Joe Arpaio, America's worst sheriff.
Also maybe the dumbest.
(Gage Skidmore/
Flickr)
Dear Sheriff Joe: Nobody can start missing you if you won't
just go away already.
Billed as America's toughest sheriff, Arpaio struck a defiant tone at a Thursday afternoon news conference in response to the report, which he called a politically motivated attack by the Obama administration that will make Arizona unsafe.
"Don't come here and use me as the whipping boy for a national and international problem," he said.
The report released Thursday said that Arpaio's office carried out a blatant pattern of discrimination against Latinos.
A fellow who is accused by the Justice Department of promoting a pattern of blatant racism via his office would, you would think, do well to stay away from using loaded terms like "whipping boy." Arpaio has never been accused of being very smart, however, and I'm sure that in his mind, having to follow the Constitution instead of just treating brown people like dirt because he feels like it really does count as him being terribly victimized.
Arpaio also claims that this means "illegal criminal defenders" will no longer be going to jail. Not true: They just won't be going to Arpaio's jails, but instead moved to federal jails. So Arpaio is lying (yes, I realize that's quite the shocker).
Sheriff Joe, recently seen riding in a tank with Steven Seagal (no, really) because I guess that's every wingnut's dream of what American justice should look like, and more recently seen creating a "posse" to investigate President Obama's birth certificate for the eleventy-hundredth time because that, too, is every wingnut's dream of how their local sheriff should be pissing away his time, is if nothing else costing Maricopa County residents mountains of money. Lawsuits galore, and now the distinct possibility of the loss of more federal funds, and still more investigations are pending. As a result of the Justice Department findings, the Department of Homeland Security has already taken one notable action:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is troubled by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) findings of discriminatory policing practices within the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust. DHS will not be a party to such practices. Accordingly, and effective immediately, DHS is terminating MCSO’s 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office access to the Secure Communities program. DHS will utilize federal resources for the purpose of identifying and detaining those individuals who meet U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) immigration enforcement priorities.
It's likely that more action will be forthcoming. The Justice Department has stated that if Arpaio's department can't come to agreement with them on how to fix the problems, they'll sue to fix them. No word, alas, on possible criminal repercussions for Sheriff Joe and the other offenders in his department, which is a shame because seeing Arpaio in his own handcuffs would be a sweet, sweet sight.