I Simply Cannot Believe This Is Our Chief Law Enforcement Officer
And he keeps getting re-elected by wide margins. Unbelievable.
In a performance worthy of a Mafia don, Sheriff Joe Arpaio dissembled under oath today in a disciplinary hearing for disgraced former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, and Thomas' ex-underlings, former deputy county attorneys Rachel Alexander and Lisa Aubuchon.
During more than two hours of questioning, mostly by counsel for the State Bar of Arizona, Arpaio's favorite response was, "I don't recall," which he repeated numerous times.
He asserted that he had delegated all authority concerning the investigations of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, county judges, and various other county officials to former Chief Deputy David Hendershott, Arpaio's hand-picked fall guy.
For those who don't live here, I can assure you that at the time, Arpaio took personal credit for everything the department did, using his simply astronomical PR budget.
Here, for example, is one of the key cases Arpaio is being asked to discuss. He and former county attorney Andrew Thomas waged a war for years against their bosses, the County Supervisors, who frequently had the temerity to try to circumscribe Thomas's and Arpaio's power. Among other craziness, Thomas, backed by Arpaio, filed a RICO suit against the supervisors. When a Judge hearing the case, Judge Donahoe, issued some unfavorable rulings in that case, Thomas and Arpaio filed a bribery case against Donahoe, their wacky theory being that since the Supervisors had authorized a new County Court building, this was a bribe to Judge Donahoe, whose court would now be in the new building. Arpaio claims he had nothing to do with any of this. Here is his uninvolvement, via the AZ Republic.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on Wednesday filed criminal charges against Gary Donahoe, presiding criminal judge of Superior Court, accusing him of hindering prosecution, obstructing a criminal investigation and bribery.
The three felony charges relate to Donahoe's handling of criminal investigations into county officials, particularly a controversial court tower under construction in downtown Phoenix.
Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who stood side by side during a news conference Wednesday, have repeatedly questioned the $340 million joint project of the Superior Court and Maricopa County government.
By the way, it is a nice touch, right out of some place like North Korea, for a prosecutor to bring a judge up on charges for "hindering prosecution" merely for issuing a ruling form the bench which wasn't exactly what the prosecutor wanted. Its more scary when you consider just how many judges truly are in the tank for local prosecutors.
Dave Boz:
Yet Arpaio will be re-elected by a wide margin next year, should he choose to run. How can this incompetent lunatic continue in office? His supporters will tell you endlessly that it's because "he's the only one who enforces the law." Now, this is a preposterous statement on its face, but here in Maricopa it's code for "he rousts Mexicans." And that is, literally, the only thing his supporters care about. Not his incompetence, his failure to deliver prisoners to court, his inability to serve felony warrants, the deaths in his jails, the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars wasted under his reign. The absolute, single, only thing Arpaio supporters care about is that he hauls in landscapers and dishwashers in his "crime suppression sweeps." Violent crime simply isn't an issue to Arpaio voters, and it's a good thing, since the Sheriff's skills and inclination lend themselves to grandstanding and arresting only the least dangerous criminals.
The clownshow goes on.
October 19, 2011, 9:29 amgadfly:
It seems rather strange to me that in a state overrun with illegals that the only law enforcement agency in the state concerned with and attempting to deal with this phenomonon is being attacked from all sides by the Obama administration, the liberal media, hispanic organizations and even the libertarian Coyote blog. Arpaio most certainly must be Mexiphobic.
Meanwhile back in Pima County, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik's goon squad pumped 23 slugs into Jose Guerena in an obvious murder -- and inattentive law enforcement by this same sheriff permitted Jared Loughner's murderous attack on Gabby Gifford's gathering. I must have missed the criticism leveled against Sheriff Dipsh*t and the call for his dismissal in this blog. But hey! Dupnik leaves the illegals alone.
October 19, 2011, 7:18 pmInvid:
gadfly, considering the wreckage Apaio's people leave behind while and the messes they make "doing their jobs" I think criticism is in order.
I don't think that capturing and torturing illegals should magically shield him from the due process & civil rights violations, the corruption, the waste etc.
And sure, Dupnik and his people should also pay for what happened to Guerena...but, again, the fact that a different Sheriff's people murdered a guy doesn't give Arpaio a magic shield.
October 20, 2011, 1:37 pmgadfly:
Invid, you indeed have an interesting point of view. So Sheriff Joe must immediately quit mistreating criminals but criminals are free to break the law without fear of arrest? It sounds like you have been hanging out far too long with Obama and his liberal supporters.
This whole scenario is straight from Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals."
October 20, 2011, 3:02 pmJohn Moore:
Hey, folks, it's Arizona, and we have quite a history of public officials offering up spectacles for our entertainment. Of course Joe gets re-elected, he's the most prolific spectacle generator I've seen in my almost 40 years here! Without Joe, what would we do? We'd have to resurrect Ev, or get Sam to shoot another burrow or get arrested for painting another crosswalk. Maybe we could even bring back the Earp brothers.
I could almost support Joe, because he has actually done a lot of good (tent city - which saved us a bunch of money and is quite a good crime deterrent, chain gangs, rounding up illegal aliens, his large and often quite effective posses, etc). He's very entertaining, and the time I've spent personally conversing with him was a lot of fun.
But seems to have no respect for civil liberties of anyone he perceives as a criminal (which includes anyone who criticizes him).
But what will we do for entertainment when he finally dies (which appears to be the only way he will leave his office)? What other character will we have to elect? Sheriff Mack would be just as bad (but we can thank him for the first SCOTUS case in ages which upheld the 10th amendment). Ev is dead, and Sam is apparently disabled. Barry is long gone, and besides, he turned into a progressive in his last years.
Whatever shall we do?
October 20, 2011, 8:21 pm