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You are here: Home / Tough On Crime

Tough On Crime

by Kay|  September 23, 201012:49 pm| 38 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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The celebrity sheriff who exploited, demeaned and humiliated the people in his custody to promote his own career seems to have some legal problems:

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will have to use the general fund to repay as much as $64 million that county officials said Wednesday the Sheriff’s Office misused from a fund for jail operations. The county’s Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday unveiled its first evidence of misuse of public funds by the Sheriff’s Office, presenting key findings to the board after hundreds of hours of staff research.

Here’s his take on crime:

No other detention facility in the country, state or county can boast of 2,000 convicts in tents; no other county or state facility can boast of a gleaning program that results in costs of under 15 cents per meal per inmate; few others can say they have women in tents or on chain gangs and no other sheriff’s office in the United States today has a volunteer posse of 3,000 men and women, people from the community who spend their time and money to train to be volunteers helping to keep the county free from crime. Furthermore, Sheriff Arpaio has a philosophy of zero tolerance towards the criminal element, which has been embraced by deputies and community alike.

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Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    September 23, 2010 at 12:51 pm

    “Boast”? “Philosophy”?

    I do not think those words mean what you think they mean. Christ, what an asshole.

  2. 2.

    Citizen Alan

    September 23, 2010 at 12:53 pm

    There are people in this country, a lot of them, who venerate this psychopath. Literally venerate him. Sickening.

  3. 3.

    Culture of Truth

    September 23, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    Lindsey Graham is incredibly dangerous. That is all.

  4. 4.

    Scott P.

    September 23, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    To top it all off, crime in Maricopa County (outside of urban jurisdictions, in other words Arpaio’s turf) has been steadily increasing while dropping everywhere else.

  5. 5.

    Culture of Truth

    September 23, 2010 at 12:58 pm

    No other detention facility in the country, state or county can boast of 2,000 convicts in tents

    Um, why is crime so high in the country where he is Sheriff?

  6. 6.

    arguingwithsignposts

    September 23, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    Sheriff Arpaio has a philosophy of zero tolerance towards the criminal element.

    Funny, I can’t find that element in my periodic table. What’s the chemical designation for that?

  7. 7.

    Kay

    September 23, 2010 at 12:59 pm

    @Scott P.:

    It doesn’t really surprise me. He’s a cable tv clown, not a sheriff. Sheriffing is hard work.

    He should resign, mid-term, and go on the conservative speaker circuit. He’ll make millions on Tea Party events alone. That’s without book sales.

  8. 8.

    Chyron HR

    September 23, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    [N]o other sheriff’s office in the United States today has a volunteer posse of 3,000 men and women

    Why, you’d usually have to go to a third-world hellhole to find vigilante mobs that big roaming the streets!

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    September 23, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    Furthermore, Sheriff Arpaio has a philosophy of zero tolerance towards the criminal element, which has been embraced by except for deputies and community alike himself.

    Fixt. Who wants to bet that the main reason he’s been fighting tooth and nail to avoid releasing information to the Feds is that it proves how much money he’s been embezzeling?

  10. 10.

    Steve

    September 23, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    This guy has been the sheriff for 18 years. His tough-on-crime policies are legendary. Why do they still have crime in his county?

  11. 11.

    Violet

    September 23, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    No other detention facility in the country, state or county can boast of 2,000 convicts in tents;

    His facility being unique doesn’t mean it’s good. I don’t think he understands that.

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    September 23, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    @Steve:

    Why do they still have crime in his county?

    Because “tough on crime” is a dog whistle for “tough on brown people” rather than a serious commitment to do anything about crime. SATSQ.

  13. 13.

    El Cruzado

    September 23, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    Promise toughness, get elected, put on a big show, don’t bother with actual results, see crime increase, promise more toughness.

    Nice racket if you can pull it off.

    (not saying it’s all part of a dastardly conspiracy or even that he has the self-awareness to recognize that’s what he’s doing, but that IS what’s he’s doing).

  14. 14.

    Face

    September 23, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    seems to have some legal problems

    And the day he spends even 1 night in jail, I will send you $100.

  15. 15.

    Persia

    September 23, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    @Culture of Truth: I wish someone would add up the money that asshole is costing the state.

  16. 16.

    JAHILL10

    September 23, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    I want this guy to be sentenced to do his time in that tent city he is so proud of. And someone start measuring him for his pink pajamas.

    Instead this old, mean vicious crook will cry pity because of his age and probably get off with probation. Dick.

  17. 17.

    Martin

    September 23, 2010 at 1:09 pm

    How many prisoners have you waterboarded, sheriff? How many inmates have you subjected to witnessing their children get sodomized? You’ve got citizens demanding far more inmate abuse porn than you’re providing. What kind of weak-assed sheriff are you?

  18. 18.

    daveNYC

    September 23, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    You know who else spent less than fifteen cents per meal on prisoners?

    God, he’s rattling off those items like they’re good things. And I know there are people in his audience who will think they are.

  19. 19.

    Andrew J. Lazarus

    September 23, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    Crime in his country, up. In the rest of his state, down. Racist, crooked, incompetent, the conservative trifecta.

  20. 20.

    Pangloss

    September 23, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    You’d think that by being so tough on crime, the crime rate would be down, instead of the Governor of the state talking about headless bodies in the desert….. unless the whole “tough on crime” thing is actually counterproductive…. could it be? Naaaaaaah.

  21. 21.

    scav

    September 23, 2010 at 1:27 pm

    CEOs get bonuses for doing to companies what His Sheriffness has down to local law enforcement (granted, they usually call us employees instead of convicts, but hey). He was just getting his.

    ETA: Come to think of it, Add Bell, CA to the theme.

  22. 22.

    Will

    September 23, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Martin,

    He’s got a nice record of inmate torture, murder and death from neglect. In terms of per capita death, I bet Sheriff Joe can more than compete with Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

  23. 23.

    Cris

    September 23, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Sheriff Arpaio has a philosophy of zero tolerance towards the criminal element.

    I’m not fond of the phrase “zero tolerance” in most contexts, but at least it’s ordinarily used in reference to behavior, not to people. This is veiled eliminationist rhetoric.

  24. 24.

    Jager

    September 23, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    Here’s my theory on Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

    Joe Arpaio is a anchor baby, born of immigrant parents from Italy, a facist country. Joe’s mother died when he was 6 (maybe mysteriously) he was raised by a father who may have been an admirer of Benito Mussolini. Arpaio went to work for the DEA and made many trips to Europe, in addition to having served in Europe with the US Army. How many times did Arpaio meet with European facists? He certainly had many opportunities to do so. Arpaio arranged a transfer to the SW office of the DEA, possibly with help from fellow facists in Washington DC. When he retired he was elected Sheriff of Maricopa County Arizona, one of the largest counties in the USA. Over the years he quietly installed a facist regime in the MSO. Arpaio has openly talked of running for Governor of AZ and even has toyed with with stepping into national politics. Maybe, finally, this facist plot has been stopped and the dreams of his Mussolini loving father thwarted!

  25. 25.

    catclub

    September 23, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    He also apparently has two sets of books for running the scam. Another unique part of his jail system.

  26. 26.

    Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    September 23, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    @Jager: I see what you did there.

  27. 27.

    scav

    September 23, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    @catclub: Whoa, more books to throw at people! Isn’t this a selling point in his eyes?

  28. 28.

    cat48

    September 23, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    My, my, when it rains it pours….in the LAT on 09/17

    Reporting from Denver —
    Top officials in the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio used its anti-corruption unit to conduct politically motivated investigations, misled the public about a campaign fund that helped Arpaio win reelection and surveilled the Arizona lawman’s campaign rivals, according to an internal memo from a high-ranking officer.

    The 63-page memo, first reported Thursday by the Arizona Republic, blames Arpaio’s longtime No. 2 man, Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, for the alleged criminal wrongdoing.

    It comes as a federal grand jury is examining whether Arpaio and allies in the local prosecutor’s office abused their power by investigating and prosecuting political foes. Arpaio’s department is also the subject of a separate federal civil rights investigation into whether it uses racial profiling while enforcing immigration laws.

    Karma!

  29. 29.

    Tancrudo

    September 23, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    @Jager: The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

    The craziest thing about this two-bit assclown pretending to be Mussolini on the Guadalupe is that he isn’t even reducing crime. Maricopa county’s crime rate is higher than neighboring counties’. Given that, it’s not efficiency he’s after but fetishism. I expect sex crime allegations to come out of this sooner or later. The guy likes men in pink underwear a bit too much for a “straight” fellow.

  30. 30.

    r€nato

    September 23, 2010 at 2:51 pm

    @cat48:

    There is so much dirt on this creep that is going to come out when he is no longer sheriff. Phoenix New Times has done some outstanding investigations on him, but nobody in power is paying attention because none of them want to be the target of an Arpaio vendetta, and NT doesn’t command attention beyond the progressive element in Maricopa County, even though they have done far more hard-hitting journalism in the last 12 years than the state’s largest daily newspaper, the corporate-owned Arizona Republic, has in an entire generation.

    MCSO (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office) has never been audited during Arpaio’s tenure. Why?

    Arpaio owns several lucrative business properties in Scottsdale. I know he has a nice DEA pension, but how did Arpaio make the money to buy prime real estate in Scottsdale? Suspicions are that he’s been skimming money from jail operations. But without an audit, nobody knows where that money goes.

    Arpaio regularly uses his powers to intimidate anyone who pisses him off. His ongoing battle with the Board of Supervisors, for instance, where he’s twice trumped up a raft of charges against supervisors which no competent prosecutor in the state would have anything to do with. (He had a buttboy named Andrew Thomas as county prosecutor who was his lackey for these purposes, but Thomas left that post to run for state Attorney General and got beat in the GOP primary last month)

    Arpaio once had a local actor, Nick Tarr, arrested for ‘impersonating a police officer’ because said actor wore an MCSO uniform as a costume for Halloween. Arpaio’s beef with him was that he starred in a commercial for an opponent of his in an election campaign. There is simply no grudge too small to be pursued by this petty asshole.

    Arpaio had the top two executives at Phoenix New Times arrested on more trumped-up charges because he didn’t care for their investigations of his dirty laundry, and another buttboy of his, special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik, tried to subpoena all the records of every person that has ever visited the New Times’ website for the previous 4 years. That includes the IP addresses, which site they were coming from, the browser they were using, the pages they read, domain names, etc.

    Did I mention that Arpaio had a fleet of his armed goons swoop in on these two newspapermen at their homes, near midnight, as if they were dangerous criminals who might be armed?

    It goes on and on like this. These shenanigans are not secrets, but there are enough idiot voters who don’t care about any of this (particularly retired idiots in Sun City), nor the millions he’s cost Maricopa County taxpayers, so long as he’s beating up on and abusing people in his jails and brown people. They fall for his staged media events every four years when he comes up for re-election.

    Professional law enforcement can’t stand this clown, but there’s not much that can be done until either the feds step in or voters finally get tired of his antics and see through his media machine and ‘get it’ that he’s really not all that effective at actually fighting crime.

  31. 31.

    Allan

    September 23, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    I know the look in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s eye when I see him being challenged by an interviewer.

    I recognize it because I once had the pleasure of being hit on in a Chicago gay bar by John Wayne Gacy.

    It’s the look of someone who is already planning specifically how he will capture, torture and murder you, as soon as he can get you out of this place and into his car.

  32. 32.

    r€nato

    September 23, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    @Allan: He’s a petty tyrant who would have been perfectly comfortable as the commander of a concentration camp.

    Where’s all the teabaggers protesting government tyranny and oppression? We got it right here in Maricopa County. Of course, it’s different if the subjects of the oppression are the poor and minorities…

  33. 33.

    Socraticsilence

    September 23, 2010 at 3:04 pm

    Don’t most Law Enforcement Officers have “zero tolerance approach on crime” at least for non-trivial offenses- I mean thats not exactly novel its like saying a the FBI has a “zero tolerance approach on Terrorism” – its reminiscent of the Chris Rock bit about not getting an award for “being there for your kids” – when its what your supposed to do you shouldn’t brag about it.

  34. 34.

    quaint irene

    September 23, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    who else spent less than fifteen cents per meal on prisoners?

    WTF are they serving for less than fifteen cents a meal? Shredded newspaper?

    When I read the word ‘gleaning’ I thought maybe they make the inmates scrounge through harvested wheat fields for the random wheat kernels.

  35. 35.

    JohnR

    September 23, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    What’s all this hoo-ha about the crime rate in Mariposa County? You misunderstand the goal behind our good Sheriff’s hard work: it’s not to reduce crime; it’s to increase the prison population. Prisoners make good unskilled labor for such things as cotton-picking, road maintenance, and of course, the ever-popular tank and airplane manufacture. And the best part is, they work for little more than scraps of food and the opportunity to stay alive! Of course, you must have a “zero-tolerance” policy, because as some of them become unable to continue with their necessary work for the benefit of the State, others must be found to replace them. Oh, wait – I was just getting a little flashback. (Must … Force … Arm … Down!)

  36. 36.

    azportsider

    September 23, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    @quaint irene:

    “Gleaning” = roadkill salvage.

  37. 37.

    piratedan

    September 23, 2010 at 4:16 pm

    Well, I imagine it’s only a matter of time before people start connecting the dots behind Arizona’s private prison boondoggle and Sheriff Joe’s usurpation of federal responsibilities. Never mind how that said same money could be flowing into the pockets of Jan Brewer and Russell Pearce who are invested in said same “businesses” and just happened to have drafted and passed a law…..

  38. 38.

    JRManning

    September 23, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    Arpaio’s tactics have actually resulted in a surge in crime.

    From 2002 to 2009, while the violent crime rate across the state as a whole plummeted by 12 percent, Arpaio’s jurisdiction suffered a 58 percent surge in violent crime.

    http://crooksandliars.com/jackie-mahendra/doj-arpaio-show-me-your-papers

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