Why do local nativists feel emboldened and increasingly willing to express themselves violently? Well, it’s no coincidence that most local nativists are rabid supporters of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio’s tactics and rhetoric play to the nativists. He green-lights their hatred of Mexican immigrants, and with his own lawless behavior gives…
The State Bar of Arizona has rejected five complaints against Maricopa County leaders submitted a few months ago by the Sheriff’s Office. MCSO Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott wrote to the State Bar with complaints against County Manager David Smith, Wade Swanson (director of general litigation office), Richard Stewart (director of special…
Long before the judges and lawyers got into the act (excepting such stalwarts as Danny Ortega and Antonio Bustamante, who’ve been active since the beginning), Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was speaking out, marching and working against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Wilcox was instrumental in getting former Mesa Police Chief…
The far-right wingnut blog Sonoran Alliance just posted a whiny e-mail from Sheriff Joe begging for campaign contributions, even though his next run for sheriff wouldn’t be until 2012. At times, he makes it sound like it’s some sort of legal defense fund. Yet Joe’s Web site notes that donators’…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Captain Joel Fox testified earlier this week before the grand jury probing the SCA campaign finance scandal — triggering speculation that an indictment in the case could come as early as next month.Grand jury proceedings are secret and, typically, the subject of a probe doesn’t make an…
Back in July, Captain Joel Fox, frontman for the SCA fund, wrote the following comment on our blog: There has never been a “meeting” of SCA donors. How you figure you could get all the people on that list into one room is beyond me. I can hardly get in…
You’ll recall that in November, I reported that MCSO deputies had admitted under oath to destroying documents requested by the plaintiffs in the big Melendres vs. Arpaio racial profiling lawsuit now in federal court. In an excerpt of a deposition made public as part of a request for sanctions against…
Yesterday, I spoke with Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which is currently investigating civil rights violations by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies. Though he would not confirm the fact that a team from the DOJ has been in town this week…
What a difference a couple of days make. Less than 72 hours ago, members of the pro-immigrant community in Phoenix were kvetching to me about the lack of follow-through on the part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. As I reported in my column this week, activists…
As I’ve been on deadline the last couple of days, I haven’t been able to comment on Nightline’s recent, two-pronged report on Sheriff Joe, the second part of which I enjoyed immensely. That segment dealt mostly with Arpaio’s abuses in the jails and made specific reference the 1996 death of…
A team of deputies hit the streets last night in an attempt to interview Superior Court judges’ assistants in their homes.”It was pure intimidation,” one judge who asked to remain anonymous tells New Times. Judicial assistants are hired and fired by the judges, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was counting…
Nightline’s piece on our corrupt top constable runs tonight — you know, the one ABC was working on when they sent Nightline talking head Martin Bashir to Phoenix to cover one of Arpaio’s anti-immigrant sweeps last month. The speculation at the time was that Arpaio had coordinated the sweep with the aim of providing…
Chicanos Por La Causa officials and their supporters held a press conference today to blast the MCSO’s recent day-long raid on CPLC’s headquarters in Phoenix. CPLC CEO Edmundo Hidalgo and attorney Danny Ortega, Board Chair of the National Council of La Raza, were joined by the leaders of organizations such…
Though I didn’t make Dennis Burke’s swearing in as the new U.S. Attorney for Arizona yesterday, I did make the after-party — a reception at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in downtown Phoenix. The reception, sponsored by Congressman Ed Pastor and Phoenix political consultant Ronnie Lopez, was attended by…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas claimed at a news conference on Tuesday that allegations of problems with Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s financial-disclosure forms “haven’t panned out.” He also says that if his office received bona fide information about a possible violation of the law, he’d act on it. Well, Mr. Thomas and…
The nativists talked a big game on the United for a Sovereign America Web site, calling for a protest of two Applebee’s restaurants in Phoenix that were participating in a fundraiser for Sal Reza’s Macehualli Work Center. But other than harassing the employees and customers of the two locations, the…
Like a lot of anti-Arpaio activists in town, videographer Dennis Gilman has been helping the U.S. Department of Justice gather evidence of abuse of power and racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. He’s provided them with a massive amount of video that he and others have culled while…
After a year of debate and study amongst its 20 panel members, the University of Denver’s Strategic Issues Program released a final report today titled “Architecture for Immigration Reform,” which provides an honest assessment of America’s immigration dilemma along with detailed suggestions for guiding U.S. immigration policy.There’s much to like about the…
As the saying often goes, politics certainly makes for some interesting bedfellows, and from the looks of things, PR whiz Jason Rose has got the biggest bed in town.Rose has ties to Sheriff Arpaio, County Attorney Andy Thomas, and based on a seven degrees of Jason Rose chart compiled by…
Phoenix human rights activist Sal Reza’s Macehualli Day Labor Center at 25th Street and Bell Road is in dire financial straits, and you can help by eating at one of two Applebee’s locations Thursday, December 10. As part of Applebee’s Dining to Donate program, the Phoenix restaurants at 2 East Camelback…
As that great Phoenix philosopher Fronzo “the Fonz” West once asked in a riddle worthy of a Buddhist koan, “How do you call the cops on the cops?” Here in Mari-Kafka County, the problem’s compounded by the fact that one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in the nation…
The Goldwater Institute can be reactionary on various issues, particularly when it comes to denouncing President Obama on health care reform, siding with the tea bag types or rah-rahing charter schools. Hell, it ain’t named after the late Senator Barry Goldwater for nothin’.Still, you have to give G.I. props for…
