Saying no to Sheriff Joe

Fresh from proclaiming that “racism is evil,” President Trump went on to express his willingness to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who stands convicted of criminal contempt for illegally detaining Latinos. Hey, no mixed message there! Trump told Fox News, “I am seriously thinking about it.”

He called the 85-year-old sheriff, defeated in the last election, a “great American patriot” who had “done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration.”

Well, you see, that’s the problem. “Sheriff Joe” wasn’t particularly fussy about who he detained or why. And that’s how he got himself in trouble with the law.

Arpaio’s case goes back to 2011, when U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow enjoined Arpaio from detaining people — invariably Latinos — he thought might be illegal immigrants even though they had not been charged with another crime.

A Justice Department report found Arpaio’s department had engaged in blatant racial profiling, with Latinos anywhere from four to nine times more likely to be pulled over for a traffic stop than non-Latinos. Spanish speakers were also more likely to be put in solitary confinement.

The judge said cut it out. Sheriff Joe didn’t. Now he stands convicted of criminal contempt.

“He has protected people from crimes and saved lives,” Trump insisted. “He doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”

Well someone might want to get the president a copy of that Justice Department report, which also found that while Sheriff Joe’s deputies were off rounding up Latinos for being, well, Latino, his department was neglecting a rising tide of violent crime.

Sheriff Joe is no hero. He’s just a grandstander with a grudge who openly defied the law and then repeatedly defied a judge’s order before voters wisely showed him the door.

A pardon would put this president on the side of racism and against the rule of law — not a good place to be.