PHOENIX -- A scathing U.S. Justice Department report released Thursday found that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office carried out a blatant pattern of discrimination against Latinos and held a “systematic disregard” for the Constitution amid a series of immigration crackdowns that have turned the lawman into a prominent national political figure.
Arpaio struck a defiant tone in response to the report, calling it a politically motivated attack by the Obama administration that will make Arizona unsafe by keeping illegal immigrants on the street. “Don’t come here and use me as the whipping boy for a national and international problem,” he said at a news conference.
The Justice Department’s expert on measuring racial profiling said it is the most egregious case of profiling in the nation that he has seen or reviewed in professional literature, said Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
“We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department, a culture that breeds a systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections,” said Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its release, is a result of the U.S. Justice Department’s three-year investigation of Arpaio’s office amid complaints of racial profiling and a culture of bias at the agency’s top level. It cites the East Valley Tribune’s 2008 investigation, “Reasonable Doubt,” which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, and articles by The Associated Press in Phoenix and the Goldwater Institute.
The findings will force Arpaio’s department to make major changes to carry out new policies against discrimination and improve training of staff and officers. Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement to make the changes. If not, the federal government will sue him, possibly putting in jeopardy millions of dollars in federal funding for Maricopa County.
The fallout from the report was swift. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it is severing its ties with Arpaio, stripping his jail officers of their federal power to check whether inmates in county jails are in the county illegally, a move that was meant to speed up deportation.
Homeland security officials also are restricting Arpaio’s office from using a program that uses fingerprints collected in local jails to identify illegal immigrants.
He has long denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of them are illegal immigrants. He called the report “a sad day for America as a whole.”
“We are going to cooperate the best we can. And if they are not happy, I guess they can carry out their threat and go to federal court,” Arpaio said.
The Justice Department’s conclusions in the civil probe mark the federal government’s harshest rebuke of a national political fixture who has risen to prominence for his immigration crackdowns and became a coveted endorsement among candidates in the GOP presidential field. Arpaio ultimately decided to endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who denounced the findings Thursday as politically motivated.
Arpaio has built his reputation on jailing inmates in tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can go to confront illegal immigration. He began aggressive sweeps in immigrant neighborhoods long before the state Legislature passed a 2010 law that cracks down on illegal immigrants and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
While widely popular among conservatives nationwide, Arpaio faces numerous problems at home that have him facing almost-daily calls to step down.
Apart from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury also has been investigating Arpaio’s office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009 and is specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff’s anti-public corruption squad. The squad launched investigations of officials, lawyers and judges who ran afoul of Arpaio, and the cases all collapsed.
Arpaio has also been under pressure from his opponents to resign in the last week after an Associated Press article brought new attention to his office’s bungling of sex crimes and molestation cases in a predominantly Hispanic Phoenix suburb. His office said more than 400 sex-crimes investigations had to be reopened after the department learned of cases that hadn’t been investigated adequately or weren’t examined at all.
Thursday’s report said federal authorities will continue to investigate whether the sex crimes are being properly looked at; complaints of deputies using excessive force against Latinos; and whether the sheriff’s office failed to provide adequate police services in Hispanic communities.
The report took the sheriff’s office to task for launching immigration patrols, known as “sweeps,” based on complaints that Latinos were merely gathering near a business without committing crimes.
Federal authorities singled out Arpaio himself and said his office has no clear policies to guard against the violations, even after he changed some of his top aides earlier this year.
The report also said he and some top staffers tried to silence people who have spoken out against the sheriff’s office by arresting people without cause, filing meritless lawsuits against opponents and starting investigations of critics.
One example cited by the Justice Department is former top Arpaio aide David Hendershott, who filed bar complaints against attorneys critical of the agency along with bringing judicial complaints against judges who were at odds with the sheriff. All complaints were dismissed.
The anti-corruption squad’s cases against two county officials and a judge collapsed in court before going to trial and have been criticized by politicians at odds with the sheriff as trumped-up. Arpaio has defended the investigations as a valid attempt at rooting out corruption in county government.
The civil rights report said Latinos are four to nine times more likely to be stopped in traffic stops in Maricopa County than non-Latinos and that the agency’s immigration policies treat Latinos as if they are all in the country illegally. Deputies on the immigrant-smuggling squad stop and arrest Latino drivers without good cause, the investigation found.
A review done as part of the investigation found that 20 percent of traffic reports handled by Arpaio’s immigrant-smuggling squad from March 2006 to March 2009 were stops — almost all involving Latino drivers — that were done without reasonable suspicion. The squad’s stops rarely led to smuggling arrests.
Deputies are encouraged to make high-volume traffic stops in targeted locations. Latinos who were in the U.S. legally were arrested or detained without cause during the sweeps, according to the report.
During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city — in some cases, heavily Latino areas — over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008, according to figures provided by Arpaio’s office.
Police supervisors, including at least one smuggling-squad supervisor, often used county accounts to send emails that demeaned Latinos to fellow sheriff’s managers, deputies and volunteers in his posse. One such email had a photo of a mock driver’s license for a fictional state called “Mexifornia.”
The report said that the sheriff’s office launched an immigration operation two weeks after the sheriff received a letter in August 2009 about a person’s dismay over employees of a McDonald’s in the Phoenix suburb of Sun City who didn’t speak English. The tip laid out no criminal allegations. The sheriff wrote back to thank the writer “for the info,” said he would look into it and forwarded it to a top aide with a note of “for our operation.”
Federal investigators focused heavily on the language barriers in Arpaio’s jails.
Latino inmates with limited English skills were punished for failing to understand commands in English by being put in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day or keeping prisoners locked down in their jail pods for as long as 72 hours without a trip to the canteen area or making nonlegal phone calls.
The report said some jail officers used racial slurs for Latinos when talking among themselves and speaking to inmates.
Detention officers refused to accept forms requesting basic daily services and reporting mistreatment when the documents were completed in Spanish and pressured Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms that implicate their legal rights without language assistance.
The agency pressures Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms by yelling at them and keeping them in uncomfortably cold cells for long periods of time.
The Justice Department said it hadn’t yet established a pattern of alleged wrongdoing by the sheriff’s office in the three areas where they will continue to investigation: complaints of excessive force against Latinos, botched sex-crimes cases and immigration efforts that have hurt the agency’s trust with the Hispanic community.
Federal authorities will continue to investigate whether the sheriff’s office has limited the willingness of witnesses and victims to report crimes or talk to Arpaio’s office, also known as MCSO.
“MCSO has done almost nothing to build such a relationship with Maricopa County’s Latino residents,” Perez wrote in the report.
The East Valley Tribune and Associated Press Writer Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.
Masterrogue666 posted at 12:40 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
As I recall, the Federal Govt (aka King Obama) is suing the State of Arizona for trying to enforce a law that is similar in some respects to Federal Law.
So, I can guess why this report has come in such a timely manner. Obama refuses to enforce Federal Law. Can a President be subjected to a recall election? If not, perhaps we should just impeach him....
CSalafia posted at 1:56 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
Two things:
1) 1070 isn't "similar" because attrition through enforcement, the goal of 1070, is not Federal policy.
2) Deportations are up, border crossings and crime are down, so the claim of "not enforcing Federal law" is utterly bogus.
davidflucier posted at 2:13 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
Let's be clear...the DOJ has taken charge of MCSO because of a pattern of unconstitutional policing practices, calling it "broken" and supporting a "culture of bias". Arpaio is NOT the toughest Sheriff in the country, he's the most unconstitutional. And, I dare say, that his Office is the most mismanaged, incompetent, and dysfunctional law enforcement agency in the nation. Oh, yeah...then there is the criminal investigation, which is coming on the heels of the civil rights investigation. I'm guessing that there is no positive outcome for the Sheriff or his Office.
Truly, it is time for Mr. Arpaio to resign immediately...if not, begin the Recall immediately.
Aridzonan posted at 2:53 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
Opinion from some Obama stooly named Perez and article by Associated (Who with?) Press. So, what did you expect. The federal Government will not protect our sovereignty but thank God we have a Sheriff that will. Stick with it Joe!
Leon Ceniceros posted at 3:10 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
This is the same Obama Department of Justice who's "FAST AND FURIOUS" Gun-running Operation sold the weapons that the Mexican Drug Cartels used to "MURDER" a "US BORDER PATROL AGENT".............give me a break......just more Obama 2012 Re-Election Rhetoric.
If the Grand Jury hasn't found anything in a year.....it's because there .."SHERIFF JOE IS NOT DOING ANYTHING = ILLEGAL".
US ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER ...LIED...LIED BEFORE CONGRESS STATING UNDER OATH THAT HE DIDN'T KNOW...."NUTT'IN"....ABOUT NO FAST AND FURIOUS PROGRAM.......
ERIC HOLDER IS THE ONE THE GRAND JURY SHOULD BE LOOKING AT FOR.............PERJURY.
samkat posted at 5:58 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
David, you are entitled to your opinion and the rest of us are entitled to ours. This was a hatchet job and they had to bring in a gaggle of Washington stoolies for the press conference. It only took them 3 1/2 years to dredge up the charges.
Go Joe.
Rich posted at 7:10 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
Hatchet job? It is rather simply stating the obvious. The problem is that too many people bought the con for too long. Long enough for about 400 little girls to get raped. When you choose style over substance, all you get is style. Keep up the style, and donate your daughter.
Dale Whiting posted at 9:18 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
Page 20 of the report says "The constitutional violations and institutional deficiencies highlighted above are the product of an ingrained culture that encourages and tolerates the discriminatory treatment of Latino persons and an agency that lacks the requisite policies and practices to ensure effective and constitutional law enforcement. Reform will require sustained commitment to long-term structural, cultural, and institutional change . . . "
From my observations of Sheriff Arpaio, seeing him misbehave in front of a Federal Judge, seeing his attorney have to take him outside to reason with him, hearing reports from Jailors who experienced first hand his policies on handling inmates, I cannot say this report is biased or wrong. Rather I believe it to be true. Others have had similar experiences with Sheriff Joe and have written about them in the Tribune's web site.
So like it or not, guys, Sheriff Joe has done great harm to law enforcement in this county, all to make a name for himself as our Nation's Toughest Sheriff. Sure, he has won our votes, but we have lost our dignity and justice has suffered. Time we sent Joe packing.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:43 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
Tweddle-dumb and Tweddle-dumber....
First..........since the Mesa Police Department for years and years never arrested Citizens of Mexico for Illegal Entry into the United States. That must mean that every single one of Mesa's "little girl" rape cases have been solved ???
Second.....OBAMA'S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE GAVE IT'S ..."OPINION" ...OF SHERIFF JOE'S ACTIVITIES......WAS ONE (1) SINGLE INDICTMENT ISSUED AGAINST SHERIFF JOE BY A FEDERAL GRAND JURY THAT HAS BEEN GOING OVER HIS ACTIVITIES...."TOOTH AND NAIL".....FOR ONE (1) YEAR...365 DAYS ???
The answer to both questions is a..............Big Fat....N.O......NO !!!
As the old saying goes...."You can't ring a lead bell".
Obama has given his Mexican Illegal Alien Amenesty Hispanic Supporters a "hollow"..........2012 Election ..............Christmas Present....an nicely wrapped.......EMPTY BOX.
Rich posted at 11:33 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
So, Leon, you're endorsing rape of little girls because, at least according to you, both the County AND Mesa don't try to stop it? That finding someone who doesn't have his ID with him and happens to be Hispanic is more important that protecting your children? Seems a bit extreme.
soricobob posted at 4:14 am on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
How in the world can the DOJ get anything done? It took them 3+ years to write this, and we knew it all along (whether we agree with it or not).
retired03 posted at 8:42 am on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
I have read a lot of hot air in the opinions posted on this article. First off, do you actually believe the feds went on a witch hunt to get arpiao? No, this investigation is the result hundreds of complaints filed against him and his office. Do you really think this was all made up? no, they took there time and interviewed nundreds of witnesses and read hundreds of documents at MCSO. Once you interview these witnesses, their statments must be corroborated and this is the third point, all of this takes time, a lot of time. But, each of you supporting this sorry excuse for a law enforcement officer have turned a deaf ear on these complaints and have already made up your mind without looking at the charges and the evidence to support them. Instead, you make excuses about the feds failure to enforce illegal immigration, make snide remarks about our president and generally do not address the issue of arpaios incompetence. I have known this for years, as many people in the valley have. arpaio stand up and looks you in the eye and tells you how he is enforcing the law of the land, but his record finally caught up to him. His arrogance led him to believe the citizens of this county will overlook it or believe his lies. Sadly, he contiues to stand up and deny his faiure to control his deputies, continues to violate the rights of human beings and runs a law enforcement agency with policies right out of 1960's. He is an embarrasment to all law enforcement agencies that strive to be professional
Poorman posted at 9:01 am on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
You gringos better learn to speak Spanish,as we are going to run things before long,and you gringos will be working for us! With the help of politics we are winning and will be in the majority here before long we will control the elections with our votes.
phxvato1202 posted at 11:05 am on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
@leonceniceros-- hey lambe, before you throw a victory party make sure you understand that this was simply the civil rights investigation and as was mentioned the ciminal investigation continues and will be completed so those charges you say weren't found were not in the civil portion of the investigation but when the criminal part is completed then maybe you won't be jumping up with so much glee.
I won't argue the points of the investigation since they are public material and you will only read and accept what fits your warped way of thinking, but the investigation will continue on the child abuse cases from El Mirage and who knows there might be some criminal charges coming out of there. I know you are a proud supporter of arpaio but then i suppose all the losers stick together.
samkat posted at 6:47 pm on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
Poman: When that happens, I will be screaming loud and clear to the EEO, the DOJ, the trash collector and everyone else that I demand equal treatment. I will ask the ACLU (fat chance of them responding) to defend my rights as a minority. Then, I want an Anglo Legal Defense Fund and Education organization, an Anglo American Legal Defense Fund, an Anglo Congressional Caucus, an Anglo Chamber of Commerce to match the rest of the minorities. Since you will be in the majority, you will no longer be entitled to use those terms. I will demand that everything be printed in English so I don't have to bother learning Spanish. I will demand that all voting ballots be printed in English as well as Spanish. I will demand the American flag be flown as opposed to the Mexican flag, etc., etc. Since you will be in the majority, I will organize protests every day to demand equal rights and equal treatment. I will encourage as many illegals from European countries to immigrate illegally as possible to take jobs from the Spanish speaking majority. I will suggest they fly their nation's flags and demand their customs and language be taught in our schools. Why should they bother to learn Spanish either? There is no need for them to do since they will only be following the trend. Oh, and we will all scream racial profiling every time a Hispanic breathes hard.
Arizona Willie posted at 11:01 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
There is no question about it --- Sheriff Joe is running a biased organization --- and IT SHOULD BE.
It is biased against CRIMINALS.
It is biased against people who have come to this country ILLEGALLY -- AND IT SHOULD BE.
BIAS IS GOOD
PROFILING CRIMINALS IS GOOD
Arizona Willie posted at 11:03 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
retired03 .. yes there were complaints filed against Sheriff Joe.
Who filed them?
Hispanics and relatives of hispanics who got caught being here illegally ... and their employers aren't happy either.
Arizona Willie posted at 11:17 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
What we have been watching is MONEY going after a threat.
MONEY wants illegal labor to cut costs and increase it's profits.
Remember -- Sheriff Joe was the greatest Sheriff in the history of law enforcement according to all the media --- until he began enforcing the laws against illegal immigration.
Then suddenly he was a no good worthless S.O.B ... again according to the media which is owned by -- you guessed it -- MONEY.
Then Sheriff Joe's enforcement of the law began to spread to other states and MONEY became more worried about it's profits and the pressure against Sheriff Joe increased daily.
Sheriff Joe is the poster boy for enforcing the law so getting him out of office is symbolically important in MONEY'S quest to stop enforcement of laws against illegal immigrant labor.
The more states that have introduced laws similar to Arizona's the more pressure has been brought to bear on the people responsible for Arizona's law enforcement against illegals.
They got Russell Pearce and are now think they are about to get Joe.
They probably will.
MONEY always wins. ALWAYS.
I notice the Fed accusations about denial of rights in the jail mentioned all of 5 cases.
Only 5 instances out of over a million people who have passed through Joe's jail during his tenure?
Only 5?
You could find more cases of discrimination against hispanics in Mexico City's jail.
If it wasn't so sad it would be funny.
Only 5 cases where there was some kind of evidence other than a hispanic claiming discrimination with no basis other than he is trying to get out of whatever he was caught at.
Folks the great American dream is OVER.
The U.S.A. will soon be another 3d word nation with a few mega-rich families owning everything and your children will be peons as in the Middle Ages.
GREED wins again.
Companies like Hersheys chocolate that was very very profitable, shut down the town named after them and moved to China for slave labor in order to get even MORE profit.
I no longer buy anything with the name HERSHEY on it. I would rather buy Godiva a company that never deliberately harmed it's own workers.
The same for Whirlpool, Levi, and many other companies.
GREED has won. Our middle class is on the way out. Just yesterday, I believe it was, the Arizona Republic reported 1 out of 2 people in the U.S. are officially poor.
What happened to our country?
Ronald Reagan and GREED.
Ronald started the ball rolling and since then the country has gone downhill for working people and the wealthy have gotten wealthier.
It is my belief that the government organized the Occupy movement in order to relieve pressure by getting the unhappy people blow off steam.
I probably won't be here that much longer ... being a geezer who lives in Heavens Waiting Room ( Mesa ) but many of you who read this will.
And many of you, especially right wingers, will scoff.
Print this out and look at it when you get laid off and an illegal takes your place.
You think it won't happen? No one can do your job?
You are stoopid if you believe that.
Mexicans are not stupid. They have the same occupations we have here and many of them are quite willing to come take your job for 1/3 your pay with no benefits.
When MONEY wins and they get Sheriff Joe thrown out of office and other Sheriffs quit trying to enforce the law out of fear for their jobs, and when the Supreme Court rules against the efforts to stop illegal aliens ( and they will -- it is dominated by Republicans who are wholly owned by MONEY ), the border will be wide open and there will be NO enforcement of ANY laws against who can work here and your jobs will go the way of the construction people who have seen their jobs taken by illegals.
It WILL happen. MONEY says so. And MONEY always wins --- ALWAYS.
Poorman posted at 1:23 pm on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
Poster Samkat,your a little late,should have been doing that already!Your already being discriminated againist.
samkat posted at 5:42 pm on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
poman: You are right. Obama has stacked his administration with every Black and Hispanic activist he can find. Everything else is filled with union thugs. Discrimination against Anglos is very much evident. :-)