the United States has attempted to secure Defendants’ voluntary cooperation with the United States’ investigation of alleged national origin discrimination in Defendants’ police practices and jail operations.
Despite notice of their obligation to comply in full with the United States’ requests for information, Defendants have refused to do so.
Defendants’ refusal to cooperate with reasonable requests for information regarding the use of federal funds is a violation of Defendants’ statutory, regulatory, and contractual obligations.
The complaint goes on, and lists an almost weekly refusal by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) which included this:
On July 7, 2009, Defendant Arpaio held a press conference and announced publicly that MCSO would not cooperate with the United States’ investigation, either by providing documents or permitting interviews with personnel.
Now, this is still America, and Sheriff Arpaio operates within a county and a state, so I would assume there would eventually be an order from that county or state to comply, and there was:
In a letter dated August 5, 2010, MCSO refused to cooperate in full with DOJ’s investigation of both MCSO police practices and jail operations.
On August 12, 2010, Maricopa County acknowledged the obligation of federal fund recipients to cooperate with DOJ investigations, and directed MCSO to fully cooperate in any DOJ Title VI inquiry.
MCSO responded to Maricopa County the next day and refused to comply with Maricopa County’s instruction.
Maricopa County has been unable to compel MCSO to produce all of the requested documents, and is unable to secure access to MCSO’s facilities and staff.
The county has been “unable to secure access to MCSO’s facilities and staff”.
Here’s the sheriff’s website. Sheriff Joe holds guided tours of his jail facilities.
Sheriff Arpaio has added a few improvements at the Tents Jail, including two Sky Watch Towers for security, stun fences around the perimeter, and facial recognition computer software for inmate identification. K-9 units and patrol deputies have been added for additional security. The Classification Unit conducts background checks on inmates before they are housed in the tents, so that dangerous or predatory individuals are not placed there.
Scheduling tours: Group tours of the internationally famous Tents Jail can be scheduled in advance by calling: 602-876-5551
. Adults only (ages 18 and over)
. Tours will be conducted by Tents jail staff
. Group size: up to 20 adults
. Time and date availability to be determined by Tents Jail Administration
. Dress standards apply. (Business casual is appropriate.)
He won’t allow the county to secure DOJ access, but he’ll allow “tours” as long as Tents Jail Administration control when you’re in there and what you see and you’re wearing business casual.
Bobby Thomson
That’s contempt. Asshole should be in irons in his own jail.
And it bears repeating that we fought a war over the states’ rights thing and his side lost.
Chad S
He’s stonewalling because there’s multiple fed grand juries investigating him and his DA lackey friend for a number of crimes(including conspiracy against the local judical system).
Kay
@Chad S:
I saw that. Does he really control that county? Seems like it.
I would ask where the governor is, but…I’m not sure she knows.
Zifnab
It’s like some kind of fascist Disney World.
burnspbesq
Where is the flippin’ US Attorney? OSC re contempt should be a slam dunk. Let Arpaio come before a United States District Judge and pull this shit. I’d pay money to watch that.
I’ve seen OSC hearings related to enforcement of IRS summonses for documents. The judge tells the taxpayer, either bring the documents or bring your toothbrush.
Arpaio deserves nothing less.
arguingwithsignposts
@Bobby Thomson:
I think the word I’m looking for is “sedition.” He should be at Gitmo.
Scott de B.
A nation falls when its government is no longer able to enforce its own laws in the area under its jurisdiction.
ppcli
If I am remembering right, this is the guy whose deputy was caught on video blatantly walking up to a defense attorney’s table and reading her notes while she was up at a podium addressing the judge. The attorney was speechless when she realized what the deputy was shamelessly doing, and the judge did nothing. I don’t remember hearing anything about sanctions either.
Martin
Can we deport him to Mexico instead? I’d rather the taxpayer not pick up the tax bill, and I think there are some folks south of us that’d like to talk to him.
Mnemosyne
Joe Arpaio has a habit of arresting his critics without cause and, sadly, it seems as though the local judges never seem to sanction him for it. The county DA drops the charges and that’s it.
Shrillhouse
Arpaio seems to think he’s a real-life Colonel Kurtz.
You know, “Apocalypse Now” is a pretty long movie. Is it possible that he never watched it all the way through?
Jager
From a report by America’s Voice:
Violent crime rates are up in Arpaio’s jurisdiction while they have fallen throughout the rest of Arizona.
Arpaio has failed to serve over 40,000 felony warrants. Arpaio is suspected of misspending $50 million in taxpayer funds and has refused to turn over records for an investigation.
Over 2,700 lawsuits have been filed against Arpaio and he’s been investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor.
Evidence exists that Arpaio forced an undocumented mother to give birth while handcuffed to a bed.
El Tiburon
TOTALLY OFF TOPIC:
But can someone make note of the ease in which Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod were canned in wake of right-wing outrage, yet Alan Simpson continues to chug full steam ahead after offending everyone except the teatards.
Thank you and good night.
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
It must be terrifying to live there.
I’ll take my chances with the criminals, thanks, rather than deal with Rogue Sheriff Joe and his volunteer posse.
Alice Blue
@ppcli: Not only did the deputy read her notes, he stole a file in full view of the court. As far as I can remember, I don’t think the deputy even got a symbolic slap on the hand.
Michael
There’s guys on the internet who say that a county sheriff is the mostest superiorical law enforcement officer in his jurisdiction, and that accortiing to the constimatooshinalistical doctrine handed down from England, can tell Federal officers to go piss up a rope in his fiefdom.
There are a disturbing number of cracker trash oldsters who believe this wholeheartedly, I shit you not.
All the internet has done has been to facilitate the distribution of porn, sex toys, and help the McLaren/Freemen/Michigan Militia disseminate their stupid bullshit to a wider crowd that is predisposed to acceptance of their more droolishly batshit ideals.
Martin
@El Tiburon: Shirley and Van Jones were black. Even in post-racial America, white privilege rules the day.
b-psycho
@Michael: You mean the “Posse Comitatus” nuts? Yeah, Joe is damn near Jeebus in their eyes.
Linda Featheringill
In any of the other 49 states, when a county loses control of a sheriff or any other local law enforcement official, the state police is sent in to gain control. For state police I am thinking of the highway patrol but the actual organization might differ by state.
Apparently, Arizona did not send their highway patrol to take control of the sheriff.
Ergo, not only has the county failed to perform, Arizona is a failed state.
So what should the rest of us do? Occupy the territory for the safety and well being of the residents?
Martin
@Michael: Yeah, the wingnut shitstorm that will follow the arrest of sheriff Joe will rival anything in the Old Testament. It will be glorious to watch from my wingnut-free OC bunker.
mcmillan
@ppcli:
Yep, it’s the same place. The judge ordered the officer to publicly apologize, which even that minor punishment was refused. You made me curious to see how things turned out and did some more searching. Looks like just a few weeks ago it was changed to ordering a course on attorney client privilege.
burnspbesq
In the movies, the way this would play out is that the heroic young AUSA (played by Parminder Nagra) would walk into Arpaio’s office (Arpaio played by Jack Nicholson), and say the following, in a really overdone Indian accent:
“Sit down and shut up, you fat piece of shit. I am the fucking United States of America, and you are nobody. You’re done. Here – you’re served. See you in court.”
Alas, life is rarely as much fun as the movies.
Suffern Ace
I find this guy to be one of the darkest law enforcement characters who gets national attention currently and his practices of intimidation of officials are going to be tough to crack. He will win the war of the press over his “persecution.” The numb nuts on the national circuit canonized him long ago as the straight shooter who puts prisoners in pink underwear, a reference that the national media can’t seem to get enough of whenever they profile him. Pink Underwear, Ha, ha, ha.
The Moar You Know
Obama can do what was done during the school integration crises by Eisenhower: send in the Army, take over the county and enforce some fucking law. I’ll help with a suggestion – putting Joe Arapio in jail would probably be a good place to start.
Or he can do what we know he will do, which is to throw more paperwork and requests at the MCSO, which Gauleiter Joe will laugh at and roundfile, all the way up until the 2012 elections…because he’s afraid he’ll piss off all the Republicans that voted for him.
Someone needs to tell Obama that there are no Republicans that are going to vote for him this time around. Maybe he’d stop trying to get their votes if he knew that.
MattR
@Alice Blue: IIRC, the deputy had to say “I’m sorry” as his punishment.
Alice Blue
@ El Tiburon13: I mentioned this to my husband last night. This is the kind of thing that makes me head banging, hair pulling, screeching crazy.
@ Martin17: Bingo.
Chyron HR
@The Moar You Know:
LOL! Bettar dems, plox!
morzer
@Kay:
Headless chicken lady is probably bartering herself for healthcare as we speak.
Molly McRae
@Bobby Thomson:
Long time since I studied its history but I don’t recall Arizona being a Confederate State or actually a State at all during the Civil War. Also, I don’t think you’ll find many Arpaios in the muster rolls of either side.
Now it is quite true that sheriffs like Arpaio dominated Southern States post-Civil War but if you look closely, you will see that that style of governing is also quite popular with Banana Republics and other totalitarian states.
My point is that you would probably have greater success opposing that form of government here if you leave the Civil War out of your argument when it doesn’t belong.
Citizen_X
@burnspbesq: I was just thinking, didn’t Billy Jack kick this guy’s ass years ago? No? Well, he should have.
Or maybe Machete should pay him a visit. (Note that in that review, the movie is said to contain the line, “This state [Texas] runs on illegal immigration — it thrives on it.” Same’s true of Arizona–hell, all of America.)
Martin
@burnspbesq: Given it’s Arizona, I’d prefer to see something more Clint Eastwoodish.
Danny
This guy was on Hannity’s radio show last night. He and Hannity basically wanked off about how the federal government is attacking the states, and our real enemies are the Mexicans. How dare the federal government ensure that it’s mandates are being upheld! Don’t they know that Mexicans want to live here?!
Linda Featheringill
@The Moar You Know:
That would certainly make a lot of other people happy.
Face
There’s no way he’s obeying a court order, either. He’ll dare the Feds to put him in jail.
burnspbesq
@Martin:
There’s a role for a badass in my movie – the Special Agent in Charge of the Phoenix FBI office, whose guys mop the floor with Arpaio’s deputies at the end of the movie. I’m thinking Wes Studi is the right guy for the part. The director’s instructions to Studi are very simple: “Wes, you’re Magua in a suit.”
Church Lady
The thing that struck me is that they give tours, like it’s a flippin’ tourist attraction. WTF!
Martin
@The Moar You Know: It took a long time before Ike sent in the army. There was a fuckton of paperwork that lead up to it.
Personally, I take a fair bit of comfort that it’s a slow path for the national guard to be sent in to resolve a county issue. That said, I wonder why the DOJ hasn’t climbed up the state’s AG ass about this yet or sent the US marshals in to secure access.
Stillwater
Surreal. It’s like Lord of the Flies meets Apocalypse Now meets Jim Jones. Possibly meeting Waco. How the hell to people go this far off the rails? All of ’em.
This will either be permitted to continue, or it will end very violently.
Chad S
@Kay: They tried to intimidate some local judges by charging them with bribery charges. Its really complicated, but one judge(then a bunch of others) tossed out an investigation the Sheriff was doing on some political opponents, so they charged the first one with bribe receiving(they didn’t actually have any bribe proof in evidence) just so he couldn’t throw the case out a second time. On top of this, one of his deputies removed some documents from a defense attornies’ file and took them with him, refused to give them back(or apologize) and was found in contempt. The Sheriff backed the deputy as “just doing his job.”
Its a mess and the state doesn’t want to get involved because of how popular he is in-state, but I bet they’re cooperating with the Feds so that they can get rid of him.
Svensker
@Michael:
My cousin is one of them. Sheriff Joe is his hero (right after Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin).
kay
@Danny:
Well, he wasn’t too proud to take nearly 6 million in grants from those mean old feds, and as you recall his incessant whine is that the federal government won’t commit more paramilitary resources to his state, so as usual you run right into the fact that they’re full of shit on every level, and can’t utter a logically consistent paragraph.
It’s a tough ideology to follow. Doesn’t hang together.
debbie
@ Citizen_X:
It’s all about who’s the biggest manly man on the block, isn’t it? Like they say: The bigger the swagger, the smaller the dick.
Stillwater
@Face: There’s no way he’s obeying a court order, either. He’ll dare the Feds to put him in jail.
Exactly. That’s his whole game here – denying that the Feds have ‘jurisdiction’. It’s a win-win for him: either the Feds won’t use force to apprehend him (win!) or they do use force proving to Patriots that the Fed is a coercive institution denying Murkin’s their rights and freedom (win!).
But it’s gonna take the presence of some real firepower in Maricopa County to apprehend him, safely or otherwise.
Suffern Ace
@Molly McRae: I agree. There is a reason the feds are intervening and it’s not over who has the right to be more tyrannical or corrupt. The other side wants to run the “states rights” argument, but states aren’t supposed to be allowed to run roughshod over the court and legal systems that way.
ChrisNYC
@Kay: Ha! Good one!
Zifnab
I’m curious to find out how many folks got molested in those Tent Jails. Just eight years back Texas was neck deep in the YCC scandal, and those guys weren’t flipping federal judges the bird.
Turn this into a sex scandal and Arapio won’t last five minutes. And since prisons and sex abuse go together like laugh tracks on a bad sit com, it’s pretty much inevitable.
kay
@Chad S:
It’s just amazing to watch from the outside. I work within county courts and police agencies and we have had crooks, we had a recorder who was a thief, we had a muni court judge years ago who encouraged highway patrol to ticket within his jurisdiction and it was this HUGE deal. This seems completely out of control.
I have to laugh at the “popular” theme, too, because media personalities keep repeating it. Jesus. We POLL on these matters. If they POLL well, it’s no harm, no foul, I guess. What is wrong with them? What the hell does polling matter?
gex
@debbie: The need to dress prisoners in pink makes me think he might be a closet case as well.
morzer
@gex:
A closet the size of a prison camp. Maybe Sheriff Joe is the Imelda Marcos of Arizona law enforcement? Has anyone checked to see whether he has a collection of red Naughty Monkey pumps?
Martin
@gex: Not a closet case, just an authoritarian fuckwad. He’d be shoving them in ovens if he thought he could get away with it.
WereBear
So there you have it. Wingnuts prefer to dwell in a world that conforms to their dream, but actually sucks.
While liberals are the other way around.
@burnspbesq: Wes Studi can arrest my rogue sheriff anytime.
If you know what I mean.
BobS
In the meantime, I’m just avoiding the state altogether.
My wife and I had narrowed our vacation destination to either the Grand Canyon or the Olympic Peninsula and then BC. Our decision was swayed by the increasing resemblance of Arizona to Pinochet’s Chile.
ruemara
@El Tiburon:
Who cares?
Van Jones canned himself. Shirley Sherrod was canned by her boss-who is not Barack Obama.
Alan Simpson is the appointed republican member of a commission. He is not the LORD O’ ALL THE SOCHUL SEKURITEEZ.
Face
I’m curious to know how this would end. Say he’s indicted and ordered to show up in court, and he doesn’t. Is he so mind-blowing egotistical to order his deputies to “arrest” the feds? Would the feds have to draw arms to show their intent? How does one deal with a rogue sheriff so rogue as to ignore a summons?
dhd
What’s the likelihood that Sherrif Joe runs for President in 2012, wins, and ushers in a fascist dictatorship? It can’t happen here, right?
liberal
@Kay:
LOL!
El Cid
The incredibly, astoundingly corrupt, assassinating Federal Treasury Police in Mexico once were asked by then-President Zedillo to just tell him how many employees they had. The Treasury Police chief said, “Thanks for your inquiry, but we decline to give those statistics.”
Nice to know our sheriffs who so despise Mexico and Mexicans are copying the worst of Mexico’s police forces.
ruemara
@Face:
I hope your hypothetical will not be an actual that requires an answer. This petty tyrant scares me and yes, he does deserve gitmo.
liberal
@burnspbesq:
That’s only when you ignore all the political considerations (unfortunately).
kay
@liberal:
Seriously, though. What the hell is she running there? She’s lost control of a whole county? She was so busy running immigration policy and appearing on FOX she seems to have lost her train of thought on “governor”.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@Face:
The over/under on the DOJ having the balls to follow through on this is one. I’ll take the under.
Comrade Dread
@dhd: Slim to none.
The guy isn’t a national personality and would lose 100% of the Latino vote.
My money is on Newt or Princess Starbursts to be the nominee in 2012. Or hell, if the wankers in the press keep up the redemption of George Bush meme, Jed might take a crack at it.
Nadnerb in NC
@Face: Here’s the scene:
A Bradley fighting vehicle pulls up in front of Arpaio’s office, discharging armed Army/National Guard troops and Federal agents there to arrest him.
He is handcuffed and read his rights by a Hispanic female agent, placed in the back of the Bradley, and driven away. (While loading him into the vehicle, his melon is “accidently” bounced off the door frame (If they act like some of the cops in the town grew up near)).
/ dream sequence/
Ruemara @ 58 – While I mostly agree, a small part of me actually wants to see Arpaio try it.
Suffern Ace
@kay: In fairness to the current governor, she has only been there since Janet N. went up to DHS. It is not like all this stuff has taken place in the past two years since Janet was gone. This is the kind of corruption that requires a lot of people either joining in or expeniently ignoring.
@Face: The patriots don’t have their Ruby Ridge or Waco yet to hang on the Dems this time around. He does strike me as the kind of menace who would attempt to force his state out of the union before giving up his own personal power.
Zifnab
@Comrade Dread:
If either of them try, they’ll lose. Palin and Gingrich do WAY better insinuating that they might run for President maybe if they feel that they are truly needed blah blah blah, than they ever would in an open primary. Check wingnut hero Fred Thompson. The guy went down in flames. Likewise, FOX News Mayor-on-9/11 pick.
Palin and Gingrich are pundits. They’ll get eaten alive in fund raising and back room dealing. This is going to be a slugging match between Romney, Pawlenty, Barbour – the folks that actually have the backing of the party.
kay
@Suffern Ace:
True. My problem with the current governor is that I think she actually believes all that nonsense she rattles off about a crime wave, and I wonder who she relies on for information, what small circle of wingnuts.
I said it yesterday, but I have never heard a governor exaggerate statistics on violent crime before, particularly as she ran on “attracting business to the state”. It’s just weird. Governors generally promote how safe and appealing their state is, not make up stories about beheadings. It doesn’t make sense to me.
Comrade Dread
@Zifnab: Cross Romney off that list. He’s got the Mormon thing around his neck. Plus he was for TARP before he was against it. Also he was for state health care before he was against it.
Barbour is too new. They also kind of suspect since she might be one of them closet Mooslims, Hindus, whatevers. And she really seems to enjoy teh sex, so she’s also got that going against her.
Suffern Ace
@Comrade Dread: Comrade, I think you are confusing Haley Barbour the governor of Mississippi and former National GOP Chair with Nikki Haley, the governor candidate for South Carolina. God, I don’t want to think about Haley Barbour’s sex life.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@dhd:
He would be hailed as the next coming of Jeebus. I am afraid that if someone like Arpaio ran for president that he would get a hell of a lot of votes.
I believe that we are not immune from our own version of Hitler. Hitler was very popular when things were looking good for the Real Germans. It took a world war, millions of deaths and a public airing of his crimes to convince Germans that he was evil and even then there were/are apologists and deniers for him.
No, we are not immune. Real Criminals get arrested, jailed and hauled into court without hesitation and Arpaio breaks laws with impunity because he is the law. He runs that county with an iron fist and his admirers just love it. People love a dictator as long as that dictator is one of ‘them’ and Maricopa county proves it.
If it can happen at the local level then it can happen at the national level.
Comrade Dread
@Suffern Ace: Ah. So I was. Thank you. Sorry for the brain bleach inducing image.
BrianX
Molly McRae:
Actually, a sizeable chunk of Arizona and New Mexico were initially claimed by the Confederacy. The Union reclaimed most of it within a year, but it is what it is.
Plus, Southern Strategy — you’ve heard of this, right?
Suffern Ace
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Sherrif Joe is 79 years old and will be 81 in 2012. I know we elect senators that old all the time, but that would be pushing it. He is older than McCain.
As silly as this might sound, I think he might be UNUSUALLY corrupt, even by police standards and the problem is that he is also unusually immune from any scrutiny of the funds he spends, the arrests his department messes up and the blatant abuse of police power that he has.
Don’t get me wrong. We have our share of bad police departments, but he doesn’t represent the future of anything. I think he might even be unusual within Arizona. There are lots of people who are opposed to, say, illegal immigration, who haven’t been accused of misplacing millions of dollars.
catclub
@Suffern Ace:
Is there really anyone older than McCain?
binz
@Suffern Ace:
Goddammit. Too late.
I’ll be back when I’m done horking up my lunch…
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Suffern Ace:
While I think someone like Arpaio would get a disturbingly high number of votes, I don’t think he would stand a chance of winning. What I am saying is that if this can happen at a local level than it can happen at the national level. It would be much more difficult since we are 50 states rather than one block of a nation (as vote counting goes).
All bets are off in the case of an economic collapse though, that is where I think someone like Arpaio might be able to eke out a win at the national level. We like to joke about the 27%ers but that number is no joke. That 27% is doing everything they can to win, they want to do things their way. The ‘I want my country back’ bullshit will be mighty attractive to many people in the event of an economic collapse. I think the manic progressives and professional left are full of shit when they push their crap about not voting this fall. I vote to prevent shit like this from happening because I happen to give a shit about this country. All they care about is poutrage. We joke that the Republicans tell us how bad government is and then set out to prove it when they are in control of it. Another version of that joke is that the poutraged left bitches and whines about how fucked up everything is and then vows to stay home and not vote.
IMO, if someone doesn’t vote then they can STFU about politics because I couldn’t care less what they have to say. They are part of the problem, not the solution.
Malron
But-but-but he’s doing great things for prisoner rehabilitation by making inmates wear pink underwear in tent cities!
Yeah, fuck that guy.
debbie
What is it about the job of being sheriff (badge, fancy hat?) that turns a law officer into an off-the-reservation lunatic? There have been a couple of sheriffs in the central Ohio area who, while they may not have gone as far as Arpaio, definitely had be to reined in.
Catsy
Arpaio is scared witless. As in pants-wetting, shorts-loading, crazy-making scared. And it shows.
Think about it. This fascist shitheel has had his reign of terror racket going for almost 20 years now. For most of the last ten of those, he’s gotten used to the corrupt Bush DOJ turning a blind eye to his crimes. He’d gotten to the point where he thought he was untouchable. Now all of a sudden we have an increasingly functional Justice Department again, one which isn’t going to roll over for him. If any law enforcement organization that he can’t control gets ahold of his records and starts throwing their weight around, he’s fucked–and he knows he’s fucked.
The problem is that the only way he can prevent being crucified in the legal system is by withholding evidence of his crimes. His refusal to cooperate with the DOJ isn’t just megalomania, it’s desperation–and it’s crossed a line he can’t uncross now.
Arpaio is one of the biggest pieces of malignant filth to ever be given an undeserved position of authority, and I will be watching his fall with great pleasure.
Comrade Kevin
@Suffern Ace: Speaking of Hayley Barbour, did anyone see the segment on Rachel Maddow’s show yesterday? He is quite the idiot. Eugene Robinson really lets rip on him in it.
Mike Lamb
@Alice Blue:
The judge ordered the deputy to appear to explain what he did (or apologize, can’t remember which). Arpaio basically told the judge to eff off. On the day the deputy was supposed to appear, several deputies didn’t report for duty as a show of solidarity. That same day, a bomb threat was phoned into the court. You do the English on that one…
burnspbesq
@Catsy:
Agree, but in a state where Jan Brewer leads in the polls by almost 20 points, I’d advise against holding your breath while waiting for Arpaio to get what he deserves. Asphyxiation is no fun.
Molly McRae
@BrianX:
Southern Strategy?
The Republican one to woo Dixiecrats or the Democratic one that was adopted after they got their widdle fweelings hurt and abandoned the rest of the South, including the majority of the black population of the USA, to the tender mercies of the GOP. You can’t vote for a Democrat if none are on the ballot!
Spencer
I think if there is a movie about this shithead sheriff, it should be a tarantinoesque revenge flick where an immigrant woman forced to give birth tied to a bed spend 135 minutes hunting down the sheriff and his deputies and leaving their beheaded bodies in the desert.
Mnemosyne
@Molly McRae:
Yes, I can’t imagine why having an entire branch of your party switch to the other side might leave a party without an infrastructure to run candidates with. It must have been because pouty Democrats were upset about the Dixiecrats leaving and not because the Dixiecrats’ leaving left a big hole in the party where a bunch of Democrats used to be.
Lex
This, folks, is why no law-enforcement official should be elected.