Arizona sheriff's officers turn in federal credentials

FOLLOWING SPIRITED competition among Republican presidential candidates for his endorsement, Joe Arpaio, who fancies himself America’s “toughest sheriff,” finally tipped his hand last month for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The support of Mr. Arpaio, sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, has not revived Mr. Perry’s candidacy. But Hispanic voters may long remember the spectacle of the GOP’s grandees preening like schoolboys for the favor of a figure best known for his contempt toward America’s largest minority group.


Mr. Arpaio isn’t America’s toughest sheriff. He’s a rogue and a showman who has leveraged thinly veiled racism to his political advantage. In the name of combating illegal immigration in a state that has seen a good deal of it, Mr. Arpaio has left thousands of Latino residents of Phoenix and its suburbs, legal and illegal, feeling hunted and harassed.


Arpaio had better hurry up and think of something. This past year we have watched other evil leaders such as Osama Bin Laden and Col. Muammar Gaddafi get ousted by help and/or force under the Obama administration. OBL and Gaddafi also believed they were untouchable at one time only to meet their fate later. Gaddafi had experienced the worst fate of all when he was sodomized and later died.


Perhaps Joe Arpaio should work on a deal with the Feds and step down as Sheriff with regard to his “pattern or practice of misconduct that violates the Constitution and federal law.” If he doesn’t, then he may have to experience a run in with “Bubba” in jail.


If Arpaio doesn’t step down from Sheriff, Mike Stauffer will more than likely beat him anyway since Joe has mismanaged and wasted millions and millions of Arizona tax payer dollars. We can’t continue to foot Joe’s lawsuit bills when he is allowed to violate American Civil Rights.


Arpaio is equivalent to “Bull” Connor and our Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is equivalent to Alabama’s George Wallace. All four individuals are stains in American history and will be remembered as so.


The decision followed the release of a scathing Department of Justice report that said Arpaio's office has a pattern of racially profiling Latinos, basing immigration enforcement on racially charged citizen complaints and punishing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish. The sheriff has denied the allegations.
Homeland Security officials had no immediate comment on Arpaio's comments on Wednesday.
On Monday, the agency said in a letter to U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl that it would send immigration agents to screen jail inmates in Arizona's most populous county. Arpaio's aides say only one Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has worked at the county jails since last week.
Homeland Security's decision wasn't the first time Arpaio's federal immigration powers were cut.
In October 2009, Immigration and Customs Enforcement stripped Arpaio of his power to let 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests, but still allowed his jail officers to determine the immigration status of people in jail.