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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWait, Do people actually know just how evil this man is?
by NATHAN J. ROBINSON
If you are a Trump supporter, the president has just pardoned Americas toughest sheriff, a man who was willing to fight illegal immigration using any means at his disposal. If you are a liberal, Trump has pardoned a despicable racist, a man who spent decades casually violating the civil liberties of Latinos. And if you are a balanced and neutral news organization, Trump has pardoned a controversial sheriff who faced accusations of abuse and defied a court order. These are the terms on which the debate about Arpaio is had: is he a vindictive bigot who neglected his prisoners or a steely lawman who dared to enforce immigration policy when the Feds wouldnt? (Perhaps well just call him polarizing.)
But none of these perspectives actually capture the full truth about Joe Arpaio. And I am worried that even those who detest Trump and are appalled by this pardon do not entirely appreciate the depth of Arpaios evil, or understand quite how indefensible what Donald Trump just has done is. Frankly I think even Trump may not fully realize the extent of the wrongdoing that he has just signaled his approval of. And I think its very important to be clear: the things Joe Arpaio is nationally infamous for, the immigration crackdown and the tent city, these are only the beginning. The word racist isnt enough. The word abusive isnt enough. Joe Arpaios actions over the course of his time in office were monstrous and sickening. As Arpaios officers were harassing, detaining, and beating citizens and non-citizens alike, with jail employees routinely calling inmates wetbacks or leaving them to die on the floor, Arpaio let hundreds of serious sexual abuse cases go uninvestigated, in one case resulting in a child being continually raped. He was not just a tough sheriff, but a cruel and incompetent one, faking clearance reports for serious crimes while abusing the power of his office to arrest and intimidate journalists, judges, and county officials. Some of Arpaios acts bordered on the psychopathic: in a deranged re-election plot, Arpaio oversaw a scheme to pay someone to attempt to assassinate him, even supplying the man with bomb-making materials, so that he could entrap the fake assassin and send him to prison, ruining the hapless mans life. Arpaio treated the Constitution with contempt, inflicting what the Mayor of Phoenix called a reign of terror upon the citys Latino community. Anybody with a hint of a conscience should be revolted by both Arpaios record and Trumps pardon.
Marty Atencio was a third-generation military veteran who had served in the Gulf War. Upon returning to civilian life, Atencio would struggle for years with schizophrenia and homelessness. In 2011, he was arrested for aggressive behavior outside a convenience store and taken to the Maricopa County Jail. The arresting officer noted that Atencio seemed to be suffering from a mental illness, and when he arrived at the jail he appeared off his rocker. Atencio informed jail staff that he was having suicidal thoughts and was placed in an isolation cell. Later, according to a lawsuit filed against the Sheriffs office, officers began to make fun of Atencios mental state, and when he refused an order to take his shoes off, closed in on Atencio and began beating and tasering him. They dragged Atencios unconscious body back to his cell, where he was stripped naked and left on the floor. His was found covered with bruises, lacerations and puncture marks, and would never regain consciousness. Atencio would be buried with full military honors, with Maricopa County having to cough up a large wrongful death settlement for his family.
During the more than two decades that Joe Arpaio served as sheriff of Maricopa County, overseeing the jail system, millions of dollars would be paid out in lawsuits over the deaths of inmates. In 1996, Scott Norberg died after being suffocated in one of Arpaios restraint chairs, after being descended on by fourteen guards beating, shocking, and suffocating [him]. They were, said an eyewitness inmate, like a pack of dogs. After the Sheriffs Office was accused of discarding evidence in the case, including the deceaseds crushed larynx, his family received an $8 million settlement. In 2015, Felix Torres was pulled over on his bicycle for riding the wrong way up the street, and found to be in possession of drug paraphernalia. While in jail awaiting trial, he was taken to the County Medical Center for severe stomach pain. Though Torres said he had a history of ulcers, doctors decided he had a hernia, and gave him a drug not recommended for people with ulcers. After being returned to jail, Torres, spent the next few days crying, writhing in pain, and begging guards to help him or take him to the hospital. Torres began banging on his cell door and asking for help, but an officer told him Youre bullshitting
go to sleep. On the night he died, Torres asked multiple officers for help, telling them he was dying. Youre fucking faking it, one replied. Torress family would receive $1 million. (And while it should make no difference, we might bear in mind that at the time of his death, Felix Torres was an innocent man.)
more
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/wait-do-people-actually-know-just-how-evil-this-man-is
dalton99a
(81,406 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)Really appreciates another evil sadistic bully.
enough
(13,255 posts)The true nature of Arpaio's sadistic racism is being described in articles like this. May this truth continue to hound Arpaio and Trump until and after they draw their last breaths.
BigmanPigman
(51,569 posts)and sleep walk through their lives until something directly effects them and hits them on the head like a flying 2×4 in a hurricane.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)stopbush
(24,393 posts)They have no idea what he actually did over the years.
It's the same way most Americans feel about Mothere Teresa, who was actually a horrible person who did nothing to help the dying, instead using them as fodder for her sick belief that watching others suffer would bring her closer to god.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)40 years of GOP identity politics has persuaded many white Americans that their race is being persecuted. So they support racist Arpaio because they perceive him as holding down brown people. It's disgusting.
Let's roll up our sleeves, resist organize and vote.
kerry-is-my-prez
(8,133 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)Therein lies the rub.
superpatriotman
(6,247 posts)Movies made about the psychotic scumbaggery that is ex-Sherrif Jose.
oppressedproletarian
(243 posts)thegoose
(3,115 posts)Has been given the power to take out his revenge on the entire fucking world.
disalitervisum
(470 posts)What does this say to them? It sure doesn't say much for trump's so-called "support" for law enforcement personnel, does it? Just like that deal about not being too careful when putting detainees in the car.
And the above poster hit the nail on the head about trump's motivation...all he wants is revenge on the whole world.
ret5hd
(20,483 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)The state authorities should also go after those deputies who were accessories to his crimes since they sadistically obeyed illegal orders.
Would'nt we like to see the sheriff and TRump share a cell?
sakabatou
(42,141 posts)ffr
(22,665 posts)66 million Americans have no place in his world. Hint, that's us.
broadcaster90210
(333 posts)The question is ... do they care?
Thunderbeast
(3,400 posts)Not just in Maricopa County.
Jails are the primary mental health facilities across the country. It is a dangerous, inhuman system.
My psychotic son was restrained by six jail guards, tazed, and put in isolation with no treatment or medications. This happened in "liberal" Portlandia!
He survived. After several months he turned things around.
Joe Arpio is an evil character. If Bull Connor were alive today, Trump would probably praise his "tough on the darkies" game plan.
Law enforcement and corrections is difficult, dangerous work. It takes a special skill set to both protect and defend while becoming skilled at de-escallating dangerois events.
These guys, however, are not alone in their brutality. As hard as we try, there are still too many jaded, angry individuals who are attracted to the field everywhere. We need to weed out the bigots and sadists.
Duppers
(28,117 posts)Excellent post.
byronius
(7,391 posts)A set-up arrest for a fake fight with off-duty deputies, off to the tent city, dead by morning. An honest reporter who had written an article critical of Arpaio.
Arpaio is more gangster than racist. Trump's a gangster too. It fits.
Major Nikon
(36,818 posts)...and announce it publicly. He was and is a sociopath who should have been locked up a long time ago. The fact that he's a hero of the right just goes to show how morally bankrupt they are.
classykaren
(769 posts)samnsara
(17,606 posts)...is the DOJ going to honor this? I read the person needs to have spent some time in jail before the pardon?
Initech
(100,043 posts)The guy had fucking cameras installed over the toilets so he could see the women do their business n and that was hijacked and broadcast over the internet! That's not casually violating civil rights!
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)he would approve.
RKP5637
(67,089 posts)Eyeball_Kid
(7,429 posts)Sailors died in collisions at sea. Trumpy? "Oh. That's too bad."
Trumpy is indeed absent of any empathy or even a responsibility to speak as the nation's voice regarding disasters. He couldn't give a shit.
Ah.. but Trumpy's Fanboys believe in his every word. They're fine with modeling their beliefs after him, so they ALSO don't give a shit about the suffering of others.
As an aside, I wonder why that sick fuck Ted Cruz, famous for wanting to withhold disaster relief funds for New Jersey during the Sandy disaster, isn't on the news shows telling all of us that his Texas constituents don't deserve disaster relief.
RKP5637
(67,089 posts)sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Stuart G
(38,414 posts)spanone
(135,795 posts)underpants
(182,632 posts)How horrible.
uponit7771
(90,304 posts)ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)SMoss
(112 posts)Maricopa Count crime rates went up every year he was sheriff while surrounding counties went down. Per capita cost to tax payers when up while surrounding counties went down. County legal costs went through the roof fighting all the law suits brought by resident US citizens and the Federal government.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)Trump is Arpaio.