I still can't believe this poll:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/...
The first Rasmussen Reports telephone poll of next year's GOP Primary in Arizona shows Arpaio, known nationally for his tough efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, attracting 47% of the vote while four other candidates split another 44%.
He's cracking down on illegal immigration? Try massive racial profiling.
Arpaio once launched a three-day immigration sweep around Phoenix, Arizona. Out of the 74 people arrested only 25 of them were illegal immigrants.
Nice shooting there partner.
That is one of many of Arpaio's problems, and he has a pistol full. Poor fella envisions himself a mythical old school bad ass sheriff, but he sure as hell ain't got on a white hat.
His biggest problem is his distaste for immigrants, though Joe Arpaio was the child of immigrants, from Italy, so this is a Spaghetti Western.
Don't that beat all?
That is the problem I have with most nativists, they just got to wherever they are now claiming as historically their own.
http://recenter.tamu.edu/...
Arizona Population by Decades
Date Population Population
Change Annual
% Change
1900 122,931
1910 204,354
1920 334,162
1930 435,573
1940 499,261
1950 749,587
1960 1,302,161
1970 1,770,900
1980 2,718,215
1990 3,665,228
2000 5,130,632
Source: U.S. Bureau of Census
Seriously, nativist Arizonians, most of y'all just got there yourselves!
So here we have an immigrant Hollywood sheriff protecting migrants against a population that has been in the area for over a thousand years. It's quite a holiday story, especially for Thanksgiving.
See, illegal immigrants are all native Americans because that goes from Canada to Chile. The ones being harassed and detained migrated through their region for generations upon generations before the Arpaio family in Italy even knew there was an America.
Or even an Amerigo Vespucci.
And so close to Thanksgiving, too, when native Americans and recently arrivals broke bread and celebrated the passing of another harvest, Arpaio decides he wants to be the turkey of the festivities.
Sheriff Arpaio recently shackled an illegal immigrant to her hospital bed as she gave birth to her baby. Wait, there's more! Then he told this new mom, who was not even allowed to hold her baby, that if no one else claimed the baby in 72 hours he was going put the newborn in foster care and she would never see the baby again.
Without ever holding it once.
Ever.
He really did that.
Before you rage on this holiday afternoon, let us all give thanks for justice that is the very fabric of our republic.
Who better to point out what Arpaio can expect his judgment to be, before the rule of law, than Jonathan Turley, who pointed out a similar case decided just last month.
Breach Birth: Federal Court Rules Prison Guard Does Not Have Qualified Immunity After Shackling Prisoner During Labor
Jonathan Turley, jonathanturley.org
http://jonathanturley.org/...
There is a disturbing and important ruling out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In the prisoner case below, Nelson v. Correctional Medical Services, the court examined whether a prisoner guard is entitled to qualified immunity when she shackles a female prisoner during labor despite the objections of the medical staff. Arkansas corrections officer Patricia Turensky was found not to be entitled to such protection for her actions in shackling inmate Shawanna Nelson. The decision was handed down on October 2, 2009.
The appellate court found such evidence was sufficient to allow the case to got to trial — affirming the district court. The court stressed that "deliberate indifference to a prisoner’s serious illness or injury can typically be established or disproved without the necessity of balancing competing institutional concerns for the safety of prison staff," Whitley, 475 U.S. at 320, from the record evidence in Nelson’s case there does not even appear to have been a competing penological interest in shackling her . . . [Indeed] according to Turensky’s own testimony, Nelson was not threatening or belligerent at any point.
Here is the full opinion: 072481P
Now there still are some unknowns, because latina.com was really loose with the Ws of Journalism.
Was Arpaio in the delivery room giving the orders himself?
Is shaking a pregnant prisoner to her hospital bed against Department of
Correction directives of the state of Arizona, as was pivotal in the Nelson v. Correctional Medical Services decision?
Why would this ever be okay is probably a better question, but it looks like the odds are stacked against this rogue sheriff when rule of law rides into town.
The wheels of justice turn ever so slowly, but them wagonwheels do turn.
Take solace my fellow citizens, that on this Thanksgiving, Sheriff Arpaio cooked his own turkey.