That worthless bastard and hero of the rabid right wing loons Joe Arpaio is at it again.
Chaining together prisoners and marching them through the streets of Phoenix.
Dan Weiss relates it at Imagine 2050
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, AZ will chain together hundreds of detained immigrants today and force them to march out of a detention facility and into a “Tent City”.
Arpaio’s Maricopa County office released a media advisory titled, Arpaio Orders Move of Hundreds of Illegal Aliens to Their Own Tent City, that can be described as eerily familiar to the first phase of Nazi Germany’s anti-Semitic propaganda. The statement describes detainees being housed in an outdoor city of tents surrounded by an electric fence, with misbehavior punishable by forced labor on a chain gang.They will be treated like all other inmates incarcerated here with two exceptions. Arpaio wants them to be instructed in American immigration laws, as a way to help them understand that the violation of these laws has serious consequences not only to them but to society as a whole. And anyone found to violate jail rules, may end up on a chain gang. This chain gang will work to clean the areas of the valley, which have been impacted by human trafficking trade.
The release even quotes Arpaio himself:
“This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape,” the Sheriff says. “But this is a fence they won’t want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock – literally.”
Wow. One of the more disturbing parts of the statement is the description of when and how the immigrants will be forced to march along with a map and parking instructions for those who wish to witness the event. Parading shackled detainees for public viewing is disgusting.
As a Jewish American it is deeply offensive to see an elected official brazenly flaunt the oppressive treatment of a people whose only crimes were entering the United States without documentation. The dire situation in Arizona is a shameful insult to the democratic freedoms of this country, and should draw cries of outrage from anyone who values the sacrifices our nation has made in the face of oppression.
We’ve seen this pattern in history before. First comes the bigoted propaganda and deprivation of basic human rights, then the intimidation, the detentions, the chains and the forced labor, and sometimes, god forbid, we see the worst. We saw it in Nazi Germany, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the Japanese American Internment Camps, the Trail of Tears…the list goes on.
It’s the same old story. Just with a different tyrant – Joe Arpaio.Dan Weiss is a Chicago Hip Hop artist and the coordinator of the Center for New Community’s Hip Hop Project
That right boys and girls, while felons run free and terrorize the citizens of Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe is playing the media whore at the expense of hard working men and women whose only “crime” was being “brown” in public.
Same blog different perspective from Rev Rev. David L. Ostendorf, who plainly states:
Stop Arizona. Stop Arpaio. Stop the Circus
At 1:00 p.m. today Joe Arpaio, the infamous sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, will chain up some 200 immigrant prisoners and force march them to his nearby tent city for incarceration. Media are welcome and encouraged to view the march, another sick stunt in the Gestapo Sheriff’s widening repertoire of humiliations. With some 10,000 prisoners currently jailed in the County, the tent city will, the sheriff asserts, serves “as a management tool for potential jail overcrowding.”
After marches, sheriff, what’s next? Box cars?
Frankly, however, the question before us is why this shoddy sheriff is getting away with “law enforcement” run amok. Where are the lawsuits against him? Where are the protests to shut him down? Where are the arrests for civil disobedience? Where are the incensed civic and religious leaders? Where are the civil and human rights advocates? Where is the national immigrant rights movement? Where are the politicians? Where is the federal government? Where?
Ten thousand prisoners in a county jail? A tent city for overflow, with an electrified fence? We’ve seen this horror show before. This is an incarceration empire emerging, generously supported by the people of Arizona. The state government recently gave Arpaio 1.6 million dollars back to fight “illegal immigration,” in spite of his tactics. If immigrant prisoners misbehave, we’re assured, they will be on a chain gang cleaning up the valley. Welcome to the Weimar Republic in the desert.
Today we learn that in 2006 ICE’s National Fugitive Operations Program quietly ignored its mandate requiring 75% of those arrested to be criminals, and began rounding up any undocumented immigrants they could. A Migration Policy Institute report released today indicates that some three-quarters of all the people ICE apprehended over a five year period had no criminal records. $625 million down the drain; 96,000 apprehended. Many of them are now residents of Arpaio’s tent city—“criminals” all.
How ironic that this week marks the beginning of the elephant cruelty trial. Animal rights groups have brought suit to stop alleged mistreatment of elephants by the circus in a showcase trial garnering headlines nationwide. Elephants chained. Elephants marched. Elephants. A real trial.
Much has been said and written of Arpaio. Enough. No more excuses. The responsibility to reign him in is ours. Stop the circus.
To answer the Reverends question, there are 2700 lawsuits pending against Joe Arpaio at the moment. Most, as those filed in the past, will be paid out of the counties coffers since his departments liability policy has a $5 million dollar deductible. It used to be $1 million, but the insurers raised the bar after paying hundreds of other lawsuits the Sheriff lost.
The rest of your questions Reverend? Well, Sheriff Joe basically says “Fuck You!” to all who oppose or question his motives.
The only ones who can rein in this ass klown is the voters of Maricopa County or DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano who could cut off his 287(g) funds. And if ever there was reason to do so, this is it.
We can’t count on the voters in a State where a Border Patrol agent murders an illegal immigrant in cold blood. The evidence corroborates the prosecutions case and in the end, two mistrials let the cowardly bastard walk free.
Or a state where a rancher is called a “hero” for violating the civil rights, including kicking a woman who is on the ground, of more than 12,000 illegals he has alleged to have rounded up on his ranch in the past years.
American society has gone to the dogs when people like Arpaio, Barrett, Corbett, Ramos and Compean are considered heroes, and an underclass is treated less than human.
Related posts:
- Media whore Arpaio Cries Wolf, Links Self to Lou Dobbs Threat, Slanders Activists
- Immigration Clearinghouse endorses Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for Governor of Arizona
- Sheriff Joe Arpaio makes overt threats to protect buddy Andrew Thomas in Arizona ethics probe
- Singing Forces Arpaio Out of ASU Forum
- DOJ Investigators take depositions in investigation of Arpaio
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MdeG
