granted, some intelligence should be used during enforcement to compensate for the lack of intelligence of those drawing up the law.

Only 'reasonable' explanation I got is the elderly voted for him religiously. They tend to be more fine with aggressive police actions that violate civil rights, so long as the majority of it was aimed at "those people". Thing is, at the literally hundred million dollars plus the guy cost the county, they'd likely have been much safer in reality with spending that on new officers. If you're losing ten ish million per year in law suits, that's at least a couple dozen cops more you could be putting out on the streets.

[Scout26]

Waiting for C&SD to come to this thread to spike the football. 

[RoadKingLarry]

Not true Scotsman fallacy. 

36th Sheriff of Maricopa County
In office January 1, 1993 – January 1, 2017
Preceded by    Tom Agnos
Succeeded by    Paul Penzone
Personal details
Born    Joseph Michael Arpaio June 14, 1932 (age 85) Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party    Republican


If the beating people to death, stealing material from defense lawyers, arresting political opponents under false pretenses, failure to investigate serious crimes, misuse of official funds, loss of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars due to law suits, etc are "goring the wrong ox", I have additional questions. Which part do you think are unfair to be unhappy with?

Seriously, qualified immunity needs reform. Nearly any one of those warrants serious jail terms.

The bolded parts are typical democrat/progressive actions.

[Hawkmoon]

The bolded parts are typical democrat/progressive actions.

The end justifies the means.

[Perd Hapley]

The bolded parts are typical democrat/progressive actions.

They're just ordinary Americans, of course.