While it’s not a pure Obama conspiracy story, still the “political war” (the court’s words) in Maricopa County involving Sheriff Arpaio shows that he and others intentionally brought false charges against a number of officials for political purposes. To date a county prosecutor and assistant county prosecutor have been disbarred, and about $1,000,000 in damages have been awarded to victims of a bogus RICO lawsuit against them brought by the prosecutors and Arpaio. I reported about the award previously in my article “Suspicious lunch box at MSCO construction site; $1 million settlement over trumped-up charge lawsuit.” The specific amount of the judgment awarded in one of the suits, Gary Donahoe et al v. Joseph Arpaio et al, has not been published yet.
I just wanted to bring a brief update. The two prosecutor defendants in the above-named case appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals the district court’s ruling against their motion to dismiss (the had pled prosecutorial immunity.) Last month that court affirmed the lower court ruling, stating that a prosecutor filing a Civil RICO lawsuit essentially does so as a private citizen because the RICO does not recognize local prosecutors as special under the statute.
The parallels between Arpaio’s methods in the Donahoe affair to my mind closely parallel him going after Barack Obama with equally trumped-up allegations.
Holy abuse of power, Batman!
Last I heard the good Sheriff has cost Maricopa County over $50 million in lawsuits. Anything wrong with this picture?
From the New Phoenix Times:
“For whatever reasons, Schulz knew Sheriff Arpaio’s name and had read of the recent riot at Arpaio’s Tent City jail, but was unaware that the federal government had made an official pronouncement that Sheriff Joe’s detention officers had been behaving barbarically. So I recounted a modest amount of the barbarism for him. It included:
* Strapping inmates in chairs and using electrical stun guns to shock their testicles and other body parts.
* Handcuffing prisoners, then punching and kicking them.
* Hog-tying inmates–that is, cuffing their hands and feet behind their backs and then tying the cuffs together (from time to time, the report notes, this method of restraint kills the “hog”).
* Letting seriously injured and sick inmates languish days or weeks before they are seen by doctors.”
Yep, and Arpaio is the Tea Party favorite.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1996-12-05/news/barbarism-as-a-public-relations-strategy/
And yet they keep voting for him.
The voters are obviously not afraid of being tied to chairs and getting ZAPPED!!!!!!!! A favorite of the MCSO, BarS BBQ wieners. Hold the relish please.
It must be hard being a sane resident of that country.
It doesn’t happen to retired Tea Party voters. It mostly happens to brown people. So it’s a good thing in their eyes.
Barely!
His share of the vote has been dropping precipitously in recent years. In 2000 he received 75% and in 2012 he only received 50.66% of the 1.3 million votes cast in Maricopa County which has a population of just over 3.8 million people.
Whether he will run again in 2016 is a big question. Whether he can win is even bigger, in my opinion.
Honestly, I think he’ll kick the bucket before quitting. He’s a hateful old turd, drunk on power. He ain’t gonna just give that up.
Isn’t he like, 85 years old or something? He doesn’t look like he’s led the kind of lifestyle that would allow him to buck the curve on life expectancy…
There are those who have been around Maricopa County for a while that are pretty sure when his time comes Joe will just sue to postpone it.
He’s just a pup: 81.
I thought he already announced his intention to run in 2016.
I believe he said something about it election night last year. Lots of things can change in four years.
If Joe is ever convicted and jailed for election fraud, please oh please let him be paraded in skimpy little pink undies for all to see. Karma can be a real b****!!
Most of Apraio’s supporters would probably counter that the people in the jail broke the law and being in jail is supposed to be unpleasant. If you don’t want to be treated like that, don’t break the law.
Of course, what they don’t understand is that most of the people in the jail are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of anything and those that were convicted of something are in there for rather minor crimes.
Or maybe they do understand it and just don’t care. Treating people in jail like dirt is good politics.
Last week, my sister-in-law posted one those chain emails singing Sheriff Joe’s praises for treating criminals like dirt. I countered by mentioning all the unsolved sex crimes in Maricopa County. That ended that debate.
They don’t care.
I was once in an online discussion where one person kept claiming it was better to punish, including execute, an innocent person so that the guilty don’t go free. We tried to explain that, if you punish an innocent, the guilty has gone free, but he just was not getting it. To him, the act of punishment was the key and not stopping the perpetrator.
“Treating people in jail like dirt is good politics.”
Maybe in some third-world backwater dictatorship, but in the states? It’s time for the good people of Maricopa to elect a new sheriff.
As long as people have this idea that life in jail or prison is comfortable, with cable TV, weights, air conditioning, etc. and the thought of that outrages them, Sheriff Joe’s methods will remain popular.
Most of those people have never been in jail, of course.
Serious question, forgive me for sounding like a concern troll, is jail supposed to be unpleasant?
It’s not supposed to be particularly cruel. The idea is that losing one’s freedom is the punishment, although many of our prisons/jails are rather harsh environments. Many jails today are more or less sterile environments kind of like the plain interrogation rooms that we see on cop shows.
In a climate like that in Maricopa County, people can die from lack of air conditioning – especially those with health issues. Every year it seems some old folks in Phoenix die because they couldn’t afford to pay for A/C and didn’t turn it on.
He never really had a whole lot of support in Phoenix or the major cities in the county. Where his overwhelming support comes from is the unincorporated areas and the small cities. They make up for the fact that he loses the vote in Phoenix.
Arpaio suffers from a serious ethics deficiency. Unfortunately that makes him an effective campaigner. He knows how to pander. He’s also good at calculating the odds. He knows perfectly well that the so-called Cold Case Posse “investigation” is an incompetent joke. But he also knows it was an effective way to activate and motivate his tea party base, which he desperately needed to win his 2012 election. My bet though is that he won’t run in 2016.
Speaking of a-hole sheriffs, looks like Kessler will have to find a new prefix to slap in front of his name. He has officially been canned! He’s moaning about it on his Facebook page. Also CNN covered the story.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/20/us/pennsylvania-police-chief-fired/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Maybe Zullo can lend him a few of his fake prefixes. 😀
Hmmmm….former Chief Kessler might find gainful employment with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Sounds like he matches their skill and education requirements.
Actually his support was widespread in the county. You don’t get 75+% of the votes just in unincorporated areas that make up less than 10% of the county’s population.
“My bet though is that he won’t run in 2016.”
“….former Chief Kessler might find gainful employment with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Sounds like he matches their skill and education requirements.”
If he runs he will lose. Too much momentum against him both from the left and the right. His failure to investigate sex crimes and the Kold Kase Pokie Sham investigation will haunt him.
Kessler would not be welcome at the Sheriff’s Office after calling the Arizona Bozo Kid a “fraud.” They wouldn’t even let Kessler wash the Kold Kase Klown Kar.
The idea here in the UK is that you are sent to prison AS punishment, not FOR punishment – and that has to be right. Loss of liberty is the issue.
That being said, you can’t make it too comfortable or the taxpayers will throw a tantrum – and it would not be fair to make it better than the accommodation most law abiding citizens can afford!
The latest from Maricopa County, AZ. Chief Chef Joe Arpaio says meat is out and soy is in at Hotel Tent City. Enjoy!
As one commenter noted it’s just another Joe Show. I don’t know for sure but one person who claimed to be a chef said a vegetarian meal of comparable nutritional value will cost several times what a traditional meal does.
Here’s the article. Check out Chief Chef Joe Arpaio. Whata ham! I mean, what a soy!
http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/23481704/2013/09/20/mcso-jails-go-vegetarian
You mean other than the fact that the right-wing loons at Sun City keep re-electing his corrupt ass???
“Do not vote for ‘off the Mark’ Kussler.”
“If Mark Kessler wants to shoot someone, he can shoot me” — activist Gene Stilp
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/the_gun_rights_carnival_surrou.html
Gene Stilp is a political Gadfly here in central PA who loves to annoy the right wing-nuts. He ran against the Republican TEA party favorite Lou Barletta last year but lost by about 17%. That tells you I’m definitely outnumbered in my red-neck of the woods. No offense to rednecks in general, as I consider myself, having grew up in WV, a more progressive version of that particular species.
BTW. I had e-mailed Barletta, I was gerrymandered into his district, inquiring about his staff meeting with birthers.
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2013/08/keystone-politics-attacks-rep-barlettas.html
I actually received a letter stating that as a Representative of the people he feels obligated to listen to all of his constituents no matter what the issue. And blah, blah, blah, since President Obama had been elected twice he felt that his eligibility for and election to the office twice would make the birth issue a non issue, and blah, blah blah……. OBAMACARE! He actually said that Obamacare, and of course it’s repeal and or defunding, was more worrying to him than having to listen to some loons who think once President Obama is perp walked down the White House driveway everything that’s wrong with America will go away.
Of course he voted for the 42nd time to defund it so that tells me I’ve got an insane Representative who’s as loony as the ‘birfers’…. ‘ANY DAY NOW’
Suspended Gilberton police Chief Mark Kessler to get final chance to plead case to the public, but it likely won’t save his job
UPDATE!
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/suspended_gilberton_police_chi_1.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Guess it ain’t over till it’s over.
I look forward to his slack-jawed response to said public rejecting him wholesale.
Outside of his CSF goons, and a couple of village idiots, I doubt anyone will speak up for him.
I thought that at the very least he at least loses in Phoenix, but the other parts of the county overwhelmingly voted for him. And of course his margin last election was the slimmest it’s been in a while.
Phoenix is huge…with about 40% of the county’s population….and anything but homogenous.
And same for the rest of the county: I doubt Tempe went for Arpaio though I can imagine areas that might have.
Arpaio will also be 85 years old in 2016, long past time for him to retire! The fact that he’s still seeking the spotlight & money rather than spending time with his family during this final stage of his life speaks volumes about what type of person he is, a disgusting, disreputable joke who shouldn’t hold any type of office.