Posts Tagged ‘Sheriff Joe Arpaio’
DOJ Puts Sheriff Arpaio on Notice. Who Will Put the DOJ on Notice?
11:02 am By Maegan La Mala · Justice|U.S.-Mexico Border · No Comments
11 May 2012The US Department of Justice is attempting to position itself as tough on racial profiling and violations.
While its arguments in front of the Supreme Court last week against parts of Arizona’s SB1070 were more about asserting the DOJ’s power to enforce immigration laws than insuring the rights of others, especially Latinos, race and ethnicity was an unspoken subtext.
Most recently the U.S. Justice Department kept the pressure on Arizona by targeting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Following a breakdown in negotiations pushing for his police department to be monitored because of racial profiling allegations, yesterday the department announced its intent to sue. The DOJ is seeking to federally monitor Arpaio’s practices including targeting Latinos (or those perceived as Latinos) for unjustified traffic stops and arrests and prioritizing low level immigration offenses over investigating a backlog of sexual assault cases.
While federal oversight of Arpaio’s office is long overdue (just do a search with Arpaio’s name in our own search box to see for yourself), the question that remains unanswered is how to we get the Federal Justice Department to monitor themselves?
So far the Federal Justice Department has refused to investigate the death of Anastasio Hernández-Rojas or any other death that has occurred on the U.S. Mexican border at the hands of Border Patrol. Some organizations, politicians like Senator Robert Menendez, Reps. Raul Grijalva, Xavier Becerra, Jared Polis and Lucille Roybal-Allard, and individuals are putting pressure on Attorney General Eric holder to open an investigation of all killings committed by the Border Patrol since 2010. Yesterday the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security also demanding an investigation into border patrol related deaths.
If the Department of Justice is interested in doing more than just flexing it’s muscle to show states Federal supremacy, than it needs to take a look at how the U.S. Border Patrol treats both U.S. and Mexican citizens like Anastasio. Otherwise it’s hard to believe that Eric Holder is interested in anything resembling justice.
Arizona’s Deadly Example : Arming and Shooting to Kill at the Border
9:03 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|U.S.-Mexico Border · 7 Comments
1 Apr 2011When Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited the U.S./Mexico border at Texas last week, it was to assure people that the border is safe, thanks to the deployment of armed troops. Safety is relative however, and it seems is dependent on who you are, meaning your ethnicity and the perception of your legal status. Just ask the family of Carlos de la Madrid, a U.S. citizen who was shot in the back by U.S. Border Patrol while climbing a fence into Mexico. What happened echoes other shootings of young men at the border by Border Patrol, with reports of rocks being thrown being met with bullets. The video report below is valuable for the interviews with the widow of de la Madrid and an activist from Border Action Network, who point out the Border Patrol’s policy of shooting to kill and the often used justification for such action, illegal activity such as drugs.
Con la Vista al Voto : Sheriff Joe’s Latino Voter Suppression Army
6:54 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Con la Vista al Voto|Immigration|Midterm Elections 2010|Politics · 2 Comments
31 Oct 2010Con la Vista al Voto : From now until election day 2010, VivirLatino is going to have at least one post a day looking at the midterm elections and issues around the election including policy and the much hyped Latino vote.
As if things in Arizona, especially in Maricopa County, weren’t hard enough for Latinos, Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced on Friday:
“STOP ILLEGALS FROM STEALING THE ELECTION! Our grassroots army of VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS will stand vigilant across the nation. We will be the first and strongest line of defense to ensure that only legal citizens vote on November 2nd.”
We already know that Sheriff Joe decides who is and isn’t legal by looking at who looks Latino. And while the part of SB1070 that allows for asking for people’s papers based on their ethnicity, alleging voter fraud is just an attempt to make Latinos walk around with their “papers” and to intimidate people who may be voting against Jan Brewer.
Almost immediately after Arpaio’s shout out, America’s Voice launched a petition targeting Attorney General Holder, demanding that he send election monitors to Arizona.
On Friday afternoon, the Justice Department announced that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 400 federal observers and department personnel to 30 jurisdictions in 18 states for the Nov. 2, 2010, general election. One of those jurisdictions is Maricopa County in Arizona.
The other areas being monitored are:
o Autauga County, Ala.;
o Bethel, Alaska;
o Apache and Navajo Counties, Ariz.;
o Riverside County, Calif.;
o Randolph County, Ga.;
o Kane County, Ill.;
o Salem County (Penns Grove), N.J.;
o Cibola and Sandoval Counties, N.M.;
o Cuyahoga County, Ohio;
o Shannon County; S.D.; and
o Dallas, Fort Bend, Galveston and Williamson Counties, Texas.
o Maricopa County, Ariz.;
o Alameda County, Calif.;
o Seminole County, Fla.;
o Honolulu, Hawaii;
o Neshoba County, Miss.;
o Colfax County, Neb.;
o Passaic County, N.J.;
o Orange County, N.Y.;
o Lorain County, Ohio;
o Philadelphia, Pa.;
o Bennett and Todd Counties, S.D.;
o Shelby County, Tenn.; and
o Harris County, Texas.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Jail
6:38 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Phoenix · 4 Comments
14 Oct 2010
Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio (yup he’s still around) was trying to not fix the inhumane conditions inside the jails within his jurisdiction as ordered by a lower court’s ruling. The court ruled that jails in Maricopa County do not meet constitutional minimums when it comes to food quality and housing conditions for inmates on psychotropic drugs. Yesterday, The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s appeal of the 2008 U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake’s decision.
Now Arpaio must end severe overcrowding and ensure all detainees receive necessary medical and mental health care, be given uninterrupted access to all medications prescribed by correctional medical staff, be given access to exercise and to sinks, toilets, toilet paper and soap and be served food that meets or exceeds the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines. Basically, the judge ordered that yes Sheriff Joe, the incarcerated are humans and need to be treated as such.
The ACLU proved at the 2008 trial that the sheriff routinely abused pre-trial detainees at Maricopa County Jail by feeding them moldy bread, rotten fruit and other contaminated food, housing them in cells so hot as to endanger their health, denying them care for serious medical and mental health needs and keeping them packed as tightly as sardines in holding cells for days at a time during intake.
Via / AZ Central and the ACLU
Image Via / SPLC
U.S. Dept. of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio
1:00 pm By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Immigration|Women · Comments Off
3 Sep 2010Yesterday morning, the United States Department of Justice announced the filing of a lawsuit against Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio over his refusal to cooperate with a federal civil rights investigation by refusing to turn over requested documents for a year and a half.
America’s Voice has done a great job of researching and compiling his numerous civil rights violations and how ineffective they are in the context of “serve and protect”.
INEFFECTIVE TACTICS
* Violent Crime Rates Rise Under Arpaio, Fall in Rest of Arizona
* Under Arpaio, 911 Response Time Increased, Arrest Rates Decreased
* Arpaio Admits He Arrests ”Very Few” Non-Hispanics
* Over 40,000 Un-served Felony Warrants
* Conservative Think Tank Report: Arpaio’s Policies are Ineffective, Harmful, and a Waste of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars
* Mesa Police Chief: Arpaio’s Approach Hurts Community SafetyOPERATING ABOVE THE LAW
* Arpaio Under Investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for Civil Rights Abuses
* Arpaio Under FBI Investigation for Using his Power to Intimidate Political Opponents
* Judge Says Conditions in Arpaio’s Jails “Violate the Constitution”
* 2,700 Lawsuits Filed Against Arpaio
* Federal Officials Take Away Arpaio’s Deputies’ Authority to Make Immigration Arrests, Arpaio Vows to Defy the Restriction
* Arpaio Threatens Attorneys with Criminal Charges for Criticizing Him
* Department of Labor Investigates Arpaio, Finds He Owes Employees $2M in Unpaid Overtime
* Arpaio Suspected of Misspending $50M in Taxpayer Funds, Refuses to Turn Over Records
* Advocates Awarded $475,000 for Civil Rights Violations by Arpaio Deputies
* Arpaio Stages Phony Murder Plot Against Himself, Accused Released for Wrongful Imprisnment, County Pays Over $1 Million to SettleINSPIRING TERROR IN LATINO COMMUNITIES
* Arpaio Marches Immigrants in Shackles to Tent City Surrounded by Electric Fence
* Arpaio Separates Mother from Kids for Unpaid Traffic Ticket
* Arpaio Conducts “Crime Suppression” Sweeps in Latino Communities
* Arpaio Forces Mother to Give Birth while Handcuffed to Bed
* Arpaio’s Deputies Deploy Heavy Duty Machine Guns
I.C.E Raids Two Sizzler Restaurants in Arizona
11:50 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Immigration · 5 Comments
14 Jun 2010This past weekend, I.C.E. raided two Sizzler restaurants in Phoenix after a disgruntled former employee contacted Department of Homeland Security.
The former manager said that he had been fired for refusing to hired undocumented worked. Not surprisingly, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office, who have moved ahead with the President’s immigration reform plan a.k.a detain and deport, celebrated this raid as a victory.
I.C.E was disappointed though that they could only detain 9 people as opposed to the 23 they had expected.
How much you want to bet that the other “suspected undocumented” people were Latino?
Thousands March for Immigrant Rights & Against Arpaio
10:14 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · arizona|Events|Immigration|Justice · 4 Comments
20 Jan 2010In Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday, thousands of people, including families with children, took to the streets, marching 3 miles, to reclaim their community against the racist and anti-migrant policing policies of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Jackie Mahendra of America’s Voice shared these images.
Texting to Avoid Arpaio
9:25 am By Maegan La Mala · arizona|Media|Tech · Comments Off
4 Jan 2010
Adding to the ways that we think technology should be used, Lydia Guzman, director of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group Respect/Respeto, has created a “text tree” system in Maricopa County, Arizona, to alert people of when Sheriff Joe Arpaio is conducting one of his infamous (and likely unconstitutional) street sweeps.
“Everyone is responsible for sending it out to their own networks, and that is how it spreads like wildfire,” Guzman said of the text messages.
This relative simple use of technology is more important to me than say, text lists that are being built by orgs to promote legislation. Not to knock that work but this is about the very immediate needs of communities and is something that can be replicated easily and is accessible to many. While not all Latinos are plugged into the internet, most do have cell phones and use text messaging.
Not surprisingly, Sheriff Joe and others are saying that such information sharing borders on illegal since the text messages could be construed as evading law enforcement. In fact during the RNC activists who used twitter to report on the moves of law enforcement, this was a charge levied.
I think this is something that all communities should try and replicate on some level in order to deal not just with raids and street sweeps but with other types of attacks against our community.
Via / LA Times
Gutierrez, Napolitano, & Arpaio : Whose Immigration Strategy Will Win?
3:05 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Justice|Politics · 1 Comment
24 Nov 2009I have been trying to write this post for days and every time I get to it there has been some additional speech or statement made on comprehensive immigration reform, but statements, speeches and sound bites don’t policy or practice changes make. Where do the recent statements come from different parts of the U.S. Government intersect and where do they differ and most importantly where do they accurately deal with the reality of the millions of undocumented?
Last week, More than 60,000 people joined a call & held more than 1,000 house parties across 45 states, to listen to 3 members of Congress including the headliner, Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Under the Reform Immigration For America campaign umbrella, tens of thousands people mobilized directly via a new cell phone action network.
Shackled While Giving Birth “Illegally”
2:25 pm By la Macha · Health|Immigration|Women · 1 Comment
23 Nov 2009via Latina.com comes the latest news of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “law enforcement.”
The most recent atrocity committed by the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” involves a woman who was detained while 9-months pregnant. Alma Minerva Chacon’s case has been receiving media attention due to the brutality with which she was treated. The very same night of her arrest, Chacon went into labor and found herself afraid and alone, being rushed to a local hospital with her hands and legs chained in shackles.
Once she reached the hospital, nurses repeatedly begged the Sheriff’s staff to allow them to unchain the mother, but they refused and Chacon was forced to give birth while still shackled to the bed. At one point, the nurse asked for them to release her so that she could be escorted to the bathroom for a urinalysis, but even that request was denied. But the worst came once Chacon gave birth to her baby girl.
Still chained to the bed, Arpaio’s police staff refused to allow Chacon to hold her newborn baby and then warned her that if no one came to pick up the child within 72 hours, she would be turned over into state custody. Telemundo 52 sat down with Chacon and let her tell her side of the story. Check out the interview below and if you don’t support Sheriff Arpaio’s barbaric practices sign the petition at www.SheriffJoeMustGo.com
Let’s say this woman did commit the most violent of violent offenses. Let’s say she killed five border patrol agents as she illegally crossed into the U.S.. And then spit on their bodies as she crossed past them.
Does she deserve to be shackled while giving birth? Are there no standards of humanity that the U.s. government must hold itself to? When you commit a crime–are you suddenly devoid of humanity? Entitled to no human rights at all?
This horrific practice doesn’t just happen to undocumented workers, either.
Hola!
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