posted
Phoenix Mayor Asks FBI to Check Sheriff Sunday, April 13, 2008 3:00 PM
PHOENIX -- The mayor wants the FBI to investigate whether the local county sheriff has violated any civil rights laws with his recent high-profile crackdowns on illegal immigrants.
The "saturation patrols" have drawn protests from civil rights and immigrant-rights advocates, but they have drawn support from backers of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and from people who believe the government hasn't done enough against illegal immigration.
In an April 4 letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Mayor Phil Gordon asked the agency and the Justice Department's civil rights division to examine what he called discriminatory harassment and improper stops, searches, and arrests by sheriff's deputies in Maricopa County, which encompasses the metropolitan area.
"Over the past few weeks, Sheriff Arpaio's actions have infringed on the civil rights of our residents," Gordon wrote. "They have put our residents' well-being, and the well-being of law enforcement officers, at risk."
Justice Department officials said they would review Gordon's letter but declined to comment further.
Arpaio said it's ironic that Gordon wrote the letter the same day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials observed his deputies arresting residents and illegal immigrants in the town of Guadalupe and approved of the sheriff's work.
"I think the mayor is disconnected from the people he represents and he doesn't get the point," Arpaio said Saturday. "Now he's going to Washington to confuse the issue and try to get the public against me."
The mayor "is degrading my office and my deputies by insinuating that they're violating all these civil laws. We don't profile," the sheriff said.
In the past month, sheriff's deputies and trained volunteers have gone into neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations, stopping people for routine traffic violations and asking some of them about their immigration status. Dozens of illegal immigrants have been detained.
ICE officials say Arpaio is not violating the formal agreement he has with their office that allows sheriff's deputies to enforce immigration laws.
Last week, the Arizona Ecumenical Council and American Jewish Committee issued a joint letter saying the patrols "evoked a 'police state' atmosphere" and led to "detainment on the basis of a racial profile and dehumanization of innocent people."
They were joined Friday by the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, which echoed calls for a Justice Department investigation.
posted
That's not surprising. The wacko left wants to harass one of the best sheriff's in the country.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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Bush didn't "hijack" the GOP, he won an election. However, President Bush certainly is NOT a conservative and would not be my choice for a President. In fact, about the only two things I think he has done a good job on are the war and tax cuts. Of course, those are 2 very important things.
Posts: 1577 | From: Ohio | Registered: Oct 2007
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Bush didn't "hijack" the GOP, he won an election. However, President Bush certainly is NOT a conservative and would not be my choice for a President. In fact, about the only two things I think he has done a good job on are the war and tax cuts. Of course, those are 2 very important things.
now you seem confused. in one post you claim Bush is no conservative, yet he was elected by conservatives to represent them.
If you had been paying attention in '00? You would have seen him hijack the GOP. McCain was the better man by head and shoulders. I watched in dismay as my party in SC lost their minds. They beleived anonymously written and printed "flyers" claiming all kinds of strange things about McCain left on thier doors and in their windsheilds at shopping malls. Some of the stuff ended up being true ABOUT Strom Thurmond their very own Senator and exGovernor (not McCain) talk about IRONY?
as i watched the 04 GOP convention? i couldn't help but being struck by the way it resembled a high school pep rally. The GOP didn't elect Bush because of his qualifications, he didn't have any. They elected him on name recognition.
In the 00 primary debates Dubya was BLATANTLY the least qualified of all the people on stage. I bet he couldn't even have found Iraq on a map then. I wonder if even could today. Sadam was prolly the only world leaders name he actually knew. He surely didn't know any of the others.
"It's kind of politics," Bush said of the negative turn the South Carolina campaign has taken. Saying he had let the other candidates define him in the campaign's early days, Bush vowed: "I'm not going to let it happen again. And unfortunately you ran an ad that equated me to Bill Clinton," he said to McCain. "That's about as low a blow that you can give in a Republican primary."
"There was an ad run against me, we ran a counter ad in New Hampshire," McCain shot back. "Then I was beat up pretty bad by his surrogates comparing me to Clinton, 'Clinton lite,' " McCain said, running through the campaign's negative twists and turns.
"This is an attack piece," Bush said as he held up a flyer he said was placed on a voter's windshield.
"That's not by my campaign," McCain insisted.
"Well it says 'paid for by Sen. John McCain,'" Bush said. "You can disagree with me on issues, John, but do not question my trustworthiness and do not compare me with Bill Clinton."
does all this crap sound familiar? later? these flyers were attributed to Rove.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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"I don't trust Congress; I trust people and I want to give people their money back -- grown-up or non-grown-up," Bush said. "Either you trust the people or you trust government." His five-year, $483 billion tax cut plan would spend more of the surplus on tax cuts than McCain's. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/02/15/sc.debate/
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I would say SOMETHING has been hijacked. Not sure what to exactly call it just yet.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Bush didn't "hijack" the GOP, he won an election. However, President Bush certainly is NOT a conservative and would not be my choice for a President. In fact, about the only two things I think he has done a good job on are the war and tax cuts. Of course, those are 2 very important things.
The tax cuts were hardly impressive. What was the actual percent reduction? Two or three percent? Maybe five for some of the lower brackets? More important is why he did it. He only cut taxes because he knew very well that his Father lost the election due almost entirely to his "no new taxes... here's a new tax" screw up. Good job on what war? You must be kidding.
Posts: 2965 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
I just seen a documentary "American Drug War the last white hope" with him in it. Hes a real no nonsense type o guy. Even the doc narrator said he was tuff not to like.
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