Conservatives Shouldn’t Look Up to Joe Arpaio

 

Joe Arpaio was my sheriff for 23 years. His predecessors were ineffective and mildly corrupt, so Maricopa County voters embraced the tough-talking, no-nonsense lawman. And he started out pretty well. Sure, there was the shticky pink underwear, tent city, and constant media stunts, but it finally seemed like a dedicated sheriff was at the helm.

But power tends to corrupt. Arpaio started focusing more on media appearances than law enforcement. Scandals started popping up. The headline-grabbing antics got more bizarre. And a man who seemed to many like a conservative stalwart devolved into anything but. I wrote about the ex-sheriff for Monday’s USA Today. Here’s a preview:

During one three-year period, his Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office didn’t properly investigate more than 400 alleged sex crimes, many of them involving child molestation.

In all, the department improperly cleared as many as 75% of cases without arrest or investigation, a fact outlined in a scathing report by the conservative Goldwater Institute.

When local journalists delved into Arpaio’s dealings, he had them arrested, a move that ultimately cost taxpayers $3.75 million. We paid $3.5 million more after the sheriff wrongfully arrested a county supervisor who had been critical of him.

About the same time, Arpaio sought charges against another supervisor, a county board member, the school superintendent, four Superior Court Judges and several county employees. All of these were cleared by the courts and also resulted in hefty taxpayer-funded settlements for his targets.

As a U.S. District Court judge presided over a civil contempt hearing, Arpaio’s attorney hired a private detective to investigate the judge’s wife.

On the pretext of going after an alleged cache of illegal weapons, a Maricopa SWAT team burned down an upscale suburban Phoenix home and killed the occupants’ 10-month-old dog. There were no illegal arms, so they arrested the resident on traffic citations.

Arpaio’s staff concocted an imaginary assassination attempt on the sheriff, presumably for news coverage. Taxpayers had to pay the framed defendant $1.1 million after he was found not guilty.

The sheriff’s department misspent $100 million on the sheriff’s pet projects, and wasted up to $200 million in taxpayer money on lawsuits. Yet he still found money to send a deputy to Hawaii to look for President Obama’s birth certificate.

I would have included more examples, but for the strict word limit. Still, this should give conservatives around the nation a better idea of Arpaio’s actual record, instead of the character they see in the media.

I was similarly harsh on the local NBC affiliate’s public affairs show this morning:

The purpose of my article and interview was to correct the record on who Arpaio actually is. He was an authoritarian who routinely used his office to punish legal citizens, repeatedly violate constitutional restrictions, and mock the very concept of limited government.

Perhaps even worse, illegal immigration and the crime rate in Maricopa County remained commensurate with all the surrounding counties. His image as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” did nothing to better protect our borders or stop criminals from plying their trade.

Sheriff Joe was never a conservative; he just played one on TV.

Published in Law, Policing, Politics
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  1. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    skipsul (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    skipsul (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    I both don’t like him, and I think the pardon was correct.

    I no longer believe in good guys and bad guys in politics. There are only enemies of freedom. I am forced to sign up with lessor ones to fight the greater.

    What, in your opinion, has Joe Arpaio done to promote freedom?

    Fighting against the right people. Stuck with tools ya got.

    Stalin fought against the right people, did he promote freedom?

    We stuck with him through WWII because we perceived Hitler to be worse.

    In retrospect that was a pretty bad presumption.

    Hindsight is 20/20. What of it? Should we have sided with Hitler against Stalin? Or declared war on both? Or neither?

    I tend to agree with General Patton on this one.

    About us being the ones to march on Berlin instead of the Ruskies?  Eisenhower later came to regret that very deeply.  But full responsibility goes all the way to FDR there.  Again, though, it was a case of playing the hand we were dealt (FDR, Marshall, Ike), not the one we wished we had.

    Even worse, the overly rapid demobilization at war’s end left us perilously weak by 1948, and only our possession of the bomb averted any additional movement by the Soviets.

    • #91
  2. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    skipsul (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    skipsul (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):
    I both don’t like him, and I think the pardon was correct.

    I no longer believe in good guys and bad guys in politics. There are only enemies of freedom. I am forced to sign up with lessor ones to fight the greater.

    What, in your opinion, has Joe Arpaio done to promote freedom?

    Fighting against the right people. Stuck with tools ya got.

    Stalin fought against the right people, did he promote freedom?

    We stuck with him through WWII because we perceived Hitler to be worse.

    In retrospect that was a pretty bad presumption.

    Hindsight is 20/20. What of it? Should we have sided with Hitler against Stalin? Or declared war on both? Or neither?

    I’m agreeing rather than contradicting you, and will point out that already in the closing months of the war there were hopes among the German military that the U.S. would switch sides and fight with them against the Russians, and there were fears in Russia that the United States would make a separate peace with Germany that would leave Russia out.

    One of the best spy thrillers made in the Soviet Union was premised on the latter possibility.  Seventeen Moments of Spring was a made-for-television series whose production was sponsored by the KGB to build up the reputation of the Soviet security services. It was an artistic and popular success, and was one of the most popular series ever shown on Russian television. When each new episode came on TV the streets would empty, crime would go down, and electricity consumption to power the nation’s TVs would go up.  Mrs R and I were transfixed when we watched it on YouTube some years ago. Even Leonid Brezhnev was so caught up in it that he forgot it was fictional.  He wanted to find the person who had done the spy work in Germany and reward him properly. The characters are not one-dimensional — not even the Americans. The descendants of one of the German generals wrote to thank the actor (a man who played @oblomov in another film) for the way he had been portrayed.

    It was premised on what many thought was a real possibility at the time.

    • #92
  3. skipsul Inactive
    skipsul
    @skipsul

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    I’m agreeing rather than contradicting you, and will point out that already in the closing months of the war there were hopes among the German military that the U.S. would switch sides and fight with them against the Russians, and there were fears in Russia that the United States would make a separate peace with Germany that would leave Russia out.

    Definitely.  I remember reading about that, as well as how, as Hitler increasingly went nuts, and after we had crossed the Rhine, the Germans were sending most of their best remaining troops and equipment east, hoping at least that the US would reach Berlin before the Soviets did.

    • #93
  4. valis Inactive
    valis
    @valis

    He is trivial, a fly in the ointment of America.

    But his pardon pisses off many we hate, so, ok with it.  Life in America is petty and trivial.  Waiting for SMOD 2020.  But whatever.

    Sheriff Joe, go away, not at AZ taxpayer expense other than pension, hope nobody pulls you over and gives you a ticket for jerkhood.

    • #94
  5. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    The Reticulator (View Comment):
    One of the best spy thrillers made in the Soviet Union was premised on the latter possibility. Seventeen Moments of Spring was a made-for-television series whose production was sponsored by the KGB to build up the reputation of the Soviet security services.

    After I wrote this I learned from Wikipedia that Vladimir Putin (the guy who hacked our elections and installed Trump in office) gives partial credit to this series for inspiring him to go to work for the KGB.  He would have been about 20 when it was first shown on Russian television.

    • #95
  6. BD1 Member
    BD1
    @

    Politico: “Soros Spends $2 Million to Defeat Arpaio.”

    • #96
  7. JcTPatriot Member
    JcTPatriot
    @

    BD1 (View Comment):
    Soros Spends $2 Million to Defeat Arpaio

    Holy cow it’s real!

    This explains the lengths that the Left will go to in order to continue the Leftist plan for open borders!

    • #97
  8. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    One issue needs to be expanded on.  Arpaio worked closely with former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas between 2004 and 2010 investigating and indicting members of the Board of Supervisors, and sitting judges.  All of these charges were found to be wholly groundless.  Not only were these charges thrown out, Andrew Thomas was disbarred by the Arizona Supreme Court for his abuse of power in knowingly bringing wrongful prosecutions.  Maricopa County had to pay millions of dollars to settle the lawsuits brought by Andrew Thomas with Arpaio’s eager help.

    For supporting Arizona’s Mike Nifong (the Duke Lacrosse rape case prosecutor), Arpaio was almost defeated in 2012.

    • #98
  9. Michael Minnott Member
    Michael Minnott
    @MichaelMinnott

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    One issue needs to be expanded on. Arpaio worked closely with former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas between 2004 and 2010 investigating and indicting members of the Board of Supervisors, and sitting judges. All of these charges were found to be wholly groundless. Not only were these charges thrown out, Andrew Thomas was disbarred by the Arizona Supreme Court for his abuse of power in knowingly bringing wrongful prosecutions. Maricopa County had to pay millions of dollars to settle the lawsuits brought by Andrew Thomas with Arpaio’s eager help.

    For supporting Arizona’s Mike Nifong (the Duke Lacrosse rape case prosecutor), Arpaio was almost defeated in 2012.

    This is what people find galling.  Arpaio, by any rational measure, should have been run out of town on a rail long ago.  However, since his victims were worthless nobodies (ahem), I mean American citizens, the consequences were limited to civil suits.

    It wasn’t until he went after precious, tax-subsidized serfs (cough), that is to say illegal aliens, that all of a sudden he was facing criminal charges.

    Arpaio may be the least deserving person around to be made a martyr, but it is a testament to the depravity of beltway, open-border fetishists that he was made into one.

    • #99
  10. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Michael Minnott (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    One issue needs to be expanded on. Arpaio worked closely with former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas between 2004 and 2010 investigating and indicting members of the Board of Supervisors, and sitting judges. All of these charges were found to be wholly groundless. Not only were these charges thrown out, Andrew Thomas was disbarred by the Arizona Supreme Court for his abuse of power in knowingly bringing wrongful prosecutions. Maricopa County had to pay millions of dollars to settle the lawsuits brought by Andrew Thomas with Arpaio’s eager help.

    For supporting Arizona’s Mike Nifong (the Duke Lacrosse rape case prosecutor), Arpaio was almost defeated in 2012.

    This is what people find galling. Arpaio, by any rational measure, should have been run out of town on a rail long ago. However, since his victims were worthless nobodies (ahem), I mean American citizens, the consequences were limited to civil suits.

    It wasn’t until he went after precious, tax-subsidized serfs (cough), that is to say illegal aliens, that all of a sudden he was facing criminal charges.

    Arpaio may be the least deserving person around to be made a martyr, but it is a testament to the depravity of beltway, open-border fetishists that he was made into one.

    Or this was the only remedy short of electoral defeat that was available given the apparent corrupt nature oF Maricopa County politics. Let us not forget that Arpaio brought the contempt charge on himself. There were legal remedies to the injunction but he, a legal officer, sought extra-legal solutions. That those solutions happened to make him a national media darling for a large number of conservatives and helped to mask his corruption is a feature not a bug. Arpaio cared more about being praised on Fox than doing his job for his constituents. He deserved everything that was thrown at him.

    • #100
  11. Duane Oyen Member
    Duane Oyen
    @DuaneOyen

    Gary McVey (View Comment):
    Yep, nailed it. Remember how much we used to love Michael Steele? How about the first year of Chris Christie? Same deal with Arpaio. He sounded great at first, then he became a jerk.

    That’s human nature. Conservatives and conservative-ish people are not immune.

    All this aside, though, Arpaio certainly may be an idiot.  And there is still no good reason to toss him in jail now.  Throw him out of office, as the voters did.  And rehearse the reasons that he is not a hero.

    I don’t have a problem with the pardon.  I wish it were not accompanied by the econium to his virtue.

    • #101
  12. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Duane Oyen (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):
    Yep, nailed it. Remember how much we used to love Michael Steele? How about the first year of Chris Christie? Same deal with Arpaio. He sounded great at first, then he became a jerk.

    That’s human nature. Conservatives and conservative-ish people are not immune.

    All this aside, though, Arpaio certainly may be an idiot. And there is still no good reason to toss him in jail now. Throw him out of office, as the voters did. And rehearse the reasons that he is not a hero.

    I don’t have a problem with the pardon. I wish it were not accompanied by the econium to his virtue.

    That would be done by commutting his sentence which would have happened after sentencing.  Instead Trump pardoned Arpaio who still insists that he was right to violate judicial orders from a Bush appointed judge.

    • #102
  13. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Duane Oyen (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):
    Yep, nailed it. Remember how much we used to love Michael Steele? How about the first year of Chris Christie? Same deal with Arpaio. He sounded great at first, then he became a jerk.

    That’s human nature. Conservatives and conservative-ish people are not immune.

    All this aside, though, Arpaio certainly may be an idiot. And there is still no good reason to toss him in jail now. Throw him out of office, as the voters did. And rehearse the reasons that he is not a hero.

    I don’t have a problem with the pardon. I wish it were not accompanied by the econium to his virtue.

    This is basically my position. He’s 85, if you’re going to let him off the hook, let that be the excuse. Don’t call him a hero. He’s not one.

    • #103
  14. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Gary McVey (View Comment):

    Duane Oyen (View Comment):

    Gary McVey (View Comment):
    Yep, nailed it. Remember how much we used to love Michael Steele? How about the first year of Chris Christie? Same deal with Arpaio. He sounded great at first, then he became a jerk.

    That’s human nature. Conservatives and conservative-ish people are not immune.

    All this aside, though, Arpaio certainly may be an idiot. And there is still no good reason to toss him in jail now. Throw him out of office, as the voters did. And rehearse the reasons that he is not a hero.

    I don’t have a problem with the pardon. I wish it were not accompanied by the econium to his virtue.

    This is basically my position. He’s 85, if you’re going to let him off the hook, let that be the excuse. Don’t call him a hero. He’s not one.

    The problem here is that there was a better way to handle it that didn’t come across as supporting his flouting of a legal judicial order. The man hadn’t even been sentenced yet, in addition to pardoning the man the President also has the power of commutation. If the concern was really the mans age and his service to the country the President should have 1) waited until an actual sentence was handed down and 2) commuted the sentence but let the verdict stand. This is beneficial for two reasons 1) it addresses the concern about an 85 year old man getting jail time and 2) it lets the conviction stand and thus upholds the rule of law. Instead what we got was the tacit approval of a president for a man whose actions were contrary to the rule of law all because he agreed with the policy. Is that really a precedent we want to set?

    • #104
  15. Umbra Australis (umbrafractus) Inactive
    Umbra Australis (umbrafractus)
    @UmbraFractus

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    The problem here is that there was a better way to handle it that didn’t come across as supporting his flouting of a legal judicial order. The man hadn’t even been sentenced yet, in addition to pardoning the man the President also has the power of commutation. If the concern was really the mans age and his service to the country the President should have 1) waited until an actual sentence was handed down and 2) commuted the sentence but let the verdict stand. This is beneficial for two reasons 1) it addresses the concern about an 85 year old man getting jail time and 2) it lets the conviction stand and thus upholds the rule of law. Instead what we got was the tacit approval of a president for a man whose actions were contrary to the rule of law all because he agreed with the policy. Is that really a precedent we want to set?

    How does it support the rule of law for an activist judge to order a sheriff to ignore the law and then jail him without trial when he refuses to do so?

    • #105
  16. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):
    Is that really a precedent we want to set?

    It’s not like this is something new.  It’s actually become more the norm among our exalted elected officials.  You guys should be happy; Trump is finally acting like a mainstream politician.

    • #106
  17. Jamie Lockett Member
    Jamie Lockett
    @JamieLockett

    Umbra Australis (umbrafractus) (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    The problem here is that there was a better way to handle it that didn’t come across as supporting his flouting of a legal judicial order. The man hadn’t even been sentenced yet, in addition to pardoning the man the President also has the power of commutation. If the concern was really the mans age and his service to the country the President should have 1) waited until an actual sentence was handed down and 2) commuted the sentence but let the verdict stand. This is beneficial for two reasons 1) it addresses the concern about an 85 year old man getting jail time and 2) it lets the conviction stand and thus upholds the rule of law. Instead what we got was the tacit approval of a president for a man whose actions were contrary to the rule of law all because he agreed with the policy. Is that really a precedent we want to set?

    How does it support the rule of law for an activist judge to order a sheriff to ignore the law and then jail him without trial when he refuses to do so?

    Because it is not part of that sheriff’s jurisdiction to enforce federal law and violate the 4th amendment rights of people to do so. You and I might not like the Obama administration policy on border enforcement, but the remedy to that is at the ballot box, not one activist sheriff going rogue and subverting the rule of law.

    • #107
  18. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):

    Skipsul: We stuck with him through WWII because we perceived Hitler to be worse.

    In retrospect that was a pretty bad presumption.

    Sure, because there were so many other countries with millions of conscripts available to stall and later drive back the Nazi hordes.

    Any of them would have been…. (whispering….) “what, there weren’t… other… near Europe… oh…”

    Man – even 20/20 hindsight can’t fix that one.

    • #108
  19. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    skipsul (View Comment):
    But full responsibility goes all the way to FDR there.

    To be fair, FDR did have a Russian Spy on his payroll at the time and although he had been told about it decided that the spy’s pedigree made it impossible.

    • #109
  20. Larry Koler Inactive
    Larry Koler
    @LarryKoler

    Instugator (View Comment):

    skipsul (View Comment):
    But full responsibility goes all the way to FDR there.

    To be fair, FDR did have a Russian Spy on his payroll at the time and although he had been told about it decided that the spy’s pedigree made it impossible.

    Many Russian spies.

    • #110
  21. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    From Current Affairs, August 26, 2017:

    Arpaio’s methods were often simply those of the caudillo or gangster. When the wife of the mayor of Mesa criticized Arpaio, he immediately told a deputy: “We gotta raid Mesa again.” When the mayor of Guadalupe, one of the poorest cities in America, criticized Arpaio for an immigration raid in which he “descended on the town with multiple ‘command centers,’ approximately 100 deputies, and a helicopter,” Arpaio canceled the town’s policing services. When judges ruled against him, he filed racketeering lawsuits against them. When critical comments were made about Arpaio during the public-comment section of a board of supervisors meetings, audience members who applauded were arrested. He would even go after other jurisdictions’ police chiefs, should they dare to cross him:

    In 2008, a series of crime sweeps by Arpaio’s officers led to public protests in Mesa over harassment and racial profiling. To prevent Arpaio from sending officers to confront the protesters, as he had done in other towns, Mesa police chief George Gascón cordoned off the protesters and invited free-speech lawyers to represent them. Infuriated, Arpaio responded by conducting a late-night raid on the Mesa City Hall, ostensibly looking for illegal immigrants. He arrested a handful of janitors, all of whom turned out to be documented workers – and then raided Gascón’s police station to obtain the workers’ computer files under the suspicion that their papers were invalid.

    https://static.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/wait-do-people-actually-know-just-how-evil-this-man-is

    • #111
  22. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):
    He declined to persue the investigation so there’s no effective difference.

    No, he should preemptively pardon her.

    • #112
  23. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Jamie Lockett (View Comment):
    He declined to persue the investigation so there’s no effective difference.

    No, he should preemptively pardon her.

    And Barack Obama.  Because it would be funny.

    • #113
  24. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    Exciting news, @jon.  Looks like Joe Arpaio is going to run to be your U.S. Senator.

    • #114
  25. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    I see old Sheriff Joe is not done yet.  He is 91 years old and is running for mayor.  I guess old and corrupt is really in fashion these days.

    • #115
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