That's the question Matt Taibbi would ask, as he did in his famous diatribe against Wall Street. For the more sober purposes of this blog, the question is, Why is Joe Arpaio still in office? The latest reason is Chief Deputy David Hendershott being forced from office with allegations of misconduct, including using the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office anti-corruption unit to smear foes and featherbedding the jobs of his friends. The deputy chief was ousted, too. (And all this from an investigation by the friendly Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeau). As Arpaio adamantly says he will not resign, the question of his lax oversight of his chief deputy/sycophant becomes very much like one that should be directed to the banksters: Were you corrupt or stupid? Which one? There's no other answer, especially for a man who presents himself as so smart, so in charge, so much America's Toughest Sheriff.
The abuses of Arpaio go back many years. No wonder his office is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and a federal grand jury. Real police officers have no use for Arpaio, referring to him as the "Badged Ego." He co-opted most of the media years ago, including the Arizona Republic, where crusading is not part of the Gannett business model. Eugene C. Pulliam would have run him out of office and out of the state long ago. Still, the Republic has done a creditable job on the Hendershott investigation, if not exactly jumping on allegations that those in the law enforcement community had known about for years. Most of the media were played like a cheap fiddle with the chain gang, the tent jail, pink underwear and the "sweeps." One exception is New Times, which has fearlessly investigated Arpaio for more than 15 years. The casual violations of civil rights, cronyism, lack of attention to actually doing the job and high costs to taxpayers are not in question.
Why is Joe Arpaio still in office, particularly when voters twice had the choice of a lawman beyond reproach, Dan Sabin? It says much about the condition of today's Phoenix and Maricopa County.
5) The old business elite is gone, and the Real Estate Industrial Complex didn't squawk about thousands of its cheap workers being persecuted. For one thing, this made them even more afraid and malleable. Also, they needed fewer with the collapse of construction. 6) The old political elite is gone. Do you think a Paul Fannin, to use just one rock-ribbed Republican example, would have tolerated Arpaio? But St. Janet sought his endorsement. 7) He lets the Midwesterners live their Western fantasies with "the tough sheriff." 8) Sprawl has destroyed community. Arpaio is "somebody else's problem...I got mine!" 9) The government and political leadership in the fourth most populous county in America is more like what one would find in rural Mississippi. And, 10) He knows where some very important bodies are buried.
It isn't just the reputation of Phoenix as a place that welcomes tolerance, and hence high-quality talent and investment that Arpaio hurts. It's not just the effectiveness of law enforcement. It's real human beings. And I will remind the mega-churchers and others on the religious right: Each individual is precious in the eyes of the Lord. Especially the poor. Especially the weak.
One was named Richard Post, a paraplegic in a wheelchair, who was taken to the county jail after a bar disturbance in 1997. He pounded on his jail door seeking a catheter so he could urinate. As New Times reported, the corrections officers decided he "needed a chairing" and strapped him into a dangerous restraint chair. They left him there for six hours, with serious damage done to his body. New Times writes: "It's a tough penalty meted out by a tough sheriff, but then that's the avowed mission of a lawman who brags that his jails are meant to be so miserable no inmate will ever break the law again. And that includes evildoers such as Richard Post, who has spent a total of one night in jail in his life. His crime: possessing a gram of marijuana and calling someone an Englishman."
This is just one example of the brutality meted out in your name, Phoenix, and in other cases with lethal results.
Where's the justice? In the ethos of the Western movie this man would face it, not pretend to dispense it, much less to embody it. He is closer to Gene Hackman's sadistic Little Bill in Unforgiven, without Little Bill's integrity. He is nothing like Gary Cooper's incorruptible lawman in High Noon. Watch these in your Arizona Rooms as you smugly muse about the golf and the weather and pray, Please, God, give me one more real-estate boom. And ask yourself: Why is Joe Arpaio still in office?
When Joe finally gets that boatload of poetic justice that's headed his way, I hope the judge denies him bail. He's obviously going to be a flight risk.
Posted by: pbm | May 16, 2011 at 01:08 PM
Recently spent some time in S. Florida amidst the yacht, golf and country club crowd. Some commented about how they liked our tough sheriff and governor! I did my best to control my gag reflex. Observation: the "got mine" contingent tends to have deeply-ingrained prejudice against the least and the last among us, yet many profess to be "Christians". This ranks high on the list of stuff I'll maybe never figure out. To them, Joe is a man to be respected for his DEEP CONVICTIONS. Let's hope the only conviction he's left with is one with a legal ruling attached to it!
Posted by: morecleanair | May 16, 2011 at 01:11 PM
I can also report that I have family and friends in NV,NM, IA, CA, TX who know nothing else about Arizona except that we have a great sheriff and they wish they had one too.
As far as that karma thing of "going around and coming around", I wouldn't hold your breath. You better believe in the hereafter, because people like Joe must get their just reward there. It never happens here on earth.
Posted by: azrebel | May 16, 2011 at 01:46 PM
"The casual violations of civil rights, cronyism, lack of attention to actually doing the job and high costs to taxpayers are not in question."
In politics, perception is reality. Hence, Arpaio is tough on crime and Saban is a rapist.
Posted by: Jacob Hughes | May 16, 2011 at 02:03 PM
I could go on for hours on Joe but you all know the story. I would like to comment on this quote from Jon. "And I will remind the mega-churchers and others on the religious right: Each individual is precious in the eyes of the Lord. Especially the poor. Especially the weak."
These ideas went out with the guy I was named after, John Calvin, when he uttered something to the effect, you can tell who is going to heaven by the accumulation of wealth. The last guy to practice this was Gandhi and as we speak his motives are being called into question.
Personally I have seen the enemy and he is Organized Religion.
Here comes the Silver Shirts, John Birch, Posse Comitatus, Tea Party nuts, and almost 500 hate groups that want you dead.
Posted by: cal Lash | May 16, 2011 at 02:28 PM
I thought you were named after Cal Worthington, the car dealer from California. Maybe the hat threw me off.
Posted by: azrebel | May 16, 2011 at 04:30 PM
I thought you were named after Cal Boise...
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | May 16, 2011 at 04:59 PM
Go see Cal, go see Cal and his dog spot.
U know they actually ran Cal's car operation out of AZ for illegal wiretapping. Cal called it his T-O.
All his offices were bugged and when ever it looked like a potential customer was going to walk a higher up would run and and offer a better deal.
Cal Boise was a good Sheriff even if he was a old time Democrat. But then Rose was a good lady even if she was married to ole time AZ Democrat Lefty Mofford. So my girlfriends grandad was a "Wobbly" and went to federal prison for his political beliefs. U would wonder why she would hang around with an ole time republican like me?
Posted by: cal Lash | May 16, 2011 at 05:16 PM
Cal, opposites attract. I know cause I love me some white Southern guys; especially when I get to meet the parents and scare them to death with my socialist talk and degradation of Wal-Mart as un-American...
As for Arpaio, his victories have been with a slimming majority the last couple of election cycles. He used to win by landslides. He's done in 2012.
Posted by: phxSUNSfan | May 16, 2011 at 06:43 PM
I meant to add that he is done in 2012 unless his current troubles fail to rid us of him. Maybe one day there will be a TV movie about this political exorcism???
Posted by: phxSUNSfan | May 16, 2011 at 06:49 PM
I stumbled on the observation that Paul Fannin would never tolerate Joe Arpaio. Of course, we'll never know one way or the other since Fannin is long gone and lived in an era with completely different concerns. But Fannin was part of a Republican Party that had no problem with demonizing minorities, or electing Richard Nixon president, the man who gave us the Southern Strategy. Fannin, of course, meant business, which in '60s and '70s Arizona was code for well-to-do white people figuring out how to keep the system running primarily for their benefit. He was not a soft touch or a moderate. He worked hard for Big Oil and other vested economic interests. He was Jon Kyl minus the charisma.
Joe Arpaio came to this game late. By 1992, Phoenix's economic strengths were beginning to erode. Newcomers were attracted to jobs in retail or real estate, not manufacturing or the new knowledge-based economy. Good paying jobs in machine shops or semi-conductor plants were declining. And into this volatile mix of anxiety, reinvention and age-old prejudice, Mexicans arrived, drawn by the demand for hard labor in construction. Equally important was the devastation of the agricultural economy in Mexico wrought by NAFTA.
Arpaio had been an east-coast student in the politics of ethnic resentment. He could have been Frank Rizzo or Al D'Amato if he were a bit more talented. But here he was in fresh and sparkling Phoenix playing thug politics to a suddenly receptive electorate. Be our hero and make the Mexicans go away.
The business elite is not always right or sharp or wise. But they play the game at street level with consistent cunning. If getting tough with criminals wins elections for their party, then it's hardly a problem when some die in a sheriff's custody. And it's not a reason for upset when that sheriff usurps federal prerogatives in order to grandstand on illegal immigration. For the net result of those headlines was a state crystallizing the rage of the white working class, who voted against their own economic interests and with those that consistently profited from this vaudeville. Arizona became a deep-red state because Republicans conveniently disguised the bargain they struck with business to enable their flow of cheap labor and stoke the resentment of white workers and oldtimers at the same time.
Arpaio's bad il Duce impersonation is finally getting a skeptical second look from the people it was designed to fool. We should be clear about Arpaio's relative effectiveness here: he didn't make the Mexicans go away (no one could) but he gave cover to Republicans to double-deal on this issue and further erode Arizona's already frayed social compact.
I don't know which Dantean circle Paul Fannin might be watching this from, but he's probably speaking to Paul Babeu in his sleep, reminding him how it's his turn now but to remember who bringing him to this dance. Hint: it's not Joe Sixpack.
Posted by: soleri | May 16, 2011 at 08:12 PM
Thanks for a great article!!
As a retired Lt that retired under Arpaio and the Webmaster for www.Arpaio.com all I can say is "We Told You So"
Posted by: RadarRoy | May 16, 2011 at 11:12 PM
Observation: there's a trend here with Andy Thomas, Joe and Russell Pearce all in various stages of implosion. John Kavanagh has also seen his star tarnished. In all of this, the Republic has been pretty relentless in their coverage. True, "Bruja" remains strong, but we may not get "The Full Kook" after all. I take some consolation from that!
Posted by: morecleanair | May 17, 2011 at 08:19 AM
Welcome aboard the train out of kooksville RadarRoy.
Cal Lash 1658 retired PPD
Let me know if you would like to have coffee with our fan club. 6023161755
or [email protected]
Posted by: cal Lash | May 17, 2011 at 08:23 AM
You ask the question in the title RC, then answer it, and then ask it again at the end! That there are that many moronic Kooks out there is the one and only reason.
Joke's chief accountant (now retired) was on Sunday Squareoff to rebutt his "its a computer glich" statement. She flat out said she has been telling him for ten years of how illegal/improper his shell games were and of Hendershott's intimidation of her staff. Joke's reply with a toss of the hand: "I'm not letting bean counters run my office."
Couldn't help but notice Channel 15 dogpile on too with an story on how much Joke has cost Maricopa Co. taxpayers in lawsuits and legal bills. Too little too late.
Posted by: eclecticdog | May 17, 2011 at 11:59 AM
If the world does end this Saturday, the next meeting of the "unmentionable" club is hereby cancelled. We will reconvene if and when we are reincarnated as horned toads in the White Tanks. I will bring flys for snacks. I'm guessing Arpaio would be reincarnated as a Gila Monster, toughest lizard in the west. Doom on us.
Posted by: azrebel | May 17, 2011 at 04:06 PM
I am holed in John Maddens (Chuys) in Van Horn, TX
Breakfast is with Tommy Lee
Mas tarde
Cabrone Cal
Posted by: Cal Lash | May 17, 2011 at 08:10 PM
I've been to Van Horn, Texas. To paraphrase Bum Phillips: It's not the end of the earth, but if you stand on your tip-toes, you can see it from there...
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | May 17, 2011 at 08:44 PM
I've been there too. Only radio station I could pick up played Beatles music 24 hours a day.
The best word for that part of Texas, desolation. (Keep in mind, I said the "best" word)
Posted by: azrebel | May 17, 2011 at 08:59 PM
Arizona's reputation is now firmly entrenched: intolerant, angry and anti-immigrant. Sheriff Joe greatly reinforces this image.
Non-Arizonans might praise Sheriff Joe's reputation however the courts and press elsewhere would have shut him down long ago.
Arizona is the American version of a failed state.
Posted by: jmav | May 18, 2011 at 05:50 AM
As we draw nearer to the RAPTURE, I'm reminded that Pres. Reagan's Sec of the Interior, James Watt, also believed in this whack-a-doodle stuff and (so I'm told) used it as a rationale to downplay the importance of environmental preservation. Is this another instance where truth is stranger than fiction?
Posted by: morecleanair | May 18, 2011 at 08:51 AM
I was already a huge Rogue fan. Now that he's quoting Bum Phillips, Mr. Talton has now taken the throne of best blogger ever.
Posted by: LeftCoastDood | May 20, 2011 at 02:10 PM
you know nothing unless you do your own fact checking.
It's better to have watched the whole story unfold as I have been in Arizona and have MANY hispanic neighbors and frieds who are either in the military or understand EXACTLY what is being done and the medias attempt at BELO KTVK 3tv has intentionally misused their journalism and the integrity that THEY are SUPPOSED to use so that they EQUALLY try to get BOTH and any part of the information to MAKE accurate and FAIR reports to the public so we don't get trained like the British and European socialists who WANT what they NEED from the GOV'T because they are basically unable to fight back anymore against the corruption and from there you have a similar to MEXICO a lot of corruption and greed and drug violence. I mean if you WERE here and WATCHED them fool you with their pretty stories and their big mean ol sheriff and cops are against me, Ya know "THE MAN is keepin me from success..." bunch of CRAP and ONLY HURTS SOCIETY. IT'S pathetic and the TEAPARTY and the CAIN/BACHMAN ticket will KICK these jerks into the cage they have asked to be in.
YOU got GREED and POWER on the left and on the RIGHT, the real difference is that CLINTON/OBAMA and the mafia type Chicago Politicians like to ingnore their OWN lack of respect to the law. IF AN ATTORNEY IS INVOLVED and ON THE LEFT, EVERYONE IS HURT! EXCEPT the GREEDY left using the useful votes to promote their case. If you act like a dog and lie with the dogs, U get the fleas. ASK BRAD REMINGTON of BELO KTVK3 why he supports AMNESTY and LEGALIZATION, because HE gets a BIG PAYCHECK, most decent reporters have no part of it, they don't understand the integrity and the journalism rules of thumb, they use they're bias/slant to make us see things THE WAY THEY NEED U TOO,
and DON'T bother disagreeing w/me or calling me names.. I call em like I see em,
I see em here and I wan't them to admit they WANT LEGALIZE for GREED. NOT to help the poor and NOT to help civil rights, WAKE UP gullible people!
Posted by: INDTY TPTYAR | May 22, 2011 at 03:22 PM
Eugene Pulliam wouldn't,t have put up with him? Ther are unwarranted assumptions there. There,s a suggestion that PNI was run with integrity. It wasn't. I suppose that my real concern is that there is a meme or myth out there to that effect that has some traction. Those papers were simply GOP house organs and were always slanted, often crudely. In any case, Pulliam would have puffed him like crazy.
Posted by: Dawgzy | May 25, 2011 at 10:13 PM
Think the biggest reason is the lack of voter turnout. If actual registered voters with a thought about Arpaio would actually VOTE, he might be gone.
I can wish, at least. Until then, I will grit my teeth and remind my students to register to vote when they turn 18 and vote out this bozo.
Posted by: Hamblin | April 25, 2015 at 07:12 PM
I think Arpaio will resign, or at lest retire, when this Court case is over.
Like Hillary, it's finally catching up with him...
I would like to see Dan Saban in that Official capacity...or Penzone.
Posted by: Skip | April 25, 2015 at 10:03 PM
Comments still open?
Jon, you posted a link to this, this last week after the Trump pardon.
I am horrified, Edvard Munch horrified, by Arpaio's pardon. I have always tilted at this "Badged Ego," as you have wonderfully tagged him. I have had interactions, and I've been under his, uh, "patronage."
There is the opinion piece in the AZ Republic:
http://deconstructingthemanifest.blogspot.com/2009/02/comin-atcha-sheriff-joe.html
There is the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVKmVPm1Ikw
I know it's provincial of me to react to the latest Trumpism (and know that the giant orange middle-finger has had me retching since November,) but this latest slight against Law I find to be generally, and personally, beyond the pale.
If this Arpaio is not part and parcel of Trump's downfall, then his downfall will mean little to me.
And his downfall is coming. I will eat crow with relish if I am wrong about this. Because it will be my last meal.
Posted by: Petro | August 28, 2017 at 07:13 PM
*If this Arpaio pardon...
Posted by: Petro | August 28, 2017 at 07:15 PM