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VP Pence Honors Sheriff Joe the Criminal
Yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence said the following about Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona during a tax policy event:
"I'm honored to have you here."
Vice President Mike Pence recognizes ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio during a tax policy event in Arizona, calling Arpaio a "tireless champion of strong borders and the rule of law." pic.twitter.com/tzmS3sKPnN
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 1, 2018
It is horrifying for anyone to honor Sheriff Joe in any manner, especially in regard to how he conducted himself as a gatekeeper for the rule of law in his home state of Arizona.
Joe Arpaio isn’t your average huckster in the conservative movement; out to make some bombastic statements in order to fundraise off of them. He’s no Matt Schlapp; your average grifter raising outrage and money in Washington before laughing all the way to the bank.
No, Arpaio is something far more sinister and every patriotic American should make clear his actions while acting as The Law in Arizona were un-American and sickening. Arpaio used to joke about running a concentraion camp, and he wasn’t that far off from the mark. Several years ago the Phoenix New Times reported,
Since he was elected sheriff in 1993, county taxpayers have shelled out more than $140 million to litigate — and ultimately settle — claims of brutality by the sheriff’s deputies. Lawsuits charge that the sheriff has cultivated a “culture of cruelty” motivated by Arpaio’s incessant trumpeting that he is America’s toughest lawman.
But even if you could kill and maim the indigent and the lawless for free, do we really want a medieval penal system?
So it is a simple, if morbid, question: How many body bags?
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has refused to answer. His spokesman, Lieutenant Brandon James, said doing the math would take a few weeks.
It’s been six months.
Searching other databases (the Office of the County Medical Examiner’s and the Office of Risk Management’s, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice’s) revealed that close to 160 people have died in Arpaio’s jails.
But that is an estimate, because the truth is that no outside authority keeps track of how many people die from brutality, neglect, disease, bad health, or old age in Arpaio’s jails.
There is a difference between doing time and killing people. Yes, jail shouldn’t be comfortable, but it also shouldn’t be callously indifferent towards conditions which have killed prisoners.
What is perhaps more disturbing than the fact that the Vice President lauded a man like Joe Arpaio is that so few of Pence’s inner circle or supporters find any issue with the statements. Arpaio is viewed as a hero simply because he was able to convincingly swagger while acting tough, with his deputies having prisoners rot inside tents that reached 138 degrees in heat waves. The conditions in Tent City, which was Arpaio’s baby, were textbook definition of cruel and unusual.
Even if you care little for prisoners rotting inside an outdoor tent prison, there’s plenty more evidence Sheriff Joe Arpaio was hardly an effective law enforcer. Here’s more from the Guardian about his tenure:
The sheriff botched the investigation into the rape of a 13-year-old girl and failed to arrest the suspect who then went on to sexually attack her again.
The girl’s rape case was among more than 400 sex-crime cases that were inadequately investigated or not looked into at all by Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office during a three-year period ending in 2007.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lisa Allen says Arpaio’s office agrees with the decision to resolve the lawsuit.
The botched investigations served as an embarrassment for Arpaio, who promotes himself as “America’s toughest sheriff”.
The Phoenix New Times created an essential and shocking breakdown of their 20 year coverage of the Sheriff, available here:
Things to know about Joe Arpaio now that Trump has pardoned him.
He isn’t just bad at his job, he is a bad person. He may play the media as well as President Trump, who the media treats like a monster, but Arpaio happens to be exactly as bad as he’s portrayed. Continuing to eleveate his profile is a sickening reminder that for many in the Trump administration, being antagonistic and promoting those the media hates is more important than basic morality.
Published in Law
I think @jon has had a few choice words to say about Sheriff Joe in the past. He sounds like a real winner.
Edit: fixed tag
That’s an odd formulation. I’ve been watching Pence a long time. He represented my congressional district. Are you really suggesting he’s just trolling the media?
The Phoenix New Times? I wouldn’t trust anything they say unless it’s been verified by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Thanks for a wonderful piece, Bethany. We need to always follow the truth. Some people are uncomfortable with truth. But if we don’t have truth, who are we?
Arpaio is bad.
The Phoenix New Times, owned by The Village Voice. I too have been hearing some negative stories about Sheriff Joe lately. I never heard them before Trump’s pardon. Not sayin’ that I have any inside info, but I do question the veracity of this particular source. But at least he’s not the only object of derision in the post…“He’s no Matt Schlapp; your average grifter raising outrage and money in Washington before laughing all the way to the bank.” At least the antipathy gets spread around a little. I obviously need to spend a bit more time searching out bad guys on the right.
This is an interesting topic. You wonder who to trust on this stuff. Is there ever much reporting?
So the Jewish Daily Forward, the Guardian and the Phoenix rag don’t like Sheriff Joe. He must be marvelous.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio cut a pretty wide swath in Arizona. Mike Pence’s staff needs to do a little more homework, and a lot less meddling in Arizona politics. They obviously didn’t learn anything from the Alabama disaster.
This is just one of the many scandals concerning the level of corruption and malfeasance that occurred under Sheriff Joe’s tenure as sheriff.
Arpaio is running for Senate in the Republican primary in Arizona, and he and Ward will split the populist vote. Martha McSally is the candidate that has the best hope for the Republican Party to hold on to Jeff Flake’s Senate seat.
My advice to Mike Pence would be don’t Alabama, or Bannonize us in Arizona.
Has McConnell weighed in yet? Both sides would seem to do well to leave the primaries alone and wait to support the Republican candidate in the general.
So it is going to be Sheriff Joe running for Flakes seat then, is what I’m hearing. Just because it will really cheese off the “establishment”. Ha!
Mike Pence knows which way the wind is blowing in the Republican party and it isn’t away from Arpaio. Simple as that.
All Mike Pence has done is provide a campaign ad for the Dems. Even though President Trump carried Maricopa County, Arpaio could not find enough Republican votes in the same election to retain the office of Sheriff. He is not getting any real financial support from Republicans for his Senate bid. The last time I checked his campaign had received about 500K in donations, and half of that has been spent.
Your suggestion has a great deal of merit.
By all means, let’s run him out of town and get up in arms because he said something positive to someone bad.
I love the GOP. Do you best to shot down anyone who is less than perfect, while the Democrats just keep on winning.
Surprising to see so many jumping on the bandwagon to attack Mike Pence. I thought he was the widely respected ‘principled’ conservative?
What are the Dems winning? lol
Principles are only doing what I like.
He is, which is why this kind of stuff should be called out.
Bethany’s terrific piece did a lot more than say that Arpaio said some something possitive to someone bad. Arpaio is a bad guy. He lost his race for a reason. And our party will continue to lose if we keep embracing people like Arpaio and the child abuser in Alabama.
Outrage #199,675,301,578 and we must call out every single one, especially if it involves the Trump Administration in any way whatsoever. It’s lucky that there’s so little of concern occurring in D.C., around the nation and around the world; this ensures that we have time to expound on every single outragey, outrageous outrage. Let us remain vigilant, our entire civilization depends on it.
The war to move America to the left. Have been since 1937.
Tell me one major Liberal win (like medicaid) that has been rolled back.
So attack Mike Pence over one line? Make that the only story? Support the left in its attacks?
Not sure how that leads to victory George. See, nothing you, or any other NT proposes leads to us winning anything. For a decade, all I have heard is that when the GOP has enough seats they will act. They have enough seats now and won’t act. And all they can do is blame Trump.
Name one, just one victory your heroes have given us, that turns back something on the left forever.
I am very close to reporting you. I am tired of your insults. I have told time you and again that I am not a Never Trumper. I have tried to be nice to you, and, in return I get insults.
You will do anything to win, even if that includes the supporting the vilest person around.
And, to answer your question: Reagan rid us of the Soviet Union. But you probably hate him because he wasn’t mean.
Good-bye forever, Bryan!
I’m not an Arizonan, but am well aware of the numerous controversies surrounding Arpaio. But one “honors” someone by giving them a medal, or throwing them a dinner, or making up a nice plaque containing praise. In short, the verb here is in the O/P. Do I think Pence–no doubt playing some kind of nice guy role–should have singled out Arpaio? Probably not. Do I think a verbal, one sentence “It’s an honor, blah, blah” is the equivalent of “honoring” someone through actions? Nope. In fact that’s a distortion. I’ll leave the question of the wholesale adoption of comments from the Phoenix paper to others better versed in that paper.
We no longer view price fixing as a good solution to gas prices
Stagflation is dead
The government doesn’t have a monopoly on telephone services
The top tax rate is well below 50%
The USSR is dead
Al-Qaeda can’t organize large terror attacks
These are just off the top of my head
?
I agree, it’s 20 seconds of being nice to someone who supports President Trump. Not that big of a deal. But I pray that that is the limit. Arpaio is a vile character and I will be disgusted if conservatives help him become the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate.
Breakup of the Bell System
Probably the last victory of the old trust-busting Republicanism, and also what facilitated the internet boom of the 1990’s-present
I think that Mike Pence was good choice for Vice President, but I disagree with his assessment of Arpaio’s record as Sheriff of Maricopa County.
Local politics are a bit more nuanced in every state. In Arizona for example ranchers want stricter border controls. Ranchers are split on a wall, some prefer stricter electronic surveillance. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t vote for President Trump a second time if one group or the other don’t get what they want.
I did a search for law enforcement organizations representing rank and file LEO’s in Arizona supporting Arpaio. I came up with zero, to include Maricopa deputies. LEO’s are hardly what I call Left of Center. Police chiefs are more inclined to be the warm and fuzzy type if city hall is Left of Center.
But Ma Bell had the monopoly, not the government. It was a transfer from private sector to private sector. Perhaps “the government doesn’t tolerate a monopoly on telephone services” would be better.
Many of Arpaio’s legal problems appear to have sprung from charges of racial profiling, which are a difficult thing to avoid when trying to enforce immigration laws ignored by the federal government near the southern border.