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You are here: Home / More From Arizona…

More From Arizona…

by Tom Levenson|  July 31, 20176:13 pm| 28 Comments

This post is in: All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Bring on the Brawndo!, Meth Laboratories of Democracy, Sociopaths, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot

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Update: I swear that when I started writing this DougJ’s post was not in the queue.  Anyway…we’re all grownups here (Schpeake Fer Yerself!–ed) so I’m guessing we can read one piece and then another.  Or not. Enjoy!

__________________

Joe Arpaio is now on his way to being an old lag, and if that conclusion is decades late, it still behoves us to get our schadenfreude on:

The longest-serving lawman of the state’s most populous county, where he became a national figure known for immigration raids and sweeps aimed at rounding up illegal migrants, was found guilty Monday of contempt of court. He faces up to six months in jail.

Arpaio’s crime, you’ll probably recall, was to keep on doing what he’d been doing after a federal judge told him to stop:

Arpaio had conducted the sweeps under the federal 287 G Program, which enables some local law-enforcement offices to act as quasi-immigration agents. In 2009, the federal government rescinded this power, but Arpaio refused to stop. In 2012, Arizona U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow, ordered an injunction against Arpaio’s office aimed at ending the sweeps, but still, Arpaio refused.

I fortunately don’t have any personal experience here, but I have it on good authority that judges really, really don’t like it when you ignore them.

Arpaio tried two lines of defense:

During the criminal trial, which consisted of a five-day trial in June and July, Arpaio’s attorney’s argued that Snow’s order was unclear and that though the sheriff had made mistakes, they weren’t willful violations of the order. He also argued that Arpaio delegated much of of the enforcement responsibilities to his subordinates, and that he should not be held responsible for their actions.

Again, I don’t think telling a judge that they f**ked up in their legal writing is a terribly persuasive strategy, and as for the “my employees suck, I don’t” argument, I’m reminded once again that the Party of Personal Responsibility™ is a f**king crock.  Hence, the man’s a convict.

It is, alas, apparently unlikely that white supremacist poster child Arpaio will actually go to jail for his crime.

But whatever his sentence, this outcome makes me smile.

 

Here’s Loki, the Trickster God, in the glass I’ll raise when the clock hits 0-whiskey-00 this evening.

Image:  Egon Schiele, The Door is Open, 1912.

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Previous Post: « Arizona, have another look at the world, my my
Next Post: This is How I Roll »

Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    smintheus

    July 31, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    Speaking of racist, authoritarian @zzh0les, Lou Barletta is going to challenge Bob Casey in PA Senate race. At least we won’t have that pig Barletta in the House any more.

  2. 2.

    MTmofo

    July 31, 2017 at 6:24 pm

    behooves

  3. 3.

    piratedan

    July 31, 2017 at 6:35 pm

    well, if they can’t jail him, maybe they can strip his assets, since that is now apparently okey dokey to do.

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    July 31, 2017 at 6:42 pm

    This reminds me of the old legal saying:

    When the law isn’t on your side, pound the facts.
    When the facts aren’t on your side, pound the law.
    When neither the law nor the facts are on your side, pound the table.

    Arpaio’s lawyers were solidly in “pound the table” territory.

  5. 5.

    Miss Bianca

    July 31, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    @Roger Moore: and then when you’re done with all that, at least in Arpaio’s cae, the judge tells you to go pound sand.

  6. 6.

    bemused

    July 31, 2017 at 6:48 pm

    May the most corrupt, disgusting, insane president ever have the same fate but with a much longer sentence. His colluding, abetting kids too.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    July 31, 2017 at 6:54 pm

    Jeez, the highs and lows of today (Mooshy, Arpaio, Sam) have worn me out. I hope I can stay awake until sundown.

  8. 8.

    Patricia Kayden

    July 31, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    Great news. Wish he would go to jail and spend some time with the people he harasses and hates so much. Now that would be justice.

  9. 9.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    July 31, 2017 at 7:07 pm

    I was just looking at that very Schiele drawing a couple of weeks ago in Vienna, where it was on display. As you (Tom) probably know, Schiele drew it from inside prison as a sarcastic commentary on his own false imprisonment. But it certainly fits in this case with double the irony, given Arpaio’s antics.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    July 31, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    @debbie:

    I’ve lost track. Who’s Sam?

  11. 11.

    p.a.

    July 31, 2017 at 7:12 pm

    @MTmofo:

    behooves

    plural of behoof?

  12. 12.

    Suzanne

    July 31, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    As an Arizonan, this day has just filled me with unbelievable happy. SEE YA LATAH, ALLIGATAH!

    Egon Schiele is also one of my favorite artists of all time, so yay.

  13. 13.

    Bill Arnold

    July 31, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    @bemused:

    May the most corrupt, disgusting, insane president ever have the same fate but with a much longer sentence. His colluding, abetting kids too.

    As Tom notes (I think?), Loki or something like him is on a serious roll…

  14. 14.

    Ralphie 247

    July 31, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    Why go through the waste of time and expense of a 5 day trial if he won’t be doing any time? Six months would at least give the old prick a little taste of his own medicine.

  15. 15.

    Chyron HR

    July 31, 2017 at 7:25 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    The bravest Hobbit of them all.

  16. 16.

    Hungry Joe

    July 31, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    Jail time unlikely? Damn. I was looking forward to seeing him smack his head into the roof of a cop car because, you know, cops don’t have to cushion them with their hands anymore.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    July 31, 2017 at 7:41 pm

    @Hungry Joe:
    I was kind of hoping to see him sent to one of his own jails.

  18. 18.

    Waspuppet

    July 31, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    He also argued that Arpaio delegated much of of the enforcement responsibilities to his subordinates, and that he should not be held responsible for their actions.

    The Reverse Nuremberg Defense: I was only giving orders.

  19. 19.

    debbie

    July 31, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Sam Shepard (playwright, actor, muscian, etc.).

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    July 31, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    @debbie:

    Thanks, of course. I was still thinking in the “political” box.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    July 31, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @Chyron HR:

    Heh.

  22. 22.

    Nelle

    July 31, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    Can all you with news contacts spread the word that Arpaio is on conservative tour (one of the leaders? Honored guests?) in October to Europe. If he can do that, then he can damn well go to prison.

  23. 23.

    Nelle

    July 31, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    I’ve got a link but don’t know how to post links here (I’m slightly Neanderthal)…it’s under conservativetours.com and is this tour: THE D DAY BEACHES / THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE / THE NAZI SURRENDER AT REIMS / CHAMPAGNE COUNTRY / THE BULLET TRAIN / VERSAILLES / PARIS ……. OPTIONAL ONE WEEK EXTENSION TO PROVENCE!

    DEPART: OCTOBER 2ND, 2017
    RETURN: OCTOBER 12TH, 2017
    Sheriff Joe Arpaio

    ACCOMPANYING THIS TOUR IS SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO

  24. 24.

    Brendan in NC

    July 31, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @Hungry Joe: And see him in a pink prison jumpsuit…

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    July 31, 2017 at 8:33 pm

    @Nelle:

    You can post a naked hyperlink in your comment.

  26. 26.

    MTmofo

    July 31, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @MTmofo: Heh!

    no.

  27. 27.

    mai naem mobile

    July 31, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    This is called Karma. Hope Dolt45 gets big heaping platefuls of it as well.

  28. 28.

    Tom Levenson

    July 31, 2017 at 10:16 pm

    @Prometheus Shrugged: ooh. I’m jealous. I’d love to see these in the flesh, but I haven’t yet made it to Vienna,

    And yeah, the point was that this was from his jail stint. Crazy story, that.

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