OUT OF LEGAL TROUBLE
DONALD TRUMP’S PARDON IS THE ULTIMATE VINDICATION FOR EX- SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, WHO COMPLAINED HE WAS BEING UNFAIRLY TARGETED FOR ENFORCING THE LAW.
• In his 24 years as metro Phoenix’s sheriff, Joe Arpaio survived scandals and dodged investigations that would easily have sunk the careers of many politicians.
He locked up journalists and made criminal cases against political adversaries who tangled with him, investigated judges and misspent US$100 million in jail funds. He let investigations into child rape cases languish because officers were pulled away, in part, to help in Arpaio’s immigrant efforts.
Arpaio was found to have violated the civil rights of Latinos in a racial- profiling case expected to cost taxpayers US$ 92 million by next summer.
His critics felt like they finally won a measure of accountability against the lawman after he was found guilty earlier this month on a misdemeanour contempt charge for flouting the courts in carrying out his signature immigration patrols.
But their victory was upended when a pardon by his most powerful political ally — President Donald Trump — allowed Arpaio to wiggle out of legal jeopardy again.
“Arpaio played up to Trump, and Trump is a good old boy, and he doesn’t give a damn about us — only likes people of his own mind and from his base,” said Mary Rose Wilcox, a former county official who was charged with crimes in a now- discredited corruption case brought by Arpaio. “He wanted red meat, and Arpaio was that red meat.”
For Arpaio, the pardon is the ultimate vindication after repeatedly complaining that he was being unfairly targeted for merely enforcing the law in arresting immigrants in the country illegally.
He celebrated the victory at an Italian restaurant with his wife and said he’ ll discuss more about his future early next week. The former sheriff vowed to remain active politically, and issued a fundraising appeal for his legal defence fund within an hour or two of the pardon’s announcement Friday afternoon. Arpaio, reached Saturday, declined to comment further.
A judge nominated to the bench by former president George W. Bush ordered Arpaio to stop his immigration patrols in 2011 amid allegations that his officers were racially profiling Latinos. The judge later found Arpaio’s office systematically profiled Latinos and recommended a criminal charge against the sheriff for prolonging the patrols 17 months after he had ordered them stopped.
The pardon drew widespread condemnation among Latinos, Democrats and even some Republicans who believe the move is offensive to immigrants at a time of deep racial divisions in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville. Some conservatives said it was a long-overdue action to preserve the legacy of a man they say was punished for doing his job.