Linda Ronstadt Calls Joe Arpaio "a Sadistic Man," Will Participate in Anti-Arpaio Human Rights March Saturday, January 16

Linda Ronstadt Calls Joe Arpaio "a Sadistic Man," Will Participate in Anti-Arpaio Human Rights March Saturday, January 16

By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard

Tuesday, Dec. 29 2009 @ 3:36PM

Tucson native Linda Ronstadt joins the fight against Joe this January 16

In a conversation this morning via phone, Tucson native and rock legend Linda Ronstadt denounced Sheriff Joe Arpaio's reign of tyranny in Maricopa County and promised to march alongside thousands of activists planning to converge on Phoenix this Saturday, January 16 for a National Day of Action, which will include a walk to Arpaio's jails and a rally and concert afterwards.

The Grammy-winning recording artist, whose career has spanned four decades and multiple genres, said she was moved by the situation in Arizona and Arpaio's abuses of power to participate in the demonstration, which is being organized in large part by the California-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Phoenix civil rights activist Sal Reza's Puente Movement.

"He's a sadistic man," said Ronstadt of Arpaio. "He doesn't have great respect for the law. I come from a police family. My brother was the chief of police in Tucson for many years, a real law man...He was the one who made me understand that when the law is unevenly applied or badly applied, it weakens all law. That's what's very concerning about Sheriff Arpaio."

Ronstadt, who maintains a home in Tucson where she lives part of the year, cited Arpaio's raids against the undocumented, his mistreatment of prisoners in his custody, and the deaths in his jails as reasons for criticizing him. She also blasted Arpaio's police state tactics against those who speak out against his iron rule.

"Any of us could be snatched off the street without a warrant because of the way Arpaio is applying the law," noted Ronstadt. "He's had people go and arrest Republicans that have opposed him...They have these trumped up charges, and then later on they go, `Oh well, I guess we weren't right about these charges.' By then the damage is done and people are terrified of him. That's what happens in places...where they have dictators."

The lady once dubbed the Queen of Rock described at length her deep roots in southern Arizona. Her paternal grandfather Fred Ronstadt was born in Mexico and emigrated to the U.S. during the 19th Century to apprentice at wagon making. (The Ronstadt family name is German, she said, and is indicative of the European settlers who migrated to Mexico and intermarried with locals.)

Continue reading " Linda Ronstadt Calls Joe Arpaio"...

John Conyers to Hold Hearings on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Abuses, and Video from Today's Arpaio Pile On in D.C.

By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard

Wednesday, Mar. 11 2009 @ 5:17PM

One clip from today's media event denouncing Joe Arpaio, and heralding the investigation into him by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The big news out of D.C. for us here in Sand Land, of course, is that the Justice Department is investigating Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his office for civil rights violations. Now I've learned from Jonathan Godfrey, the Communications Director for the House Judiciary Committee, that Chairman John Conyers has indicated his committee will hold hearings on Arpaio's abuses in the near future.

Such hearings will be crucial if we have any hope of the feds fully investigating the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's systemic corruption. And judging from the remarks made today in D.C. by Chairman Conyers and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, it sounds as if these men are prepared to see that Arpaio is held accountable for his misdeeds.

(Excerpts of the D.C. press conference have been posted to the House Judiciary's YouTube Channel, and you can watch all of them, here.)

Chairman Conyers (D-Michigan) opened the event by accepting a petition with 35,000 names asking for a probe into Arpaio, and noting that such a probe was now underway by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department. Conyers also denounced racial profiling, no matter what race or ethnicity is targeted.

"We think that in a lot of ways," stated Conyers, "our Hispanic brothers and sisters are becoming the new targets of discrimination [and] profiling that used to occur mostly to African-Americans...We're saying together, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and everyone else: No racial profiling when you're in law enforcement."

New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, went even further in his remarks to specifically lambaste Arpaio.

Read full story...

'Toughest (Most Racist & Xenophobic) Sheriff' takes act to small screen

SOURCE: CNN.COM
The story

December 26, 2008 -- Updated 1959 GMT (0359 HKT)

Reality television featuring law enforcement officers on the beat is nothing new. A show featuring a lawman who makes jailed inmates wear pink underwear and uses actors to trick suspects, however, is a new twist.

Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- whose showy brand of justice has raised charges of discrimination and civil-rights abuses while making him a hero among fans of his tough-on-crime attitudes -- will star in "Smile: You're Under Arrest."

The show, which premiers this weekend on Fox Reality Channel, features Arpaio and other officers using elaborate ploys crafted by comedy writers and carried out by professional actors to arrest suspects with outstanding warrants. Read full article »

In one, a suspect is invited to a fake fashion shoot and told he's going to become a supermodel, according to Fox Reality's Web site. In another, a suspect is tricked into what he thinks is a job as a movie extra and, after a staged argument between the film's "director" and another actor, gets promoted to the starring role.

"It's kind of fun to show how stupid they are and, as I say, the looks on their face," Arpaio, 76, said of the suspects wanted for DUIs, drug charges, missed court dates and other offenses.

But Arpaio's critics aren't amused.

They say they fear the show will give the controversial sheriff positive publicity, ignoring what they call a darker side to his 16-year tenure as top lawman in the county that includes Phoenix.

"It's going to celebrate a sheriff that's frankly scaring this community, a sheriff that has seen violent crime increase significantly in his county, a sheriff that is racially profiling the Latino community, and I doubt that the show is going to reflect that," said Paco Fabian, spokesman for the immigrant-rights group America's Voice.

In a statement on the group's Web site, Fabian calls Arpaio a "modern day Bull Connor," comparing him to the public safety commissioner in 1960s Birmingham, Alabama, whose use of attack dogs and firehoses on civil rights demonstrators made him a symbol of racial intolerance.

Dubbed "America's Toughest Sheriff," Arpaio makes many of his county's 10,000 or so inmates live in tents. He reinstituted chain gangs -- including crews for women and juveniles -- banned smoking, coffee and movies in his jails and, most recently, moved to require all inmates with money in their jail accounts to pay for their own meals.

And then, of course, there's the pink underwear.

"They were stealing the white underwear, smuggling the underwear out of the jail," Arpaio told CNN. "So you know what? Give them pink. The other reason is they hate pink. Why would you give the 10,000 inmates the color they like?"

Earlier this year, the mayor of Phoenix wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general's office, asking the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate Arpaio's aggressive illegal immigration crackdowns. Mayor Phil Brown wrote that Arpaio's sweeps show "a pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests."

The letter came after Arpaio, who had already been the target of hundreds of lawsuits, launched a series of what he calls crime-suppression patrols in largely Latino neighborhoods. Critics say the patrols use racial profiling to unfairly target Hispanic drivers and pedestrians, while Arpaio says they have resulted in the deportation of hundreds of illegal immigrants, including some with criminal records.

"We are the only ones cracking down on the state's human smuggling law," Arpaio said.

Fabian said America's Voice is considering putting pressure on companies that advertise during Arpaio's show. Either way, the series offers another moment in the spotlight for a lawman who has never shied away from it.

"I'm not going to brag," Arpaio said, "but there isn't anybody in the world who doesn't know who this sheriff is."

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OF COURSE WE DO JOE, YOU ARE A MOST RACIST, XENOPHOBIC MAN AND A DISGRACE TO DECENT LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WHOSE JOBS YOU MAKE MORE DIFFICULT BY ADDING TO THE MISTRUST THE PUBLIC ALREADY HAS FOR THEM THANKS TO "PEOPLE" LIKE YOU.

Racist, Xenophobic Sheriff Arpaio gets rewarded by Rupert Murdoch's FOX Entertainment

SOURCE: Cynthia I.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio on New Reality TV Show

http://www.foxreality.com/

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NEW AMERICA MEDIA

EFE, Posted: Nov 25, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- A new Fox Reality TV show called "Smile... You're Under Arrest!" will feature Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, as he and his team arrest fugitives in sting operations, reports EFE. Lisa Allen, spokesperson for the Maricopa County sheriff's office, said the program "is based on undercover operations to capture people who already have arrest orders against them." The television show will air on Sundays on Fox Reality Channel, beginning on Saturday Dec. 27. Arpaio, known for his tough stance on immigration, has conducted operation in cities such as Phoenix, Mesa and Guadalupe that have led to the arrest of dozens of undocumented immigrants.

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=11d77019003bb1e4cbd8a87543b74e32&from=rss

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PLEASE WE URGE YOU TO contact FOX and tell them (or use your own words): I condemn and reject FOX Corporation / Fox Reality Channel for contributing to hate-crimes and racism, by allowing xenophobic anti-Hispanic Sheriff Arpaio to star in his own Reality t.v.show! - which he will use for the sole purpose to display his egotistic antics and spread his xenophobic and hateful agenda!

Send email with complaint to:
http://www.foxreality.com/contactus.php

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Arizona Immigrant Witch Hunter Handcuffed

New America Media, News Analysis, By Henry Fernandez, Posted: May 20, 2008

Editor's Note: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s unconstitutional Latino witch hunt will no longer be subsidized by the state of Arizona. It turns out that while Arpaio had his deputies were stopping anyone who looked like a Latino immigrant, there were 60,000 real felons running around Arizona. Henry Fernandez is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, focusing on state and municipal policy.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s unconstitutional Latino witch hunt will no longer be subsidized by the State of Arizona.

It turns out that while Arpaio had his deputies stopping anyone who looked like a Latino immigrant, there were 60,000 real felons running around Arizona. Apparently Governor Janet Napolitano has had enough. This week, she took $1.6 million from Arpaio and redirected it to a new state-run fugitive task force to get real criminals off the street. Of course, this was supposed to have been Arpaio’s job all along. Read full story...

Cops Enforcing Immigration Laws Bust County Budgets

When local cops enforce federal immigration laws, the police department may not only incur significant costs, but may also fail to attend to more serious crimes and delay response times to most emergency calls, according to a report released by the Immigration Policy Center (IPC).

Take the case of Maricopa County, Ariz. Since Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio transformed his department into an immigration-enforcement agency, following a partnership made by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on January 19, 2007, his office has incurred a $1.3 million deficit in just three months.

Maricopa’s police officers began working 4,500 extra hours every two-week pay period during the first month of the partnership, as compared to 2,900 extra hours the previous month, the report said. In April 2007, police officers worked more than 9,000 overtime hours and cost the county’s taxpayers $373,757.

Maricopa County is not an isolated case. Read full story....

Border Group Documents Rights Abuses Across Arizona

New America Media, Interview, Amy Bonilla, Posted: Sep 16, 2007

Editor's Note: The Border Action Network, based in Tucson, Ariz., is launching its second year of a campaign to document the human rights violations of immigrants. As enforcement practices spread to the interior, volunteers are no longer confined to the border: they are documenting rights violations in 14 towns across Arizona. The results of the three-month campaign will be announced on International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10. New America Media interviewed Jennifer Allen, executive director of the Border Action Network. Read full story...