Well, if this doesn’t cost Arizona Republican Joe Arpaio re-election next month, probably nothing will. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would charge Arpaio with criminal contempt of court for violating a judge’s orders to curtail his department’s unconstitutional racial profiling practices. A trial is tentatively set for after the election in December. If found guilty, Arpaio could face jail time.
Arpaio has been sheriff of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, since 1993. In that time, he’s earned a notorious reputation for mistreating prisoners, including serving them discolored green and blue meat, forcing them to wear pink underwear, and sending them to live in tents, where he’s bragged that temperatures could reach 145 degrees in the summer heat. Arpaio has also wasted taxpayer money on his quest to “investigate” President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, and he still refuses to accept its legitimacy, even after Donald Trump left him stranded on Birther Island.
But what got Arpaio into trouble this time is a racial profiling suit. As the Arizona Republic describes, the case began in 2007, when a Mexican tourist legally visiting Arizona was detained by Arpaio’s deputies. The lawsuit grew to include other Latinos who said they were profiled or detained while doing nothing wrong. In 2013, a federal judge, Murray Snow, ruled that Arpaio’s department was illegally targeting Latinos, and he ordered reforms. But Arpaio was found to have repeatedly violated the order, and in May of this year, Snow held Arpaio and three of his aides in civil contempt. Later, Snow recommended that Arpaio be charged with criminal contempt, and now prosecutors have followed suit.
This November, Arpaio faces a rematch with Democrat Paul Penzone, whom he defeated by a 51-45 in 2012, the tightest of Arpaio’s career. Arpaio is very well-funded and Maricopa usually is a reliably GOP area. However, last month a Democratic poll showed Penzone up 53-44, and Republicans haven’t responded with contradictory numbers. This was already going to be a competitive and closely-watched race, and after Tuesday, Penzone has a new argument to make to conservative voters who are tired of Arpaio.
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