POOR EXCUSE
TRUMP PARDONS ‘RACIST’ SHERIFF
PRESIDENT TRUMP has pardoned Joe Arpaio, giving “America’s toughest sheriff” an easy ride for his lawbreaking instead of a possible prison sentence for discriminatory policing.
“Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration,” the White House said in an announcement Friday night.
Arpaio, 85, had been convicted of criminal contempt in July by an Arizona judge who said he repeatedly violated a court order to stop his harsh police tactics targeting Latinos.
The pardon shows Trump using his presidential powers to absolve a disgraced public official who supported his campaign.
“I appreciate what the President did,” Arpaio told the Associated Press on Friday. “I have to put it out there: Pardon, no pardon — I’ll be with him as long as he’s President.”
The sheriff served four terms as the Maricopa County top law enforcer before getting voted out of office in 2016, several months before his conviction.
The move was immediately condemned by critics.
“Pardoning Joe Arpaio is a slap in the face to the people of Maricopa County, especially the Latino community and those he victimized as he systematically and illegally violated their civil rights,” Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton said.
Arpaio’s office drew national notoriety for its hard-line stance against illegal immigrants, which led to years of complaints about racist policing.
A 2011 report from the U.S. Justice Department said Arpaio’s office had committed the worst patterns of racial profiling the agency had ever seen.
The report said Arpaio and his deputies abused Latino inmates with racist insults and unjust solitary confinement for Spanish speakers. It also found the department targeted Latinos in its traffic stops and often violated Fourth Amendment protections during those stops.
An Arizona judge in 2013 ordered Arpaio to stop all actions that were found discriminatory. But Arpaio kept up his dirty work, leading to his criminal contempt conviction for ignoring the order.
Trump essentially confirmed during a rally in Phoenix Tuesday that he would pardon Arpaio, telling a crowd of supporters that the former sheriff will “be just fine.”
This is Trump’s first pardon in office, and it is unusual for a President to issue pardons — especially ones of such high profile — so soon in his first term. Trump’s three predecessors — Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — waited until at least their second years in office to grant pardons.
The White House said Arpaio’s “50 years of admirable service to our Nation” made him a “worthy candidate” for the pardon.