Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
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
Your criteria for domestic wins are so high that no accomplishment can meet them. You think Medicare is permanent, but Dems insist it’s on the chopping block every election cycle. Your worry that our biggest wins are on the chopping block is as overblown as theirs. If we got Constitutional Amendments passed that we liked, you’d still be insisting 5 Supreme Court judges could nullify them instantly. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments don’t mean a thing to Joe “they want y’all back in chains” Biden.
The left was NOT for this at the time. They were much more invested in screaming that Reagan was going to get us all killed, just like they were with Goldwater. JFK and Truman couldn’t have won as Dems after 1968- by then LBJ was too soft on reforms and too hard on commies for them. McGovern and Carter both wanted peace with the Soviets. Ted Kennedy was chatting with the commies in ’80 about how to beat Reagan. The lefty academics were insisting the Soviet system was better right up until the wall fell, and those that were slow on the uptake kept on praising it after.
Rolling back Medicaid, Medicare, closing down Federal Dept. Education. Ending Federal Welfare. Massive decrease in the Regulatory State.
Rolling back the progressive machine.
I have been on this horse before, so this is nothing new. The GOP promised to undo Obamacare and did not. Hell, they could not even return to regular order or pass a budget.
No, the going of the rails in 1937 continues unabated. Maybe the GOP has slowed it sometimes, but never has it stopped or reversed any progressive victory. Once they win a big thing, it stays forever and ever.
They are not too high. To say so, is to give up. The Left has these as wins. Period. They do not get undone. Period. The claims of the left nonwithstanding. Their wins don’t go away. We have none.
Beating the USSR was not for or against the Progressive agenda for America. I am clearly talking about the domestic affairs of the Republic. McGovern and Carter may have wanted peace, but that is different point of view, not the project of fundamentally changing America.
Most experts do make a distinction between foreign policy and domestic.
Bethany, I am very troubled by your uncritical acceptance of what appear to be dubious, probably far-left, news reports.
You principally rely on the Phoenix New Times. I’ve never heard of it. I’ve lived in Arizona for over 40 years, though admittedly in Tucson, not Phoenix. Wikipedia describes it as a “free alternative weekly.”
Your other citation is to the Guardian. The Guardian, for crying out loud. I’m not going to say that I never believe anything written in the Guardian. If they say something bad about someone on the Left, you can darn well believe it — as in “even the Guardian admits that . . .” But to rely on it as a genuine news source? That is not wise.
Gabriel’s opinion of Arpaio is enough for me. He’s bad. If Pence gave him 20 seconds of deference it’s probably not a big deal. Pence can only do so much, here.
The New Times was a serious publication when I lived in Phoenix, but that was a million years ago.
I agree. The guys on Three Martini Lunch gave it some spin yesterday. They noticed that Pence said Arpaio is a friend of President Trump and not a friend of his. A bit of distancing.
To set such a high bar that no achievements pass it, then declare conservatives have achieved nothing, is to give up. Getting to a top marginal tax rate of 94% was a win for the redistributionists. It went down, their win went away. They lost. Getting the US government to set gas prices was a win for the managerial class. We moved away from that, their win went away. They lost. But because these losses *might* be reversed at some future point, you don’t count them as wins for our side. Because you’re committed to saying we have no wins. You’re resigned to being a loser in all politics before 2016. It’s the mirror image of Progressives who insist the “prison-industrial-complex is the same as Jim Crow is the same as slavery.” It’s pathetic.
It is realistic. The Progressive March has continued. They control all the institutions. They are against free speech and winning on that. Gun rights would be gone now if not for Trump putting in a new justice. Any gains we have are easily undone.
The Left has managed to paint Americansim as racism. If you cannot see how dangerous that is, then you are the one being pathetic.
Also, expecting them to be able to overturn Obamacare, is not setting the damn bar too high, as they said they were going to do it. I would count that as a win.
So, why don’t you actually read what I wrote, instead of going out of your way to paint me as “pathetic”.
At least my picture is of me and not a pair of pants.
God, I wish they would have just taken a year to educate the public and come up with a strategy for every Senator or whatever it takes. Improve the damn health insurance system or we are going to get socialism good and hard. Idiots.
They most definitely campaigned on the promise to overturn Obamcare. They even practiced their lines daily.
I read what you wrote, which is exactly why I called it pathetic. You went from “name one victory,” to dismissing winning the cold war, to asking for a domestic victory, to insisting that every conservative victory named doesn’t count because it *might* be undone but every Progressive victory is permanent.
You wanna say we have a lot of work to do? I agree. You wanna say the left owns all the cultural institutions? I agree. You wanna say that despite conservative opposition, the left has gained ground on many issues? I agree. You wanna say the GOP’s capitulation on Obamacare was pathetic? I agree.
But you wanna declare no wins since 1937, and assure us that all Progressive wins are permanent but all conservative “wins” are merely temporary illusions? I’m out. That’s a bad certainty about the future resting on a bad reading of history.
I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree. And you need to name call to boot. I guess that makes you more right.
@lazymillennial
Andrew Klavan’s latest episode of his podcast gives you a better idea of the loss of the cultural war which is part of what Bryan is trying to get at. It was towards the end of the podcast.
Things that used to be assumed are now verboten and vice versa – not in a good way.
Sheesh. If half of this is true, Arpaio should be a guest villain on Gotham.
Arpaio fund raises off of Pence comments.
@bryangstephens Government is steadily growing, that I would agree with. As far as Democrats winning I was referring to elections, which they have pretty much been losing at every level except the White House. I don’t think objecting to Pence being buddy buddy with a jackwagon like Sheriff Joe is beyond the pale or enabling Democrats. I’m not for the circular firing squad either but I’m also not in favor of the democrat technique of ignoring any and all actions of people if they are on our side. We are (or should be) better than that.
I don’t think that Pence is considered to be on “our side” by some on the Right. In fact, for those sorts, even talking about “sides” is tribalism, and just wrongheaded.
What I am saying is that doing things the old way is not working because government keeps growing. Time for something new, and that might mean getting our hands dirty. Politics is a dirty business. You don’t keep your suit nice and white when you play in the sandbox.
You’re absolutely right about Obamacare……if they weren’t going to get rid of it they shouldn’t have campaigned on doing so. Just like all those other programs, I feared we would never be completely rid of Obamacare because once enacted it would become as entrenched as all the others. The biggest problem with the Republicans is they promised and campaigned as if getting rid of it would be a simple thing…..knowing it wouldn’t be.
Since 1937 the modern conservative movement has formed, become somewhat mainstream, influenced many local and federal politicians to at least pay some homage to conservative values etc… In my opinion it’s not fair to score wins and losses based on how many federal government programs have been ended. Hell there is still a program for bringing electricity to rural areas as far as I know! How about tax rates? They were slashed during Reagan’s administration and since then as well. Other than Obamacare, Obama was not able to pass 2nd amendment restrictions, carbon taxes and any number of left wing plans he had cooked up.
If we cannot end programs, then they are permanent wins towards bigger government. That is all that mattes in the long run. THey get enough of a majority to put them into place, and they never get undone. That is losing, and losing over and over throughout time. There is no other way to see it. Just because we have stopped other stuff from happening, we are still losing.
Look at it this way:
The Left always gains ground the Right never gets back. The Right sometimes stops the Left from taking ground and calls it a “win”. But if the front only moves one way, you are losing the war. I want the Right to retake a hill and keep it, not just win holding actions.
Government will never stop growing generally until after the Fed loses control of the bond market. I wish they would be strategic and account for that.
I think they are permanent wins. I am completely convinced the only hope against the Federal monolith is to cut it down at the roots and return power to the States. A return to federalism is where we should be focused, let the states have their constitutional power back
Then we are in general agreement.
Oh i think we definitely are. I just get irritated by the general climate on the right these days that any criticism of Trump or his administration is countered with unrelated arguments. I don’t specifically mean by you, there has just been a ton of that lately with the flap over the Stormy payoff/Sheriff Joe etc. Any mild criticism is blasted with attacks about NT’s, republican failures, whatever…… It would be nice to just hear someone say, “Yeah I’m not crazy about X, hope X doesn’t happen again, I still support the administration generally because of Y and Z.” lol
I agree. And I would like that from all the right.
Oh me too, that’s my entire point. :)