PHOENIX — In a strongly worded critique of the country’s best-known sheriff, the Justice Department on Thursday accused Sheriff Joe Arpaio of engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by unfairly targeting Latinos for detention and arrest and retaliating against those who complain.
After an investigation that lasted more than three years, the civil rights division of the Justice Department said in a 22-page report that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which Mr. Arpaio leads, had “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.” The department interfered with the inquiry, the government said, prompting a lawsuit that eventually led Sheriff Arpaio and his deputies to cooperate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/us/arizona-sheriffs-office-unfairly-targeted-latinos-justice-department-says.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail1=y&_r=1&emc=tnt
"I don't even know what abusive power means..." Well, Sheriff, have you seen the statistics that were raised against you by the Department of Justice? 4 to 9 times the number of people pulled over were Latinos. To me that says one of two things. First, most latinos in that county are ignorant of the laws. If this being the case, then the Sheriff should have enforced appropriate measures or activities to help them understand the laws (perhaps in their own language if necessary and easier for them) rather than throwing them into jail. Secondly, the police are racist or biased in their enforcement. If this being the case, then the Department of Justice has every right to come down hard on this county's law enforcement and Sheriff. Because this should have been taken care of by the upper levels of the law enforcement (Sheriff and staff).
ReplyDeleteI think that this goes along a lot with what our guest speaker talked about today in class and his quote that "We think we see the world as it is when in fact, we see the world the way we are." I think this officer may be blind to the prejudice against Latinos in his area because he is only seeing the world from his own life and maybe the values, not the principles, he believes in. It kinda shocked me when he said that he was the victim in this whole thing because the evidence put against him seems very contrary to me and that something is wrong with how law is being carried out in his jurisdiction.
ReplyDeleteAs a Maricopa County resident, I have watched the workings of Sheriff Arpaio from a front row seat. Obviously, his own beliefs and biases guide his actions, but I also think many of his actions as sheriff are guided by social pressure from the community. The county registers 30% Hispanic or Latino, but out of the 59% of Caucasians in the county, many are in support of the Sheriff's actions because of the ever growing problem of illegal immigration. While the sheriff's actions are questionably discriminatory, he is working largely as a politician who, like any other politician, will follow the tide and opinion of the majority vote. Clearly, laws violating due process are not Constitutional and an execution of racially biased laws is unacceptable. The sheriff, even is he is trying to please the majority of his constituents, should not let himself by led blindly by biases, but should be led by his better judgement. Hopefully, that better judgement would lead to Constitutional solutions for the problem of illegal immigration. As Thomas Perez pointed out in the clip's finale, "Fix the problem, don't fix the blame ... [The answer is] Collaboration and cooperation, as opposed to confrontation."
ReplyDelete-Lindsey Bulloch
First, one of the reasons for the existence of laws is to educate society to live in organization, security and protection. There is no reason to put someone in jail if the person knows the laws, because if this is the case, the person is not violating anything because he has the knowledge to do so.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the laws are right, and the opinions and personal experiences of a group should be external to judge the performance of an act and penalty.
The lock just because Latinos are Latinos will not improve anything, just provoke the increase of injustice and perhaps the formation of real criminals to have them in an unhealthy environment in prison.
My suggestion is to inform also imigrants of what rights They have, and how to defend Them.
Well, I agree with Stephanie. It shocks me that he claims to be the victim in this whole mess. His job is to fairly enforce the law. If there were people of all races being treated this way, then the problem would be that he isn't correctly enforcing the law. Instead, he is singling out Latinos, which makes the situation even worse. The evidence against him is too strong for him to try to say that none of the blame can be placed on him. I am Hispanic, and grew up in a city that has a lot of Hispanics. Not in my home, but in many Latino families, the children grow up feeling that people of other races discriminate against them. When news like this comes out, Hispanics feel even more defensive, and are given another reason to feel that they are being attacked.
ReplyDelete