Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Office Commits Worst Racial Profiling in U.S. History - DOJ

buckminsterfullerene · 12-16-2011, 12:03 AM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Office Commits Worst Racial Profiling in U.S. History, Concludes DOJ Investigation

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/val...aw_worst_r.php

Quote:

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office didn't just commit racial profiling of Latinos, according to the findings of the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation. Rather, Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling by a law enforcement agency in U.S. history, a DOJ expert concluded.

Arpaio and his commanders created a "culture" of abusing the rights of Latinos in the county, assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Perez told reporters in a news conference today.

The findings were a vindication of allegations by critics and profiling victims, despite the lack of punitive measures taken against Arpaio for knowingly creating this "culture of bias."

Some of damning findings in a report put out by the department today (you can find the entire document below) include:
* A study commissioned by the Justice Department found that "Latino drivers are four-to-nine times more likely to be stopped than similarly situated non-Latino drivers."

* A fifth of all the immigration-sweep traffic stops violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizures.

* Arpaio's anti-immigration squads responded repeatedly with enforcement patrols to complaints about people with "dark skin" or Spanish speakers.

* Jail guards punished Spanish-speaking inmates for failing to understand their commands in English, sometimes putting them in solitary confinement for that reason.

* Jail guards refused to accept grievance forms and "tank orders," which allow inmates to request basic daily services, that are written in Spanish.

* Guards pressured Latino inmates to sign voluntary deportation forms. (That allegation helped lead to today's announcement by Homeland Security that the 287(g)cross-training program was being taken out of the jails.

* Arpaio's office retaliated against its critics by subjecting them to "retaliatory detentions and arrests without cause, unfounded civil lawsuits, and other baseless complaints."

After the Justice Department informed Arpaio about the probe in March, 2009, the Sheriff's Office refused to cooperate. It took a lawsuit and court order to get Arpaio to budge.

Hundreds of people were interviewed, thousands of documents were reviewed, and the county's jails were inspected in the Justice Department probe. Investigators discovered a "widespread pattern or practice of law enforcement and jail activities that discriminate against Latinos." The "typical characteristic" of the sheriff's Human Smuggling Unit is one of prejudicial harassment "rather than the effective enforcement of immigration law," the DOJ report says.

Witness accounts of racial profiling were found to be consistent with the accusations against deputies. Two examples are given:

* A legal U.S. resident who allegedly failed to use his turn signal was made to sit on a curb for 15 minutes, then arrested and jailed for 13 days on a bogus charge that was dismissed in court.

* A legal U.S. resident and his U.S. citizen son invited deputies into their home during a raid on a suspect drop-house next door. The deputies proceeded to search the home without consent or a warrant, handcuffed the man and his son, then had them sit on the sidewalk next to the people being busted from the neighboring house. They were detained for an hour before being released without any citation.

The Justice Department says it gathered "many" similar examples. That's no surprise to close observers of the MCSO. We reported back in 2009, for instance, how one deputy enjoyed busting illegal immigrants for seat-belt violations that weren't really violations.

The way Arpaio and his deputies responded to bigoted complaints was another sign to the DOJ that racial discrimination was rampant in the office.

The Justice Department noted one time when Arpaio told his enforcement chief to check into a report that employees at a Sun City McDonald's were speaking Spanish. Another time, Arpaio thanked a racist letter-writer for his concern about illegal immigrants in Mesa. He
forwarded the letter to Deputy Chief Brian Sands, who "later testified that he assumed that the letter's author correlated undocumented persons with 'dark-complected' people."

A sweep of Mesa soon ensued.

The latter examples show clearly that Arpaio personally oversees and directs some of the discriminatory behavior. Previous probes into allegations of abuse of power and unethical behavior in his office have concluded that Arpaio is a micro-manager of high-profile MCSO probes -- those that get him headlines. Yet when pressed for accountability, Arpaio's m.o.is to cast blame elsewhere, claiming he's far removed from the details of his operations.

Arpaio had a news conference at 4 p.m. today on the Justice Department's findings. Read what happened there here.

Ali · 12-16-2011, 12:09 AM

You see, this is what's great about America. Sooner or later SOB's get their comeuppance.

txdream · 12-16-2011, 10:32 PM

Its disgusting to know he is still sheriff

buckminsterfullerene · 12-16-2011, 10:50 PM

we will see if after this he is still sheriff, btw, loving the comments on the article pages, the one on there and the other articles cited within.

Last night, there were signs of some people still sticking up for them, that is all gone as more information comes up of what kinds of crimes he prioritized over truly ugly stuff and the resources he wasted.

The question is now.... how do we use this

A long time ago there where those that questioned the strategic advantage of a fully enacted SB1070 with all the bells and whistles as something highly unstable that would have made it possible to make a plea due to all the civil rights violations that would have ensued, this is as close to that as we are seeing, still not as bad as having a jim crowe version of of the latino immigrant that was starting to appear in the very early stages of the sb1070 debate, but worst racial profiling in US history, the republicans are digging a very deep grave if they continue trying to justify that side for the sake of having a different side than the democratic party. Really that is all that has been going on, each side picks a side, republicans stick to their and democrats go the other way, regardless whether or not it was what they promised and we end up with some really ugly stuff and it involves both sides trying to make the other look worse, rather than either side trying to make some actual significant change.

I am sick and tired of the DREAM Act being used a political football, the same as medicare, the same as veteran rights, the same as any other type of bill that is filled with logical sense that is truly needed and all for the sake of playing on the ignorance of people and a biased media that will portray the information in a certain way to benefit the affiliation of their CEO's who are only interested in maximizing profits for the investors who do not care what happens to anyone as long as profits are up.

/rant

dtrt09 · 12-17-2011, 01:33 AM

Obama and his feds are only saying that they and only they have the authority to "target" (aka, profile) immigrants. Not the sheriff.

The finding about Arpaio not providing the protection of the law to victims of crime and sexual assault is apparently secondary to their assertion of authority over immigration enforcement.

CB124 · 12-18-2011, 04:11 PM

So they wrote a letter telling him how angry they are and took no action.

Arpaio is probally laughing it off.

Ali · 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CB124

So they wrote a letter telling him how angry they are and took no action.

Arpaio is probally laughing it off.

Did I miss something? What letter?

Maybe you missed the 3 year investigation, hundreds of interviews, etc... bit? At least they're cutting his funding and his position's most likely next; I doubt he'll see jail time, but normalcy beats persecution.

buckminsterfullerene · 12-20-2011, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CB124

So they wrote a letter telling him how angry they are and took no action.

Arpaio is probally laughing it off.

To add to what Ali mentioned, this scathing report is only a small taste of what was potentially avoided by not allowing the passage of sb1070 in its full extent which sought to more actively profile people.

You are also missing the fact that no one wants to be called racists for their actions and they will certainly not want to be affiliated with anyone publicly called to question for the most obscene demonstration of racial profiling towards any particular group of people focusing more directly on the color of their skin or the language dialect they may have demonstrated in a report from a 3 year investigation by the Deportment of Justice. This is probably a critical blow for all those tea party types that where trying to line up for an endorsement from Arpaio.

buckminsterfullerene · 12-22-2011, 11:40 PM

wow....

He would give his prisoners pink undergarments, instead of busing them to the border he would march them in striped uniform through downtown, would serve them green meat, would boast about feeding his prisoners on pennies on the dollar, paid over $50 million in wrongful death cases that took place in his detention center.

I mean, there is even video of the psychological tactics he employed, bringing dogs into a detention center, the confinement, the ridicule of the prisoners, the amount of effort he went through to demonstrate his control on the prisoners through what they wore, what they did, what they ate and how some even faced their death. It sort of reminds me of the stanford prison experiment of the 70's which still has the ability to shock people to this day.

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Office Commits Worst Racial Profiling in U.S. History - DOJ