There's a huge story breaking in Phoenix, Arizona regarding the jailing of the founders of the Phoenix New Times newspaper by the Maricopa Country Sheriff's Office led by the "the toughest sheriff in America" our own resident political bully Joe Arpaio.
In a nutshell this involves a grand jury investigation being performed against the New Times by a special prosecutor named Dennis Wilenchik who's a crony of Arpaio's. The charges involve the New Times "leaking" the good sheriff's home address in their newspaper (even though it was already easy to find on the internet) in a story focusing on possible real estate improprieties. Throughout his rein, Arpaio has made spurious claims of people plotting to kill him and they used this to make an issue over the release of his location.
The reason the founders of the New Times broke the story of the confidential grand jury proceedings was that new motions were compelling the New Times to give detailed reader information of anyone that had ever visited their internet site.
Here's the link to the paper's website - Phoenix New Times and another link to the full story that explains this mess - Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution.
Now I have mixed feelings about the New Times. At times they're a shining example of true investigative journalism and then there's these fluffy hair-brained articles on the next page pandering to the idiots out there. A discerning reader though can generally sort through the crap to get to the real meat and most times the real reporters there are right on in their exposure of corruption and crime.
Now most of you have gotten a very distorted view of Sheriff Joe Arpaio from the MSM who've ignored the abuses and grandstanding he does and focused only on his tough treatment of prisoners but recent events have been chilling. This is not the only institution of the press that is in a court battle with the Sheriff's office. A small local newspaper called the West Valley View has recently won a court decision against his office for failure to provide police reports in a timely manner. Seems the criteria for whether the newspaper got the reports was based on their editorial content which at times was critical of our grandstanding top cop. Here's an article from the WVV about the latest in their battle.
West Valley View Lawsuit
You know what's probably the most chilling about posting this information though? This man is so out of control and vengeful that there's a distinct possibility that I could be targeted by the Arpaio machine for simply posting this information. I'll keep you updated if I find myself getting more traffic tickets than I truly deserve. Funny thing though is that I'm just so numb these days from seeing outrage after outrage that there's something very satisfying about standing up to bullies no matter what the consequences.
UPDATE!
as stated below in the comments, this one had a happy ending (although I have no intention of my work to remove this man and his enablers from office ending)
County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced this afternoon that all charges against the New Times were to be dropped and that the case had been seriously mishandled.
Our next job is to to push the Arizona Bar Association to bring action against Dennis Wilenchik and to continue to press officials to begin investigations into the abuses at the Sheriff's Department. Thanks to all that mobilized here. It was an amazing display of outrage and unity and a good lesson about the power of information in the hands of passionate and intelligent people. Thank you Mr. Kos for the podium.