Sheriff Joe Arpaio for Homeland Security Chief!

http://gunowners.org/arpaio.htm

Written by Tim Macy
Thursday, 09 April 2009 00:00
With all the nonsense being uttered by political leaders who are blaming American gun owners for the violence in Mexico, it’s refreshing to hear at least one elected official offer some common sense: Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona.

Sheriff Arpaio takes his oath of office to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution seriously. He is also fully committed to doing his part to protect our homeland from people who are here illegally. In fact, the Sheriff would make quite an effective Director of Homeland Security.

Employing more than 3,000 people, Arpaio runs the nation’s third largest Sheriff’s office in the fourth most populous county. He has gained fame over the years for tough, no-nonsense law-enforcement tactics.

When faced with a shortage of cells, Arpaio bought army surplus tents and surrounded them with a barbed wire fence. He also upset the soft-on-crime crowd by “outrageous” actions such as banning smoking and pornography and requiring inmates to wear pink underwear. And he actually makes prisoners work on roads and other manual labor. Inmates are in prison, after all, not in day care.

Arpaio is most well known for his strong stance against illegal immigration. In 2005, Arizona made smuggling illegal aliens a state felony. That action empowered officers such as Sheriff Arpaio to enforce immigration law, something at which the federal government has failed miserably.

But perhaps what enrages the anti-gun liberal establishment the most -- though it almost never makes the news -- is that Sheriff Arpaio actually believes in the Second Amendment and he trusts average citizens with firearms! Arpiao deputized citizen volunteers from every walk of life and income bracket. These citizen-volunteers patrol malls, arrest graffiti violators, dead beat parents, and even illegal aliens. The volunteers furnish their own airplanes, jeeps and horses -- and they are armed.

Regarded as America’s toughest sheriff, Arpaio actually enforces the law by seeking out, arresting and incarcerating those who break it. After all, isn’t that what a LAW ENFORCEMENT officer is supposed to do?

Sheriff Arpaio may enrage socialist liberals, but he has the confidence of his constituents, who have elected him by wide margins every four years since 1992.

Contrast what Sheriff Arpaio is doing to uphold the law with proposals to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights put forth by President Obama and other political leaders.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a February press conference, “As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to re-institute the ban on the sale of assault weapons…. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is all too eager to reinstate the gun ban signed by her husband in 1994, calling its expiration a “mistake.”

“The guns that are sold in the United States, which are illegal in Mexico, get smuggled over our border and arm these terrible drug-dealing criminals so that they can outgun these poor police officers along the border and elsewhere in Mexico. So we've got to help out here.… So I think recognizing the co-responsibility is just stating the obvious,” Clinton said.

Well, the only thing obvious about Clinton’s anti-gun rambling is that it is utter nonsense.

These “blame America first” U.S. officials are echoing the ridiculous and condescending statement of Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, who said the United States should renew the so-called “assault weapons” ban.

“The Second Amendment was never meant to arm foreign criminal groups,” the foreign leader lectured.

Gee, thanks for the history lesson Señor Mora, but we think our Founding Fathers got it right over 200 years ago.

For one thing, drug cartels in Mexico often use fully automatic machine guns, grenades, anti-tank rockets and other weapons that are not readily available to U.S. gun owners. But more importantly, the problems of corruption and violence in another country should never be used as an excuse to curtail the rights and liberties of U.S. citizens.

The first responsibility of the American government is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and that’s exactly what drives Sheriff Arpaio.

But what does the Sheriff get in return for protecting his county from law-breakers? Is he thanked by civil rights activists and community “organizers” for keeping criminals away from our neighborhoods, schools and children? Is he given an award for taking his role on the front-line of border security seriously?

No! While Arpaio has been reelected by real constituents, anti-gun elitists like supposed civil rights leader Al Sharpton and ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis are calling for his resignation.

Sharpton, Lewis and other civil rights “leaders” held a national press conference recently denouncing Sheriff Arpiao and threatening to march in the streets of Phoenix if Arpiao doesn’t resign immediately.

Arpaio’s response to Sharpton? “He wants me to resign? Have I got news for him. He can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.”

In addition, several Members of Congress have instigated a federal investigation of Arpiao. Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Robert Scott (D-VA) have alleged that Arpiao has committed civil rights violations.

These so-called civil rights leaders and members of Congress are shameful hypocrites. They regularly urge that we should strip Americans of a constitutionally protected civil right (to keep and bear arms), while they invent rights for illegal aliens.

Members of Congress, who like the Sheriff take an oath to defend the Constitution, are the ones who should resign.

And the civil rights “leaders” should stop acting like they’re speaking for Americans when they attack heroes like Sheriff Arpaio.

We at Gun owners of America believe these people are radical members of the left who would love to disarm honest American citizens---and we will fight their efforts as long as we breathe.

Sheriff Arpaio, on the other hand, would make a very effective Homeland Security chief. Keep up the good work Sheriff Joe!

Views: 100

Comment

You need to be a member of 12160 Social Network to add comments!

Join 12160 Social Network

Comment by fireguy on April 14, 2009 at 7:23pm
Knew I could get a rise out of someone. Went from biggest joke in Arizona to biggest joke on the planet in only one post. Thanks!!

I guess we all want to stay out of any prison, aye?

ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!
Comment by Jeff on April 14, 2009 at 3:00pm
This post is in itself an absolute CRIME!!

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the biggest JOKE the state of Arizona has ever had and falls right in behind their repeal of MLK day and slavery in the 1800s.

From 2004 through November 2007, Arpaio was the target of 2,150 lawsuits in U.S. District Court and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts; 50 times as many prison-conditions lawsuits as the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined.

Arpaio is named in a class-action lawsuit, Hart v. Arpaio, brought by Phoenix attorney Debra Hill and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of jail inmates. The lawsuit centers on the treatment of pretrial detainees, who are legally innocent until proven guilty. The lawsuit claims that Arpaio is violating the constitutional rights of those detainees. The trial in the lawsuit began on August 12, 2008.

By mid-2007, more than $50 million in claims had been filed against the sheriff's office and Maricopa County.

In her book on prison policy The Use of Force by Detention Officers, Arizona State University criminal justice professor Marie L. Griffin reported on a 1998 study commissioned by Arpaio to examine recidivism rates based on conditions of confinement. Comparing recidivism rates under Arpaio to those under his predecessor, the study found "there was no significant difference in recidivism observed between those offenders released in 1989-1990 and those released in 1994-1995."

Inmate deaths and injuries

Family members of inmates who have died or been injured in jail custody have filed lawsuits against the sheriff’s office. Maricopa County has paid more than $43 million in settlement claims during Arpaio's tenure.

Charles Agster

In August 2001, Charles Agster, a 33-year-old mentally handicapped man, died in the county jail three days after being forced by sheriff's officers into a restraint chair used for controlling combative arrestees. Agster's parents had been taking him to a psychiatric hospital because he was exhibiting paranoia, then called police when he refused to leave a convenience store where they had stopped enroute. Officers took Agster to the Madison Street jail, placed a "spit hood" over his face and strapped him to the chair, where he had an apparent seizure and lost consciousness. He was declared brain dead three days later. A medical examiner later concluded that Agster died of complications of methamphetamine intoxication. In a subsequent lawsuit, an attorney for the sheriff's office described the amount of methamphetamine in Agster's system as 17 times the known lethal dose. The lawsuit resulted in a $9 million jury verdict against the county, the sheriff's office, and Correctional Health Services.

Scott Norberg

One major controversy includes the 1996 death of inmate Scott Norberg, a former Brigham Young University football wide receiver, who died while in custody of the Sheriff's office. Norberg was arrested for assaulting a police officer in Mesa, Arizona, after neighbors in a residential area had reported a delirious man walking in their neighborhood. Arpaio's office repeatedly claimed Norberg was also high on methamphetamine, but a blood toxicology performed post-mortem was inconclusive. Norberg did, however, have methamphetamine in his urine, proving that he had used the drug at some point fairly recently before his death. During his internment, evidence suggests detention officers shocked Norberg several times with a stun-gun. According to an investigation by Amnesty International, Norberg was already handcuffed and face down when officers dragged him from his cell and placed him in a restraint chair with a towel covering his face. After Norberg's corpse was discovered, detention officers accused Norberg of attacking them as they were trying to restrain him. The cause of his death, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner, was due to "positional asphyxia". Sheriff Arpaio investigated and subsequently cleared detention officers of any criminal wrongdoing.

Norberg’s parents filed a lawsuit against Arpaio and his office. The lawsuit was settled for $8.25 million (USD).

Brian Crenshaw

Brian Crenshaw was a legally blind and mentally disabled inmate who suffered fatal injuries while being held in Maricopa County Jail.

Crenshaw's family filed a lawsuit against Arpaio and his office, which resulted in an award of $2 million. As in the Scott Norberg case, it was alleged that Arpaio's office destroyed evidence in the case. In the Crenshaw case, the attorney who represented the case before a jury alleged digital video evidence was destroyed.

Richard Post

Richard Post was a paraplegic inmate arrested in 1996 for possession of marijuana and criminal trespass. Post was placed in a restraint chair by guards and his neck was broken in the process. The event, caught on video, shows guards smiling and laughing while Post is being injured. Because of his injuries, Post has lost much of the use of his arms. Post settled his claims against the Sheriff's office for $800,000.

Jeremy Flanders

In 1996, Jeremy Flanders was attacked by inmates at Tent City who used rebar tent stakes, which were not concreted into the ground. Although these stakes had been used as weapons in a previous riot at the facility, the Sheriff's office chose not to secure them properly. During the trial, the plaintiff "presented evidence that, among other things, the Sheriff and his deputies had actual knowledge that prisoners used rebar tent stakes and tent poles as weapons and did nothing to prevent it." Furthermore, "the Sheriff admitted knowing about, and in fact intentionally designing, some conditions at Tent City that created a substantial risk of inmate violence." After the attack: "another inmate entered the tent and found Flanders unconscious, gasping for air, and spewing blood out of his mouth, nose and ears. Flanders had been bloodied and beaten so badly that the other inmate initially did not recognize Flanders." Flanders suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the attack. On appeal, Flanders was awarded $635,532, of which Arpaio was personally responsible for thirty-five percent.

Ambria Renee Spencer

In 2006, inmate Ambrett Spencer, who was incarcerated for drunk driving and was nine months pregnant with a baby girl, complained of severe stomach pains and asked for medical attention. The infirmary nurse, who had no prenatal training, believed the pain was not an emergency. It was two hours before an ambulance was called for Spencer, who in the meantime had passed out from severely low blood pressure and lost so much color that the EMT who arrived at the scene said he knew she was "not getting enough blood to [her] organs and skin." At the hospital -- four hours after first reporting pain -- Spencer gave birth to a dead daughter, Ambria Renee. It was determined that Spencer's pain had been caused by placental abruption, internal bleeding resulting in loss of blood to the baby, which babies can usually survive if the mother is taken to the hospital and labor is quickly induced.

Ambrett Spencer has filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County, which as of November 2008 has not yet gone to trial. The county claims that the ambulance service is at fault for not transporting Spencer to the hospital fast enough.

Other female inmates have had miscarriages while incarcerated in Arpaio's jail and have reported physical abuse or neglect which they believe contributed to the loss of their pregnancies.

Jose Rodriguez

On March 26, 1996, Jose Rodriquez, 39, died in a pool of his own vomit on a jail floor. His cries for help went ignored by Arpaio's jail employees. Rodriquez's dehydration, fever and twitching ultimately led to his death, even while inmates shouted for help.

Phillip Wilson

In 2003, Phillip Wilson was serving two months in Tent City for a nonviolent offense. Wilson was attacked by the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang and bludgeoned into a coma. He never recovered.

Deborah Braillard

Deborah Braillard, 46, was documented as a diabetic in the jail's health records. Her cellmates say a nurse did not give Braillard insulin, and then detention officers ignored her when she went into diabetic shock. Braillard died on January 23, 2005, ultimately from lack of insulin.

Clint Yarbrough

In December 2005, Clint Yarbrough suffocated in a jail restraint chair. On April 18, 2007, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved an undisclosed settlement payout to Yarbrough's family in excess of $1 million.

Thomas Bruce Cooley

Months before Thomas Bruce Cooley, 44, was found hanging by the bed sheets in his jail cell, a federal inspector had warned Arpaio that the jail psych ward was a suicide waiting to happen. A 1996 Department of Justice report specifically cautioned that inmates could use "overhanging structures" to hang themselves. Three more inmates died in the same way as Thomas Cooley while in Arpaio's custody: Kevin Holschlag, Michael Sanderson, and Juan Vasquez.

Icelandic extradition refusal

An Icelandic court in 1997 refused to extradite Connie and Donald Hanes to Maricopa County after hearing evidence about the county jail.

Enforcement acts of deputies and posse

Botched raid


In 2004, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office SWAT team led a raid on an Ahwatukee home in a gated subdivision, looking for illegal weapons. No illegal weapons were found, but during the raid, the house burned down, SWAT officers forced a dog back into the building where it subsequently died, and an armored vehicle rolled into a neighbor's parked car as a result of brake failure.

Prostitution sting

In an undercover sting operation in November, 2003, sheriff's deputies arrested over 70 people for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. The officers arrested alleged prostitutes and their alleged customers in more than thirty homes and ten massage parlors in the Phoenix area. Records indicated that several of the officers and civilian posse members disrobed, fondled the breasts and genitals of the alleged prostitutes, and allowed their penises to be touched during the operation in the hopes of convincing the women they were not law enforcement officers. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office stated that the Sheriff's office had gone too far in allowing this behavior, and sixty of the cases were thrown out. Several of the customers in the case were prosecuted successfully.

Conflicts with local news media

Arrest of Phoenix New Times executives


In October 2007, Arpaio's deputies arrested Village Voice Media executives and Phoenix New Times editors Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin on charges of revealing grand jury secrets. In July 2004, the New Times had published Arpaio's home address in the context of a story about his real estate dealings, which the county attorney's office is investigating as a possible crime under Arizona state law. A special prosecutor served Village Voice Media with a subpoena ordering it to produce "all documents" related to the original real estate article, as well as "all Internet web site traffic information" to a number of articles that mentioned Arpaio. The prosecutor further ordered Village Voice Media to produce the IP addresses of all visitors to the Phoenix New Times website since January 1, 2004, as well as what websites those readers had been to prior to visiting. As an act of "civil disobedience," Lacey and Larkin published the contents of the subpoena on or around October 18, which resulted in their arrests the same day. On the following day, the county attorney dropped the case after declining to pursue charges against the two. The Attorney General's office has since been ordered to appear before Judge Ana Baca due to missing documentation - including the original grand jury subpoenas - in the case file for the investigation of the New Times publication.

On November 28, 2007, Judge Baca ruled that the subpoenas in this case were not validly issued. The special prosecutor filed the grand jury subpoenas without the consent of the grand jury. Baca's justification was a statute that had been clarified by case law and by subsequent legislation to bar such subpoena authority, unless certain reporting requirements are met. The prosecutor had not met those reporting requirements. In April, 2008, the New Times editors filed suit against Arpaio, County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Special Prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik, alleging negligence, conspiracy and racketeering, and State and U.S. constitutional violations of free speech rights, false imprisonment, retaliation by law enforcement and abuse of process.

Alleged harassment of New Times reporter

On June 11, 2008, Ray Stern, a reporter for the Phoenix New Times, was surrounded and intimidated by several deputies while trying to examine public records at the City of Phoenix public records counter. Stern called City Attorney Gary Verburg, who came down and instructed the deputies that Stern had the right to view the records. The deputies then threatened to simply arrest Stern on the spot. Later, a city "conflict resolution manager" walked up and laid down an Arizona law book. She pointed to the section of public records law that essentially says anyone can look at any public record during business hours. City Attorney Verburg told the deputies again that Stern had the right to look at any public record. Upon hearing that, the deputies warned Stern again that if he tried to look at the documents he would be arrested.

The events reported by the New Times are substantively verified in a memo drafted by Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Commander James Miller. In this memo, Miller states that the deputies did threaten to arrest Stern if he touched any of the records, and that he (Miller) held one of the records out in front of Stern, saying "take it", to create a pretense to arrest Stern. Miller also reported that the situation escalated into a standoff with the Phoenix Police, when they warned him not to attempt to arrest Stern.

FOIA requests to mayor and other officials

In situations where government officials have been at odds with Arpaio, his office has used the Freedom of Information Act to make broad requests for records of their email and correspondence. The requests have been targeted against Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, Maricopa County Court Administrator Marcus Reinkensmeyer, and most recently, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Starting in March, 2008, Gordon spoke out, in a number of high-profile speeches, against racial profiling by Arpaio. On April 24, Arpaio's deputies issued a public-records request seeking the mayor's e-mails, cell phone records, and meeting calendar, as well as e-mail correspondence for Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, City Manager Frank Fairbanks, and all of Gordon's administrative staff. The request covered every e-mail written by more than a dozen Phoenix staffers, from November to the date of the sheriff's demand.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is directly responsible for the Maricopa County Jail Insurance Policy increasing from 1 million a year to 5 million a year.

Here's a sample of the thousands of articles that have been written about this miscreant neolithic caveman and they can ALL be easily Googled using "Joe Arpaio" and the article's title:

Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution
Jailers Show a Paraplegic Who’s Boss
The Cost of Cruelty
Barbarism as a Public Relations Strategy
Human Plights
Enemies List
Boob’s Tube
Head on a Skewer
In the Crosshairs
Murder on Madison: The Norberg Remix
Jailhouse Blues
Inhumanity Has a Price
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Jails Lose National Accreditation
Brown Out
Are Your Papers in Order?
NOPE to Janet Napolitano
Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution
Who’s Sorry Now?
He Just Doesn’t Get It
Wilenchik’s a Liar, and There’s More
Extraordinary Contempt
Enemies List
Siege Mentality
Power Play
Information Blockade
Inmates’ Rights Lawsuit Languishes
Inhumanity Has a Price
Flushing Them Out
Money Shot
Alien Nation
Feathered Bastard: Triumph of the Swill
Jarrett and Goliath
King of Pain
Feathered Bastard: Rusty Childress Embraces a Neo-Nazi
Rusty’s World
Feathered Bastard: Bloody Christmas at Pruitt’s
The Bird: Resident Evil
Feathered Bastard: Arpaio and the Minuteman
Feathered Bastard: Sheriff Joe’s Easter Ethnic Cleansing
Feathered Bastard: Another Neo-Nazi in the Nativist Woodpile
Brown Out
Are Your Papers in Order?
The Bird: Police State
The Bird: Bad Break
The Bird: No Holds Barred
Feathered Bastard: Arpaio’s Circus Comes to Buckeye
Feathered Bastard: Arpaio’s Thugs Menace Press Conference
Feathered Bastard: Arpaio Profiles Street Vendors
Feathered Bastard: Columbus D-Day
Enemies List
The Trial
False Positive
America’s Toughest Suspects
Insider Account
Blowing His Cool
Trick or Threat
Goon Squad
Information Blockade
Free Ray Stern
Boob’s Tube
Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution
Who’s Sorry Now?
Talk About Intimidation
The Trial
False Positive
Gag of an Order
Jail Bait
Jailhouse Justice
Sanitized for Joe’s Protection
Sheriff’s Cover-up?
Fed Up
Tweaking the Truth
Dead Again
Hart v. Arpaio
Another Jail Death
Torture Chamber
Lies and Videotape
Public Pays in Jail Death
The Shocking Details on Juan Mendoza Farias
Stillborn: Babies Are Dying in Arpaio’s Jails
Jails Lose National Accreditation
Dead Again
Hart v. Arpaio Awaits Verdict
Inhumanity Has a Price
The Cost of Cruelty
Assisted Suicide
Turning Up the Heat
Jailhouse Justice
Jail Bait
109 Degrees of Incarceration
Murder on Madison: The Norberg Remix
Tweaking the Truth
Fed Up
Sheriff’s Cover-up?
Keeping ‘Em in Stitches
A Hoss-Style Witness
Jailers Show a Paraplegic Who’s Boss
Barbarism as a Public Relations Strategy
Sanitized for Joe’s Protection
Tent City Beating Is Nearly Fatal
Jailhouse Blues
Gulag-Rolling
Hog-Tied by the Truth
U.S. Lawsuit Re-Alleges Abuse in Jails
Human Plights
Hangin’ with Sheriff Joe
Feds Probe Alleged Abuse in County Jail


Joe Arpaio is the biggest JOKE on the planet, for those that are informed. He's a micreant, a neolithic caveman, a brainless idiot with a Napoleanic Complex.

"Destroying the New World Order"

TOP CONTENT THIS WEEK

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING THE SITE!

mobile page

12160.info/m

12160 Administrators

 

Latest Activity

tjdavis posted a blog post
4 hours ago
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
6 hours ago
cheeki kea posted a photo
10 hours ago
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

First World Order

"Ah ha Truth hidden in plane sight. Notice the map depicted on this 'world order' book…"
10 hours ago
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's video
12 hours ago
cheeki kea posted a video

Iyah May Karmageddon Lyric Music Video

While ‘Karmageddon’ has sparked significantconversation and controversy, Iyah has stood her ground. She refused to compromise her vision when asked to change...
13 hours ago
tjdavis posted a video

Steven Wilson - PERSONAL SHOPPER (Official Video)

"The song PERSONAL SHOPPER sits somewhere between being a love-letter to shopping (which I love to do!) and the uneasiness I feel about the more insidious si...
yesterday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Monday
rlionhearted_3 posted photos
Monday
Burbia posted a photo
Monday
tjdavis posted a video

propaganda: DIVIDE & CONQUER (1942) - Warner Bros. vs Hitler

Not to be confused with the much drier Frank Capra film from 1943.A "Broadway Brevity", released August 1, 1942. Vitaphone #1022-1023A.Transferred from 16mm.
Sunday
Doc Vega posted blog posts
Dec 20
cheeki kea commented on cheeki kea's photo
Thumbnail

Thumbs down - ship gone.

" So this sort of stupidity has occurred before. Norway or NZ - Who did it better? Cast your…"
Dec 20
cheeki kea favorited Doc Vega's blog post The Last Meal
Dec 20
tjdavis favorited Sandy's photo
Dec 17
tjdavis favorited cheeki kea's photo
Dec 17
tjdavis favorited tjdavis's video
Dec 17
tjdavis posted photos
Dec 17
tjdavis posted blog posts
Dec 17
cheeki kea favorited tjdavis's video
Dec 17

© 2024   Created by truth.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

content and site copyright 12160.info 2007-2019 - all rights reserved. unless otherwise noted