I'm not a fan of Sheriff Joe. Neither am I a detractor. I do like some of the things that he does, yet I am uneasy with some other things. Maybe if I lived in Maricopa County I would be able to muster an honest/informed opinion of America's most loved/hated sheriff. I do not, and will not.
Someday though, his luck will run out.
He's a wanted man, after all.
It will take the right prosecutor hungry enough to earn some stripes, regardless of what it may take to do so...
Such is the nature of federal law and federal prosecutorial power:
If they want you badly enough, they will get you.
14 comments:
I hope he ends up in a cell block full of Mexicans.
Seems that by suggesting it could be likely that Arpaio could end up in a cell block full of Mexicans, Brian's conceding that there is a serious problem with illegal immigrant crime, and thus Arpaio is exactly right to make enforcement of immigration laws a priority.
And good luck, Brian. Something tells me that if as ideologically driven a "Justice" department as Holder's fails to conjure up even in indictment of Arpaio, the sheriff is going to need to change his ways for the worse to make your wish come true.
The Mexican people who live in America are basically family-valued, church-going, pro-life, patriarchal, hard working and culturally conservative. I've always wondered what possible good it does the GOP and conservatives to keep driving them into the arms of Democrats by insulting them and using them as a scapegoat and allowing this sheriff whatshisname to be the face they want to show such a ready-made constituency.
There are a great many ways President Reagan wouldn't make it in the GOP these days. One of which is on the issue of immigration, as he was for amnesty in his day. It's another tactical mistake I believe conservatives make just to - I don't know - look clever and be right on the internet or something.
The marriage of obtuse and verbose is not a pretty one, but there it is every time.
Except for the fact that the GOP is not doing that, RW. It's the Democratic narrative, but you will not find too many conservatives blaming Hispanics who are eligible to vote--"legal immigrants"--for these problems.
Then it must be a perception issue, where that becomes reality. Because despite what is officially said or believed I don't know of any Latinos who don't think the Right hates them or fears them or wants them around.
My sampling is small and I'm only going by personal experience, but I punch a clock and I work with a dozen Mexican guys. That's all I can see with my own eyes. They work harder than most of the white boys - and I think that's what is scary to some of us - and are all about family and personal honor. But they also are somehow convinced Republicans use them as a whipping boy every chance they get.
It may not be the stated goal or policy, but if that's the case there hasn't been much to convince them otherwise, since some of their legacies include bending the immigration laws in their past or the past of their parents. All a person has to say is "stop illegal immigration" and they feel everything they've done to the good is wiped out. Proof of the pudding is that they voted for President Reagan in droves.
"Illegals" coming in to the US want to work and make a better life for their families. With the way these guys are all you have to do is back them up and they'd be straight-ticket voters for the people who helped their compadres. Instead there's this goofball as the face of the Right, so far as they are concerned.
That's all I mean to say.
I know I know, everybody's gonna look at the source for this and go "ah sure NPR liberal blah blah blah, socialist blah, Democrat mouthpiece etc and so forth blah," but before anybody gets all knee-jerk just read the fuckin story...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672
"Illegals" coming in to the US want to work and make a better life for their families. With the way these guys are all you have to do is back them up and they'd be straight-ticket voters for the people who helped their compadres.
I agree with this -- the problem is that there are some exceptionally nasty people who are operating in northern Mexico these days. Rampant criminality among small portions of an immigrant population is hardly unusual in the immigrant experience, but it takes time for other people to suss it out.
Probably 99% of the Italian immigrants who came to America were law-abiding, but we still love the Godfather movies. And if you care to go back far enough into my family's history (I'm German/Irish), you'll find a few people who were viewed with suspicion. And with good reason.
Also, good to see you commenting, RW.
Again, though, I think we take a wrong turn when we lump people in with their group's bad crowd. I know one Mexican guy at work who is specifically here to get away from the drug lords and all the crap they're making for regular people in Guerrero, where he comes from. But it is also wrong to lump Italians in with organizes crime, or Germans with Nazis or Irish with the IRA or... like in my case Polacks with stupid people in general... And we should know this by now, you'd think. I mean, really.
safe to say that likely half of my coworkers came here illegally at one time.
they punch a clock, keep their kids in school,and spend off time with family (with mexicans: somebody in the extended family is having a birthday party/bbq this weekend. he'll be there... along with his son who is saving money/searching student aid to continue his degree in US history.
(No lie, Jose joined the shop six months ago, cant wait to go back to school)
for me, its the 1%ers that dont get properly weeded out that bug me.
And we should know this by now, you'd think. I mean, really.
We have to learn the same lessons over and over.
they punch a clock, keep their kids in school,and spend off time with family
Yep. That's exactly what you see anywhere you go. Mexicans come to the U.S. now for the same reason that my German and Irish ancestors did 170 years ago. And they are opposed for the same reason that my ancestors were opposed by the Know-Nothings in the 1850s. It's human nature to distrust newcomers, especially those who speak a different language or look different than you do. And that's why we have to learn the same lessons over and over -- intellect and education only occasionally trump human nature, especially the baser impulses we all have.
To bring it back to Joe for a minute...I slipped into my Arizonan habit of using "Mexican" to refer to "Hispanic people in Arizona" since roughly a quarter of the native population there are descended from Mexicans. In other words, they're Mexican the same way Gino is Italian or RW is Polish.
Of course, there are legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico as well, and a very small subset are criminals. But the problem with Sheriff Joe (well one of them) is that the net he and his goons cast is so wide they have a troubling habit of bothering anyone with a tan. The Feds may not feel that they have enough to prosecute, but if you talk to anyone that has spent time in MC, it isn't exactly a secret that this s the case.
Personally, I am much more troubled by his habit of using the MCSD to intimidate his critics in the government and press, and would much rather see the DOJ put its time into investigating that. But that is probably an even more difficult case to build.
I am much more troubled by his habit of using the MCSD to intimidate his critics in the government and press
its called politically savy (sp). practiced at all levels, and especially so at the federal levels.
Brian; fair enough. What baffles me, though, is why those who came here legally would be keen on protecting those who don't. One would think that they'd be very keen on someone at least doing a background check to make sure we're not getting lots of felons into the country.
And regarding the MCSD: given that the DOJ has essentially admitted they were in a fishing expedition against Sheriff Joe, we need to add some names, like Eric Holder, to the list of people using their office to intimidate.
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