Editorial Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio is chilling

President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent chills down the spines of many Americans — but for different reasons.

For white supremacists and anti-immigration activists, it was an invigorating signal that the president has their backs if they stretch the law.

For law-abiding Americans, including police officers who abhor profiling and the violence that often comes with it, the pardon was an unnerving signal that the president does not have theirs.

Arpaio is the former Maricopa County sheriff whose entire career made a mockery of civil and human rights. The United States Justice Department monitored his operation for decades for a wide range of outrageous and cruel practices, from housing prisoners in tents where temperatures hit 145 degrees to the racial profiling that finally got the sheriff convicted of a crime.

Arpaio was under a number of court orders over the years, and one was to stop profiling — stopping drivers or otherwise rounding up people who looked Hispanic. He defied the order. This is what led to his criminal conviction in July. He was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5, possibly to six months in jail.

Fortunately, voters had booted him out of office in 2016, so stopping him was not the issue. The Justice Department pursued the criminal case on the principle that court orders are serious, and violating them has consequences. Trump apparently asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to drop the charge, but Sessions said that would be inappropriate.

Usually pardons come after sentencing, appeals and other court proceedings are finished, but not this time. Trump couldn’t wait.

If Trump were a loyal friend, his relationship with Arpaio from the campaign might explain this. But the president has cheerfully thrown other allies under the bus — most recently Steve Bannon — when they no longer met his political needs.

No, this is a statement about racism and law enforcement; they can go hand in hand in Trump’s America. It is for the “fine people” marching and chanting with white supremacists in Charlottesville. It encourages people in law enforcement and other professions to stretch the boundaries of what is allowed: Abuse Latinos, ignore the law, and the president will stand by you.

Meanwhile, the White House vilifies places like San Jose, where the police focus on crime and not immigration status, and where not only the police chief but the police union is seeking grants for training to better avoid violent confrontation.

Violence in the streets, like Berkeley’s over the weekend — unthinkable just a few years ago — is becoming common less than a year after America elected a president who encouraged his own supporters to beat up protesters at his rallies.

By not only pardoning Joe Arpaio but also praising him and his anti-immigrant fervor — so what if some people’s rights are trampled along the way? — the president is doubling down.

Trump apparently asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to drop the charge, but Sessions said that would be inappropriate.