Is Arpaio Running a Protection Racket?
This weekend the Feds raided the Phoenix-area's largest car wash chain "Danny's" for a variety of unspecified immigration issues, and carried a number of folks off to jail or away for deportation. This is a very high profile and upscale business (I am looking at one outside my office window). These are not your father's car washes -- they are large and well-appointed and tailored to an upscale crowd.
Given that this is easily the highest profile car wash chain in town and each location is staffed with scores of folks of Hispanic origin**, my first thought on reading this story was to wonder why Sheriff Joe Arpaio had not conducted the raid. After all, he has practically made a career of immigration raids on car washes (here is just one raid, note by the way the horrific comments saying things like "God bless Arpaio" just under a video of normal, regular human beings being hauled off in handcuffs for ... working.)
Well, other folks in the Phoenix area wondered the same thing, and have observed that by some odd coincidence, the most obvious immigration target not raided by Sheriff Arpaio is also the largest donor to Arpaio's Sheriff's charities, and its founder can often be seen palling around with Arpaio at public events. Note Danny's prominently displayed on Arpaio's web site.
From our local sheriff all the way up to the President, we are increasingly a country of arbitrary laws and special crony exemptions. If you are not friends with Wesley Mouch, good luck to you.
** Not trying to profile here, just trying to think like the Sheriff
Rod Tidwell:
Coyote followed the money.
August 19, 2013, 9:39 amBram:
Selective enforcement of our thousands of laws has handed incredible power to the state and federal executive branches as well as the law-enforcement apparatus.
August 19, 2013, 11:44 amJames:
Ironically, the fact that they're on Arpaio's site (or because they are donors) may also be the reason they were targeted by the feds! We've seen how the current administration likes to strike at its enemies, this looks to me like one more retaliation.
August 19, 2013, 2:27 pmTom Lindmark:
Perfect comment! We are all, all the time and everywhere in violation of some statute. It's merely a matter of the whim or ulterior motives of the authorities as to who is prosecuted. Liberty is now defined as being on the right side of whoever has the power to enforce the laws.
August 19, 2013, 6:34 pmskhpcola:
Anybody that is willing should be able to drive through the gates of one of Coyote's campgrounds and stay as long as they wish...for free. After all, he would never call the law, because that would result in a scene of "normal, regular human beings being hauled off in handcuffs for ...
August 19, 2013, 8:43 pmworkingsleeping/recreating/eating/fishing/etc." Open-borders libertardians are inane.marque2:
I agree that JA probably engaged in selective enforcement but there is another possibility.
It is possible Joe was going to get around to it ( sometimes it is better to catch the smaller guys first) but then he was stripped of his federal enforcement powers by the Obama administration so he could no longer engage in such activities.
And now the Obama administration. Trying to score point and embarrass Joe decided to perform this raid for politics am effect.
August 20, 2013, 8:37 amBondurant:
Joe and Barack are both opportunistic egomaniacs lusting over power. Joe's raids are a tragic circus as is the Obama administration.
August 20, 2013, 5:27 pmskhpcola:
Nah, it was just because wing-nuts deplore seeing people working for an honest living. Or some bullshit like that.
August 21, 2013, 2:36 pmmarque2:
This was a federal action, not an action by Joe. I believe the executive branch is run by the Democrats, with an attorney general who is also a Democrat.
Seems like this is a left wing nut action, done by folks who supposedly want to let all the illegals in to get onto all our welfare programs, and take jobs from US citizens who are currently unemployed.
Hmm.
August 21, 2013, 5:08 pmskhpcola:
Joe is so conniving and eevuhl that he secretly controls only those feds that hate immigrants and hate seeing people working. I know Arpaio is evil, because I read it on Coyote Blog regularly. But, then again, to immigration extremists, anybody against open borders is a waste of protoplasm. Simply another manifestation of the neo-leftist tilt of big "L" Libertardians and another reason that the party will never achieve a national political office. Luap Nor was the hero to millions of vacuous Libertardians, but he was and is, in reality, a zero.
August 21, 2013, 5:23 pm