CBS 5’s nearly 10-minute segment on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s abuse of power last night did not disappoint. Essentially, reporter Morgan Loew and producer Gilbert Zermeno laid out all of the major cases of retaliation by the MCSO against the sheriff’s political opponents: Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley, Phoenix Mayor Phil…
Is Sheriff Joe “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” or “America’s Biggest Wimp”? That’s what I can’t help wondering as I read this latest press release from his PR staff. It lamely attempts to link the folks who protest Joe almost daily outside downtown Phoenix’s Wells Fargo Building — where Arpaio keeps two…
Everyone’s seen the recent Cronkite/Eight numbers showing that Sheriff Joe Arpaio remains popular in Maricopa County, with a 61 percent approval rating overall, and a 65 percent positive rating of those with an opinion. The same poll showed Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard with a 55 percent approval rating statewide…
LOCAL HEROES Ever since the MCSO’s contract for police services with the town of Guadalupe was renewed earlier this year, a small band of residents of the square-mile town has sought to monitor the interaction of sheriff’s deputies with Guadalupanos. A month and a half ago, these half-dozen or so…
Editor’s note: This is one of a group of individual accounts of racial profiling by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s forces. Fili Gaucin is a bright 12-year old, an American citizen born in this country who, like most boys his age, likes to play video games and watch TV. In fact, Fili,…
In doing research on Chris Simcox — the minuteman posterboy currently waging a quixotic campaign for the 2010 GOP U.S. Senate primary nod against the ancient, lizard-skinned Senator John McCain — I came across an odd exchange of legal paperwork between Simcox’s current wife Alena, and Alena’s mother Barbara Lang-Lyras…
CBS 5’s tantalizing promo for their Thursday report Set the DVR this Thursday night for KPHO CBS 5’s 10 p.m. newscast, which will feature an eight minute mini-documentary on Sheriff Joe’s abuses of power while in office. The award-winning team of producer Gilbert Zermeno and reporter Morgan Loew boasts sources…
The third time’s the charm, and according to civil rights leader Salvador Reza of the Puente Movement, the pleasure will be ours January 16 as Rage Against the Machine/One Day as a Lion frontman Zack de la Rocha returns to the Arizona capital to lead a National Day of Action…
Dressed in black battle dress, helmet, and wielding a bullhorn featuring a smiley face with a Hitler mustache, Mesa neo-Nazi J.T. Ready helped lead a group of about 20 National Socialist Movement members in a rally held in Riverside, California on Saturday. Local press estimated that the 20 sieg heil-ing…
I’m hearing rumblings that local anarchists may show up to greet National Socialist Movement neo-Nazis on November 7, when the Hitler-wannabes show up for their shindig on the State Capitol lawn. Some anarchists have been telling me off-the-record that they plan an action of some sort to show NSM Commander…
In a mentally-challenged media stunt, made more so by the ravings of Rhode Island redneck Lt. Joe Sousa, Sheriff Joe’s self-described unit commander for human smuggling, MCSO’s 287(g) task force members placed their ICE agent badges in a punch bowl for cameras Thursday. This, so Sheriff Joe and his top…
For those who didn’t catch it, here’s the segment from Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN last night, which featured a face-off between Sheriff Joe and Isabel Garcia, Pima County Legal Defender and Co-Chair of the human rights organization Coalición de Derechos Humanos. The mini-debate followed a report by Soledad O’Brien…
OBAMA’S VICTIMS Next time President Barack Obama comes whistling through Ari-bama, we should greet him with a new ditty: “Hail to the Profiler in Chief.” Because for all the highfalutin speechifying, all the promise of change, Obama has waffled on one thing you’d think would be a top priority for…
I give the MCSO points for trying. Ever since the sheriff’s office cited a non-existent law and text from a nativist Web site to justify its claim of federal authority after being stripped of 287(g) street power by ICE, the MCSO’s been attempting to walk the conversation backwards and extricate themselves from…
I dialed up the venerable Phoenix costume and party supply store Easley’s Costumes and Fun Shop to see if they had one of the illegal alien outfits currently causing a stir, and if anyone was raising Cain about it. I spoke with one of the owners Carol Easley, and she…
This comedy regarding Joe Arpaio’s supposed legal authority to question people on the street about their immigration status is reaching epic proportions, like some Monty Python sketch gone awry. Our geriatric top gendarme recently told Channel 12 News that he will seek a legal opinion on whether or not he has 287(g) authority without…
Here’s the latest walnut of wisdom from Maricopa County’s tin-pot tyrant of a sheriff, courtesy of CBS 5/KPHO. It pretty much falls in line with many of the dumb as dirt statements Arpaio’s made on Glenn Beck and elsewhere recently regarding how he will magically pinpoint illegal aliens during his…
Embedded video from CNN VideoOn Friday’s Rick Sanchez show on CNN, Immigration and Customs Enforcement head John Morton made it sound like the link between Arpaio and ICE was forever severed — that ICE would no longer have anything to do with Arizona’s corrupt top constable.According to Morton, Arpaio’s sweeps…
Federal District Judge David Campbell today denied a motion to dismiss the indictments against white supremacist twin brothers Dennis and Daniel Mahon, who are charged in connection with the 2004 package bombing of Scottsdale’s Office of Diversity and Dialogue Director Don Logan. Lawyers for the Mahons alleged that the pair’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights had…
ABC15 is reporting that the MCSO will be conducting its latest Hispanic-hunting sweep in Surprise today. Apparently, Joe will be holding a press conference at 5 p.m. at his command post at the sheriff’s substation at Dysart and Bell Roads. The operation begins at noon, with the usual 200 deputies and posse…
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency finally made its official announcement today regarding signatories to its controversial 287(g) program, and there were no surprises. Of the 55 new agreements approved by ICE, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office is one. As expected, the MCSO scored a new jails agreement. Its street authority…
Stung by criticism from yours truly this past Sunday when I pointed out that Sheriff Arpaio had cited a nonexistent law as the legal justification for his anti-immigrant, down-on-the-brown sweeps, the MCSO has just sent out an e-mail admitting their fumble, and attempting to right it. Problem is, they end…
