The Sheriff Joe Arpaio thread- Merged

[Gunner]

This has been posted before but it is making its way around Camp Julien and its a good read (particularly the last line)

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!!

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails.

Took away their weights.

Cut off all but â Å“Gâ ? movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only let in the Disney channel and the weather >channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain >gangs.


He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them - this is a good one - â Å“This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back.â ?

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports:  About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surrounded tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government-issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before.

Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks.  â Å“It feels like we are in a furnace,â ? said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 1/2 years. â Å“It's inhumane.â ?

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long  ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna  sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: â Å“It's 120 degrees in Afghanistan and Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too,  and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes  so shut your mouths.â ?

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) is doing it RIGHT!

 

[Slim]

Loved the article. I wish there were more like him.

I hope you don't catch any flack from some of the more "liberal" members here.

Slim

 

[Korus]

I don't think prisoners should be treated like that. They should be pampered with all the comforts of a free life, except not have to pay for it like we do.  :
<Cough> <Cough>
</sarcasm>

I think that's absolutley brilliant, good post!

 

[Scott]

I watched a television program about him and found it very informative. He's a deadly serious guy and doesn't take any crap from the inmates. He does have enemies though, and not just the prisoners. There were a few government officials who were out to get him because they felt that he had a bit too much power. Hell, I say give him more!! I only wish that we had some guys like that here in our own country.

Just thoughts

Cheers

 

[Goober]

...
He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked up the cable TV again but only let in the Disney channel and the weather >channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied, so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain >gangs.
...

lol my favourite part. I think I remember seeing a small story on him on American Justice or one of those AofE programs. Great article.

 

[muskrat89]

I have met Sheriff Joe, and am very familiar with his policies. When I moved to Phoenix, the first time my Dad came to visit, I was thinking of things for him to do. Dad was a former Provincial Jail Superintendant (Warden), and a big fan of the Sheriff's - even had his book. Well, I called the Sheriff's office, and asked if he received visitors. To make a long story short, I arranged for an hour long meeting for myself and Dad, with Sheriff Joe. In addition, the Sheriff's Office arranged for a tour of the now famous "tent city". He was very entertaining, and it made for an interesting day for my Dad. The Sheriff signed his book, and autographed some posters for my daughter.

The Sheriff is very much a ham, press hound, and flamboyant. The Maricopa County Sheriff's department actually owns an M109 (they use it for DARE demos). I had a letter to the editor published in the Phoenix daily, after they erroneously kept calling it a "tank". Recently, he purchased a .50 Cal for the Department..

I now live in a new County, and have gotten to know this Sheriff very well, also. I wouldn't say they are bitter enemies, but there is certainly no love lost, between the 2. Sheriff Vanderpool makes a very good point - the problem with tents is that where there are inmates, there needs to be staff. The Staff hasn't done anything that they deserve to work in 110 degree heat (right, Bruce?)

The Sheriff is now facing a bitter re-election battle. In the past, they have been cake-walks. This time, I'm not even sure that the Republicans will nominate him - to the angst of many of the voters.

My own opinion? Some of his policies are good, some are not. His grandstanding sometimes clouds his objectivity...

 

[Ranger]

Very good post. I loved it!

 

[Yrys]

'Toughest Sheriff' takes act to small screen

HOLLYWOOD, California (CNN) -- Reality television featuring law enforcement officers
on the beat is nothing new. A show featuring a lawman who makes jailed inmates wear
pink underwear and uses actors to trick suspects, however, is a new twist. Maricopa
County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- whose showy brand of justice has raised charges
of discrimination and civil-rights abuses while making him a hero among fans of his
tough-on-crime attitudes -- will star in "Smile: You're Under Arrest."

The show, which premiers this weekend on Fox Reality Channel, features Arpaio and
other officers using elaborate ploys crafted by comedy writers and carried out by
professional actors to arrest suspects with outstanding warrants.

In one, a suspect is invited to a fake fashion shoot and told he's going to become
a supermodel, according to Fox Reality's Web site. In another, a suspect is tricked
into what he thinks is a job as a movie extra and, after a staged argument between
the film's "director" and another actor, gets promoted to the starring role.

"It's kind of fun to show how stupid they are and, as I say, the looks on their face,"
Arpaio, 76, said of the suspects wanted for DUIs, drug charges, missed court dates
and other offenses. But Arpaio's critics aren't amused.

They say they fear the show will give the controversial sheriff positive publicity,
ignoring what they call a darker side to his 16-year tenure as top lawman in the
county that includes Phoenix. "It's going to celebrate a sheriff that's frankly
scaring this community, a sheriff that has seen violent crime increase significantly
in his county, a sheriff that is racially profiling the Latino community, and I doubt
that the show is going to reflect that," said Paco Fabian, spokesman for the
immigrant-rights group America's Voice.

In a statement on the group's Web site, Fabian calls Arpaio a "modern day Bull
Connor," comparing him to the public safety commissioner in 1960s Birmingham,
Alabama, whose use of attack dogs and firehoses on civil rights demonstrators
made him a symbol of racial intolerance.


Dubbed "America's Toughest Sheriff," Arpaio makes many of his county's 10,000
or so inmates live in tents. He reinstituted chain gangs -- including crews for
women and juveniles -- banned smoking, coffee and movies in his jails and,
most recently, moved to require all inmates with money in their jail accounts
to pay for their own meals.

And then, of course, there's the pink underwear.

"They were stealing the white underwear, smuggling the underwear out of the
jail," Arpaio told CNN. "So you know what? Give them pink. The other reason
is they hate pink. Why would you give the 10,000 inmates the color they like?"

Earlier this year, the mayor of Phoenix wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general's
office, asking the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to
investigate Arpaio's aggressive illegal immigration crackdowns. Mayor Phil Brown
wrote that Arpaio's sweeps show "a pattern and practice of conduct that includes
discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests."

The letter came after Arpaio, who had already been the target of hundreds of
lawsuits, launched a series of what he calls crime-suppression patrols in largely
Latino neighborhoods. Critics say the patrols use racial profiling to unfairly target
Hispanic drivers and pedestrians, while Arpaio says they have resulted in the
deportation of hundreds of illegal immigrants, including some with criminal records.

"We are the only ones cracking down on the state's human smuggling law," Arpaio said.

Fabian said America's Voice is considering putting pressure on companies that advertise
during Arpaio's show. Either way, the series offers another moment in the spotlight for
a lawman who has never shied away from it.

"I'm not going to brag," Arpaio said, "but there isn't anybody in the world who doesn't
know who this sheriff is."

 

[GAP]

He reinstituted chain gangs -- including crews for
women and juveniles -- banned smoking, coffee and movies in his jails and,
most recently, moved to require all inmates with money in their jail accounts
to pay for their own meals.

And then, of course, there's the pink underwear.

"They were stealing the white underwear, smuggling the underwear out of the
jail," Arpaio told CNN. "So you know what? Give them pink. The other reason
is they hate pink. Why would you give the 10,000 inmates the color they like?"

I think that would work very well here also, but do we have anybody in the system who has the guts?

 

[1feral1]

The Sheriff is well know down here too, anyone with FOXTEL has watched his shows.  ;D

I would vote for him, regardless of his grandstanding, IMHO he gets results, and one would be nuts to re-offend in his country.

OWDU

 

[The Bread Guy]

Just spotted this - USA DOJ appears to be investigating whether some of his team's "round up the illegals" work "violate(s) federal civil rights laws".  This, from the Phoenix Business Journal:

The Obama administration is looking at whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration sweeps violate federal civil rights laws.  The U.S. Justice Department notified Arpaio of the investigation in a letter saying his enforcement methods may unfairly target Hispanics and Spanish-speaking people.  Arpaio previously said he welcomed an investigation by new U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The sheriff says he enforces the law fairly....

No official news release on the DOJ site yet, but here's a little bit more from the Arizona Republic and the Associated Press.