Arizona’s Fuhrer Sheriff Arpaio and his Concentration camp !

A controversial Arizona sheriff known for taking a hard line against illegal immigrants has been stripped of some of his powers in what he described as a political move by the Obama administration.

Under a two-year-old agreement with the federal department of homeland security, Arpaio and his deputies had been authorised to enforce federal immigration law by arresting suspected illegal immigrants in the field and by checking the immigration status of people arrested on other offences.

But after drawing thousands of complaints and a civil rights investigation from the justice department, Arpaio was this week stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests. County attorney Andrew Thomas, one of Arpaio’s supporters, condemned the "setback in the fight against illegal immigration". Read on…

This is a positive sign and I applaud the White House for taking making this happen. It’s long overdue.

http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/ice-strips-sheriff-joe-arpaio-immigra

The news series on this Nazi Sheriff

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced new guidelines today for a controversial federal program that lets local police enforce immigration laws, saying that the main priority of the program should be to go after dangerous criminals who are in the country illegally, not as a tool to go after illegal immigrants who commit minor offenses.

The new guidelines could limit the crime suppression sweeps that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been conducting for more than a year that have resulting in the arrests of several hundred illegal immigrants.

Critics have accused the sheriff of using the sweeps as a pretext to search for illegal immigrants by stopping motorists for minor traffic violations, and of using racial profiling to make those stops. Arpaio has denied the allegations.

"This new agreement supports local efforts to protect public safety by giving law enforcement the tools to identify and remove dangerous criminal aliens," Napolitano said in a prepared statement. "It also promotes consistency across the board to ensure that all of our state and local law enforcement partners are using the same standards in implementing the 287 (g) program."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/07/10/20090710immig0710-ON.html

The Department of Homeland Security recently decided to issue a new set of rules that will force local police who are enforcing immigration laws under the 287g program to focus on arresting immigrants charged with violent and serious crimes (as opposed to those who commit minor offenses).

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/07/13/joe-arpaio-immigration-287g/

 Video on the legality of the Nazi sheriffs actions

For more than 15 years, Phoenix New Times has reported on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s serious abuse of power. The self-described "Toughest Sheriff in America" has fostered horrendous jail conditions, reckless police operations, and carried out personal vendettas against political rivals and members of the press. In the last year or more, he has also appointed himself enforcer of the nation’s immigration laws in Arizona, and a whole new series of problems has emerged. Foremost, he and his deputies have violated the Constitutional rights of brown-skinned U.S. citizens and have committed outright cruelty against the undocumented. This year, the U.S. Justice Department has commenced an investigation of his actions.

www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-12-27/news/our-community-under-siege/

These secret grand jury subpoenas reflected an abuse of the U.S. Constitution that was unprecedented in American legal proceedings.

"That subpoena is grossly, shockingly, breathtakingly overbroad," James Weinstein, a constitutional law professor at the ASU College of Law, told the New York Times. "This is a case of harassment of the press."

Judge Baca ruled that the County Attorney and his special prosecutor had indeed violated the grand jury statute; they had informed neither the foreman of the grand jury nor the judge of the subpoenas. Indeed, there was no grand jury. Dennis Wilenchik had, in effect, been a one-man grand jury.

County Attorney Thomas’ stalemated effort to devise new grand jury guidelines is merely the latest development in a cascading series of events since our October 18 cover story, "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution."

www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-12-27/news/our-community-under-siege/

New Times submitted a formal Notice of Claim on Wednesday, February 20, against the public officials responsible for a fiasco in October that saw the attempted trampling of the First Amendment rights of this newspaper and its readers, and culminated in the jailing of its founders, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin.\

 More

Just when you thought it could not get any worse!

Nov 4, 2009

A detention officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is caught on tape swiping a document from a defense attorney’s files behind her back. Officer Adam Stoddard then hands the document to.

Youtube

As that great Phoenix philosopher Fronzo "the Fonz" West once asked in a riddle worthy of a Buddhist koan, "How do you call the cops on the cops?" Here in Mari-Kafka County, the problem’s compounded by the fact that one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in the nation — Sheriff Joe’s MCSO — runs this 9,200 square-mile patch of desert like an old-school, third-world dictatorship.

So what’s an honest citizen to do when confronted with blatant examples of racial profiling, political corruption and abuse of power on the part of Joe and/or his boys in beige — not to mention if you happen to be a victim of Arpaio’s nefarious junta? The U.S. Department of Justice has an answer for you: Drop dime on the scalawags! That’s right, call the DOJ’s newly established Arpaio tip line, and give them the goods with which to collar our sadistic top cop.As first reported by the Phoenix Business Journal, the new toll-free number of 877-613-2137 offers both English and Spanish instructions. And it gives you the opportunity to leave a voice mail message for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which is currently investigating Arpaio’s operation, particularly in regards to Joe’s targeting of the Latino community.

FACT SHEET:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Notorious Record

2,700 Lawsuits Filed Against Arpaio
Between 2004 and 2007, 2,700 lawsuits were filed against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Federal and County Courts – 50 times the number of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston combined. [Phoenix New Times, 6/10/08 and 12/7/07]
Arpaio Prioritizes Immigrant Sweeps Over Serving Felony Arrest Warrants
During an interview by the Arizona Republic, the interviewer pointed out in a question, “You get criticized by local law-enforcement agencies for not serving felony arrest warrants, shirking that responsibility in favor of immigrant sweeps, which requires manpower and other resources. Mayor Phil Gordon says you have created „a sanctuary county for felons‟ and that you have „40,000 felony warrants stacked on (your) desk.‟ Why not go after the „real‟ criminals and actively serve outstanding arrest warrants, which local agencies see as a county obligation and responsibility?‟” [Arizona Republic, 4/27/08]
Study Finds Arpaio Targets Latinos

The Arizona Republic examined Arpaio‟s arrest logs from eight of his notorious and high-profile sweeps. The study “showed that deputies arrested more Latinos than non-Latinos during each of the operations; that even when the patrols were held in mostly White areas, deputies arrested more Latinos than non-Latinos; and that deputies arrested Latinos in greater numbers than non-Latinos following minor traffic violations.” [Arizona Republic, 11/24/08]

Mesa Police Chief: Arpaio’s Approach Hurts Community Safety
Mesa Chief George Gascon thinks “a wedge is being driven between the local police and some immigrant groups. Some law enforcement agencies are wasting limited resources in operations to appease the public‟s thirst for action against illegal immigration regardless of the legal or social consequences… If we become a nation in which the local police are the default enforcers of a failing federal immigration policy, the years of trust that police departments have built up in immigrant communities will vanish.” [New York Times, 7/31/08]

Phoenix Mayor Asks US Department of Justice to Investigate Arpaio
The Mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, “wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking that the Justice Department’s civil-rights division and the FBI investigate Arpaio’s immigration crackdowns. He alleged that the sweeps included "a pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests.”” [Arizona Republic, 11/24/08]

Members of AZ Legislature Support Mayor’s Call For Federal Probe of Arpaio
According to the AP, some members of the Arizona Legislative Latino Caucus are supportive of “…Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon‟s call for a federal probe into…Arpaio‟s recent crime sweeps in Hispanic neighborhoods. Lawmakers [said] the sheriff’s tactics are tantamount to racial-profiling and reflect poorly on all Arizonans, regardless of their ethnic heritage.” [AP, 4/18/08]
Arpaio Stages Phony Murder Plot Against Himself, Accused Released for Wrongful Imprisonment, County Pays over $1 million to Settle

In 2004 a man was released from prison after being wrongly accused of plotting to kill Arpaio. Evidence suggested that Arpaio‟s office staged the plot and the County agreed to pay over $1 million to settle the case. The County‟s insurance policy paid an additional un-released amount. [Phoenix New Times, 10/28/08]
AZ Jewish Leaders Decry Arpaio’s Racial Profiling
According to the East Valley Tribune, AZ area rabbis “…said they found it distressing that „it appears that people are being profiled and detained … on the basis of their race and ethnicity, and that this policy is creating an environment of fear and intimidation‟ in the community among both legal and illegal immigrants. „We feel that this policy can only lead to the further dehumanization of individuals and groups of individuals in our community‟… Arpaio may be acting within the law, they said, but his actions are not consistent with America’s founders "who passionately believed in the value of freedom and justice for all.” [East Valley Tribune, 4/18/08]

Arpaio Advocates Forced Labor
The Washington Post reports that Arpaio favors forcing jailed immigrants to sleep “in tents and feeding them bologna sandwiches,” Arpaio said. [Washington Post, 5/20/06]
Arpaio Proud of Increased Fear in Immigrant Community
“Some undocumented workers say they are afraid to drive because of Arpaio‟s crackdown. Others say they are considering leaving the state, which, advocates say, could hurt the economy. Arpaio said that indicates his crackdown, aimed at deterring illegal immigration, is working.” “If you say they are leaving, I have accomplished my mission,” Arpaio said. [Arizona Republic, 10/17/07]

americasvoiceonline.org/page/-/resources/sheriffjoe.pdf