Well Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s loyalty to malignant narcissist Pres. Donald Trump has paid off. He’s been pardoned by the worst president in American history. From Friday’s New York Times:
President Trump on Friday pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff whose aggressive efforts to hunt down and detain undocumented immigrants made him a national symbol of the divisive politics of immigration and earned him a criminal contempt conviction.
Mr. Trump, who made cracking down on illegal immigration a signature campaign issue and had pressed for local officials to do more to assist federal authorities in rounding up undocumented people, had been openly flirting with the idea of pardoning Mr. Arpaio.
Arpaio is 85 years old and has served for 24 years as the sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona. He became “famous” for harsh conditions in his county jail, something that made him popular with “Christian” conservatives.
Some background from our article in May, Joe Arpaio, Three Deputies Found In Contempt Of Court For Racial Profiling:
Racist Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and three of his top aides have been found in contempt of court for violating a court order intended to stop racial profiling.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow ruled today that Arpaio and three of his top lieutenants directly violated an order to end racial profiling in Maricopa County. The ruling is the end of a year-long series of hearings in which Judge Snow was seeking to determine if Arpaio and his command staff purposely disobeyed his orders.
Reports from the Arizona Republic state there were three violations involving failure to collect and turn over evidence and continuing to enforce immigration law that Snow had barred. The enforcement of immigration laws is supposed to be done by federal agencies and officers, not local law enforcement.
Arpaio and his deputy chief, Jerry Sheridan, are accused of failing to turn over video evidence and also of failing to collect evidence before trial.
Arpaio and Sheridan admitted to the failings, but both denied doing them deliberately. Most of the discussion in the court room centered on whether Arpaio was more interested in “settling political scores” instead of ending racial profiling by his department.
It should be noted that Arpaio did admit that his attorneys had hired private detectives to “investigate” Judge Snow’s wife.
What kind of douchebag is Joe Arpaio? Well, he endorsed Donald Trump back in January.
How do you think the right wing nutjobs would have reacted had Pres. Obama pulled a stunt like this? Just close your eyes and imagine.
Featured image via Courtney Pedroza, New York Times
