You are certainly entitled to your own opinion, but you've offered nothing more than that.
The DoJ at least pretended to look for evidence.
You didn't evem bother to pretend.
Do years of reading the New Times investigative journalism pieces count? I didn't have to pretend, I just didn't link to the stuff. Now I did. Happy reading. Again, the dude is super slimey.
For more than 15 years, Phoenix New Times has reported on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's serious abuse of power. The self-described "Toughest Sheriff in America" has fostered horrendous jail conditions, reckless police operations, and carried out personal vendettas against political rivals and members of the press. In the last year or more, he has also appointed himself enforcer of the nation's immigration laws in Arizona, and a whole new series of problems has emerged. Foremost, he and his deputies have violated the Constitutional rights of brown-skinned U.S. citizens and have committed outright cruelty against the undocumented. This year, the U.S. Justice Department has commenced an investigation of his action
www.phoenixnewtimes.com...
Incidentally, the archives on the page linked above go back to articles written in 1993, including one from 1995 when the DOJ was investigating him for civil rights abuses.
FEDS PROBE ALLEGED ABUSE IN COUNTY JAILJOE ARPAIO'S FAMOUS JAIL IS NOW THE SUBJECT OF A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVESTIGATION INTO POSSIBLE CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
www.phoenixnewtimes.com... ent-investigation-into-possible-civil-rights-violations/
And one from 1997 where Iceland refused to extradite prisoners to Phoenix because...
But the Haneses' attorney, Ragnar Arnason, argued in a July 1 court hearing that if Iceland did extradite the pair, they would be subject to a jail system that violated Icelandic standards of humane inmate treatment.
To bolster his case, the attorney played a recent, half-hour German TV documentary which revealed crowded and medieval conditions in Maricopa County jails as well as the mistreatment suffered by Richard Post, a paraplegic whose neck was broken when he was strapped down roughly in a restraint chair by Arpaio's jailers.
www.phoenixnewtimes.com...
Or in 1997 when Amnesty International condemned his practices:
Previously, Rathman says, Amnesty had investigated other American penal institutions, but all were the harshest of state and federal prisons. Maricopa County's jails appear to be the first county jail the organization has heard enough complaints about to investigate.
www.phoenixnewtimes.com...
Or one from 1999 that includes dirty politics and illegal surveilance:
For six months, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has ordered one of his employees to spy on a key member in the election campaign of Tom Bearup, the only announced candidate seeking to unseat Arpaio in 2000.
The wife of a deputy who has performed that surveillance has come forward, and her story, along with court documents, indicate that Bearup campaign worker Jim Cozzolino has been closely watched by deputies working out of the sheriff's enforcement-support division, which is overseen by Arpaio aide David Hendershott. New Times has been told that Hendershott's detectives have confiscated Cozzolino's trash to produce dossiers of information and may have illegally tapped Cozzolino's phone lines.
This news comes as Rick Romley says he's received information of his own that Arpaio has been using his deputies in possibly illegal ways to keep an eye on people Arpaio doesn't like.
www.phoenixnewtimes.com...
And that doesn't even get into all the s**t he's pulled in the 13 years after that point. Dude is dirty, dude is slimy, dude definitely has stuff for DOJ to find, but what does he have on them that they backed down? That's my question.
edit on 5-9-2012 by coyotepoet because: supporting archive articles
