The Importance of Marching Against Arpaio

I was one of the thousands of human rights marchers on Saturday, January 16th in Phoenix, Arizona, united to protest the heinous actions of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Unfortunately, I left my phone in the vehicle so wasn’t able to tweet updates or photos throughout the event, but as I think about it a couple of days later, those things don’t matter as much as what I’ve been seeing in the aftermath of the event. Arpaio’s abuses are finally getting enough media attention to make his actions a political liability. Call it a gut feeling, but that’s what I’m observing.

Sheriff Joe is a notorious media-hound. He is the first to admit that he relishes in the attention given to his anti-migrant, and by extension of his racism, anti-latino policies. His delusions of grandeur, however, are misplaced as media sources from all parts of the country show images from the march and include in their stories the various investigations that are exposing the violations of his law enforcement agency.

Sheriff under investigation
Critics have alleged racial profiling by deputies working in Arpaio’s immigration efforts, which the sheriff denies. He says his deputies approach people when they have probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.

Ten months ago, Arpaio learned he was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for alleged discrimination and unconstitutional searches. He says the investigation was prompted by his immigration efforts, although federal authorities haven’t provided details.

Since early 2008, Arpaio has run 13 immigration and crimes sweeps involving officers who flood a section of a city — in some cases heavily Latino areas — to seek out traffic violators and arrest other violators.

Arpaio’s power to make federal immigration arrests was stripped away three months ago by officials in Washington, but he continues his immigration efforts through the enforcement of two state laws.

MSNBC.com

One of those “heavily Latino areas” is the Phoenix suburb of Guadalupe that was founded by Yaquis in the early 20th century. From the town’s website:

Although Guadalupe didn’t incorporate until 1975, our history dates back to 1907. Guadalupe is home to three cultures – with one of those cultures being the Yaqui Indians. The Yaqui Indians have endured many turbulent times beginning with wars fought against the Spanish and Mexicans. The Yaquis were trying to protect the land that they lived on near the Yaqui River in Sonora, Mexico. When Porforio Diaz defeated them, the Yaquis were sent down to the jungles of Yucatan. But during the Mexican Revolution, the Yaquis joined up with Pancho Villa. When Villa’s army was defeated, the Yaquis headed to the United States for safety. Many of the Yaquis came up to the Salt River Valley to work on the construction of canals in the area. A community sprung up here – where we became Guadalupe.

In 2008, the mayor and council of Guadalupe had a public confrontation with Sheriff Joe after an immigration raid at the local Family Dollar convenience store. It was a high profile example of what the latino community in Maricopa County have long-believed: brown skin raises your likelihood of harassment from Arpaio’s immigration witch hunt. He’d rather direct resources to targeting workers than apprehending violent criminals. Even the conservative Goldwater Institute understand this.

Immigration enforcement is important. But in its decision to add to its law-enforcement duties those of a “full-fl edged anti-illegal immigration agency,” MCSO has accomplished neither task well. By diverting precious law-enforcement resources on high-profile, extremely expensive, yet low-yielding immigration sweeps, MCSO has undermined its eff ectiveness in its core mission of protecting the lives and property of the people who look to it for protection. And by failing to
coordinate its raids with local police authorities, MCSO places law-enforcement officers and citizens at great risk.

Goldwater Institute Policy Report (.pdf file)

In response to Saturday’s march, the sheriff retorted, “They are zeroing in on the wrong guy,” Arpaio said. “They ought to be zeroing in on the president.”

Which is a big lie, of course.

I’ve heard a few times from national immigration organizers that in order to reign in Arpaio, the laws must be changed, but he has proven before that he’ll operate in any manner he chooses by finding loopholes and cherry-picking laws that allow him to continue targeting migrant workers. Here was his response after DHS amended their 287g agreement with Maricopa County.

“I’m going to tell you something, Jay,” he said to Lawrence. “I don’t need the feds to do my crime suppression to opt to arrest illegals. I can do it without the federal authority, and I’m going to continue to do it. It makes no difference. It helps us. Because I don’t have to do all the paperwork for the feds, number one. And number two, I won’t be under their umbrella, their guidance. So I will operate the same way, nothing is going to change.”

Phoenix New Times

Those of us who marched understand this.

That’s why it’s important to come together in public like we did – to signal to other political leaders (and hopefully, Department of Justice officials) that Arpaio’s actions are unacceptable.

As I wrote to an online colleague on Saturday night, each time the march is covered with commentary on the investigations and continue blowing the lid off the sheriff’s abuses, the more politically toxic he becomes and the feds are forced to act. It is the only way he will be stopped, because it’ll be a cold summer day in Phoenix before Sheriff Joe has a change of heart.

For latino families who live in Arpaio’s jurisdication, that day of reckoning can’t come too soon.

 

Nat’l Day of Action – Saturday, Jan 16th

Join thousands of human rights activists as we gather in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday, January 16th at 9AM. There will be a march from Falcon Park to the downtown complex that serves as headquarters for the notorious Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Full information on the event can be found at the Puente AZ website. There is also a Facebook page devoted to the event.

Leading the march will be UFW matron Dolores Huerta, Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, and internationally-famed singer Linda Ronstadt. There will also be a concert at the end of the march featuring Little Joe y La Familia.

This will be the second march I’ve attended to protest the human rights abuses of Sheriff Joe, who is under several federal investigations for racial profiling and harassment of political foes in Maricopa County.

Federal investigators are apparently looking into Arpaio’s actions stemming from his anger over budget cuts handed down by county officials. The budget cuts were part of a long-running feud between Arpaio and county leaders.

In one instance, Arpaio is accused of investigating a $340 million project for a new courts building in downtown Phoenix because he thought that the money should instead be spent on plugging holes in his office’s budget. In other cases, he sent deputies to workers’ homes on nights and weekends.

“Their way of showing their displeasure was to investigate, using the criminal justice process on people who were simply doing their jobs,” Smith said.

ABC15

If you can’t attend the march, please consider donating toward water bottles for the participants via the National Day Laborer Organizing Network

 

Arpaio’s Policies Include Shackling During Birth

Last summer, I covered the horrific story of Juana de la Paz being shackled during labor and, after the birth of her child, prevented from breastfeeding. That outrageous human rights abuse occured in Tennessee.

Well, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has brought this scourge of inhumane policy to Maricopa County:

During her second night behind bars, the bleeding started. On the morning of October 14, she felt contractions. Her hands and feet shackled, she was in labor and ushered into a paramedic’s van by a detention officer who restrained her to the stretcher.

“That’s not necessary,” the paramedic told the officer.

“It’s my job,” the officer responded. The guard was a Latina.

She thought she would be released from the shackles once she arrived at the hospital, but she wasn’t.

The officer chained her ankle to one leg of the hospital bed.

A nurse requested that she be freed to get a urine sample. But the officer suggested instead that her bed be dragged over to the bathroom.

Later she was changed from her jail uniform into a hospital gown.

“The officer chained me by the feet and the hands to the bed,” she said. “And that’s how my daughter was born.”

Phoenix New Times

The Department of Justice needs to get off its ass and finish up their investigation so this domestic terrorism can end.

 

The latest on Sheriff Joe Arpaio

 

Pulitzer for Arizona Journalists’ Exposé on Arpaio

Crossposted from The Sanctuary

The East Valley Tribune covers suburban communities throughout the Phoenix metro area’s east side and has had a roller coaster year. As with other traditional media sources facing a downturn in demand and economic stability, they have downsized their staff and services.

Well, one of the laid-off reporters, Paul Giblin, snagged the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize yesterday along with still-employed Ryan Gabrielson for their work on the series Reasonable Doubt that chronicled the abuses of Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Executive editor Chris Coppola, who was managing editor at the time the series was produced, said:

“This series by Ryan and Paul was the result of an exhaustive examination of public records and interviews with numerous sources, including many within the sheriff’s office, to shed more light on an issue of growing importance both nationally and right here in our communities. It’s gratifying that the Pulitzer judges recognized that effort with this honor.

“I know many of our readers appreciated what this series brought to light, while others were critical of our reporting, but in the end, the Tribune helped engage more people within our community on the topic,” Coppola said.

East Valley Tribune

The five-part series was a welcomed addition to the conversation about Arpaio’s controversial and ongoing abuse of power that has leveraged the Maricopa County Sheriff Office to target migrant workers and latinos by extension. Reasonable Doubt chronicles the effects of MCSO’s expenses and personnel assignments, showing very clearly that Sheriff Arpaio fails at his job to maintain safety in the jurisdiction.

 

Arpaio Under Investigation by DOJ

It’s about time!

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a civil-rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office after months of mounting complaints that deputies are discriminating in their enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division notified Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday that they had begun the investigation, which will focus on whether deputies are engaging in “patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.”

An expert said it is the department’s first civil-rights probe related to immigration enforcement.

Arizona Republic

 

Thousands March Against Arpaio In Phoenix

Crossposted from The Sanctuary

On Saturday, thousands marched through the heart of the fifth largest city in the United States – Phoenix, Arizona – to demand an end to the abuses of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The crowd gathered at Steele Indian School Park in the morning to hear several speakers, musicians, religious and tribal leaders offer their thoughts and prayers before setting out south down Central Avenue towards downtown. The crowd steadily grew as the march advanced in the near-90 degree heat of the Arizona desert.

This latest exercise of 1st Amendment rights to assembly was in response to the escalation of anti-immigrant and anti-latino actions by Sheriff Arpaio since winning reelection in November 2008. The racial profiling has increased under his leadership and families continue to be separated by gestapo-like workplace & home raids that Arpaio claims are part of his oath to uphold state law. He also believes that it’s his duty as sheriff to segregate and humiliate migrant workers, treating them like animals by electrifying the perimeter fence around their tent city detainment facility. This latest outrage is what motivated Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine fame to get involved and help lead the march on Saturday. Taking the bullhorn at the federal plaza downtown, he commented:

“By parading human beings shackled in chain gang stripes,” said De la Rocha, “in a misguided effort to collectively humiliate and to terrorize an entire population, he reopened the wounds from which we all still suffer, by invoking the painful memories of slavery and segregation…by doing so, he has not only brought shame upon the state of Arizona, but is bringing shame upon the entire nation.”

De la Rocha also saved some spank for Arizona’s ex-governor.

“If Janet Napolitano seeks to perform her mission as head of the so-called Homeland Security Department,” admonished De la Rocha, “she must realize the dangerous threshold that the 287(g) agreements have crossed. She must deal directly and quickly with the real threat to peace and security here in Arizona, by terminating the 287(g) agreement with Sheriff Arpaio’s office and joining the courageous members of congress who have begun an investigation into his criminal behavior.”

Phoenix New Times

The reality of marches and rallies like this is that many of the participants are those who are directly affected by the policies being protested. You would think that signs that proclaim, “WE ARE HUMAN” would be unnecessary, but the fact is that immigration enforcement has been wielded with a strong helping of dehumanization and racism.

Protesters on Saturday were all examples of the nuance that is missing from the broken manner that law enforcement has carried out immigration enforcement. Hardliners like to pretend that it’s okay to arrest, detain and deport anyone without papers, no questions asked; but for every migrant worker who is rounded up in a workplace raid, there is a family and story attached to them that is complicated enough to warrant more than a Kick them out! attitude.

One woman I spoke to was a middle school teacher in Phoenix who carried a sign that said, “I am the VOICE of my Students who fear for themselves & their families”. It is solidarity like this that will ultimately bring about change.

And speaking of change, President Obama was on the mind and lips of many of the protesters. They want to know what he and Secretary Napolitano are going to do to end the nightmare that escalated after Congress failed to pass immigration reform and enforcement-only became the posture of government towards the immigrant community.

I don’t think any one of the thousands who marched in downtown Phoenix were deluded to think that Sheriff Joe Arpaio would suddenly sprout a conscience and stop the terrorizing of latino neighborhoods due to the march. The community mobilization on Saturday was definitely aimed at Washington, D.C. There is an expectation that DHS Secretary Napolitano respond soon and decisively on the Arpaio issue. It will be an important measurement as to whether the Change™ slogan of the Obama campaign is something that extends to immigration.

Meanwhile, education is the key to helping the families and workers gathered to survive. It was encouraging to see a lot of signage and education happening regarding the 287g agreement that Sheriff Arpaio is exploiting to enforce immigration policy in Maricopa County. Organizers from various groups such as the National Day Labor Organizing Network, America’s Voice, Somos America, ACLU and Puente Arizona were on hand passing out “Know Your Rights” materials and talking to participants about ways they can effectively lobby officials to stop the raids and get to work on reforming U.S. immigration law.

As a veteran of the 2006 human rights marches that were largely motivated from outrage at the now-defunct HR4437, this weekend’s event in Phoenix seemed more evolved and assertive. There is a stronger sense of mobilization and commitment to engaging elected officials than before. Perhaps it’s a reaction to seeing Obama getting elected, I have no idea, but I noticed that the cloud of fear that was always present in past immigration marches was more like scattered mist. There was plenty of dancing, chanting, marching and educating to allow the collective human spirit to shine it away.

The next step is making sure someone takes notice in the nation’s capital. Visit SheriffJoeMustGo.com for more information on how to get involved.

 

Protest Sheriff Joe Arpaio This Weekend

Phoenix, Arizona has been a hotbed of activism recently. With spending cuts gutting education and social service programs, many people have taken to the streets near the state capitol complex to make their voices heard. This form of raw democracy continues on Saturday (tomorrow) as many pro-human rights groups unite to protest the abuses of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Who: National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Puente Arizona, and Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine

What: March to Stop the Systematic Persecution of Migrants and Latinos in AZ.

Where: March Start Location for Feb 28th: 300 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85012

When: March to Stop the Hate in Phoenix to be held 9:00 am on February 28.

(More info available from the Arizona Advocacy Network at AZNetroots.com)

For many years, Arpaio has taken any opportunity to exploit state law and his 287g agreement with the Department of Homeland Security so he can target undocumented workers in Maricopa County, and because of his racism, the greater latino community. Pressure has been building against the sheriff, who is already under investigation by the FBI for abuses. The scope widened recently when the chairman and several members of the House Judiciary Committee issued a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano raising many of the same concerns of latinos in the Valley.

This Saturday is an opportunity for bottom-up politicking by those of us who feel threatened by Joe Arpaio’s control of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. We are already seeing the national spotlight move in his direction, and while he loves to be flogged by the media, it’s only a matter of time before the greater Phoenix area realizes that the sheriff is bringing attention that is not welcome; hopefully tightening the leash around Arpaio’s neck.

If you can’t make it to the protest tomorrow and would like other ways to get involved, our friends at America’s Voice have several starting points. The petition is just shy of our goal of 10,000 signatures, so please spread the word.

paz

 

Hip-Hop Community Rallies Against Arpaio

Crossposted from The Sanctuary

The pressure continues to build against the shameful actions of Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio. A week ago, hundreds of community members gathered in the Valley to promote human rights and make it clear that too many lines have been crossed by the sheriff.

Dan Weiss, writing at Imagine 2050, says:

Hours before “Stop The Circus” was to begin I paced nervously in the empty venue. I wondered how the night would end up; if Terrorist Joe would send trouble our way. I imagined the worst, but hoped for the best. I thought to myself ‘if we can pull this off, if the Hip-Hop community can pull this off, we can do anything’.

Thousands of hand shakes and hundreds of signatures later Hip-Hop proved to the world that it can be called upon as a voice of reason in America again. New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Phoenix stood together and let their voices be heard. While Sheriff Joe continues to use violence and terror to spread his message of fear,”Stop the Circus” on the contrary was a peaceful gathering built on respect and tolerance. On February 10th, 400 people met in one room on a few days notice, because they do not tolerate hate or violence, and will not fall victim to fear.

Here is a two-minute YouTube video of the event:

A populist campaign is rising from the streets of nuestra gente. Gritos of ¡Ya Basta! rising like the phoenix in a metropolis of the same name; where a city of tents signal a beacon of darkness and injustice just blocks away from the state’s seat of power. If only more people would recognize this familiar evil.

Human beings deserve to be treated like human beings. No exception. When the music starts to play this melody, our human hearts can only futily resist the rhythm.

Let’s dance.

 

BREAKING: Conyers Calls for Investigation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Breaking News from the office of Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee:

Sheriff Arpaio has repeatedly demonstrated disregard for the rights of Hispanics in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Under the guise of immigration enforcement, his staff has conducted raids in residential neighborhoods in a manner condemned by the community as racial profiling. On February 4, 2009, Arpaio invited the media to view the transfer of immigrant detainees to a segregated area of his “tent city” jail, subjecting the detainees to public display and “ritual humiliation.” Persistent actions such as these have resulted in numerous lawsuits; while Arpaio spends time and energy on publicity and his reality television show, “Smile… You’re Under Arrest!”, Maricopa County has paid millions of dollars in settlements involving dead or injured inmates.

“Racial profiling and segregation are simply not acceptable.” said Conyers. “Media stunts and braggadocio are no substitute for fair and effective law enforcement.”

House.gov

This move comes on the heels of Sheriff Joe’s latest stunt where he segregated and paraded migrant worker detainees in Phoenix like chained animals. Latinos in Maricopa County are well-aware that the sheriff gives the wink-wink/nod-nod treatment to racial profiling so this is definitely welcomed news. Arpaio has repeatedly abused his authority under the 287g agreement between the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and DHS. Frank Sherry of America’s Voice writes:

The Joe Arpaio approach to law enforcement is un-American and ineffective — not to mention expensive. Joe’s actions are the perfect example of why local enforcement of federal immigration law is inherently flawed, and they point to the increasing need for comprehensive immigration reform.

Arpaio is a modern day Bull Connor and his publicity-seeking crusades have made the Latino community scared and Maricopa County less safe by prioritizing racial profiling over executing the felony warrants that have piled up on his desk. His most recent scheme, rounding up immigrants and shipping them off to separate “tent cities,” is just the latest in a career filled with dangerous and anti-Latino demagoguery.

America’s Voice Blog

The letter (.pdf warning) from the congressional committee is addressed to both Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. It will be interesting to see what Napolitano does now since Arpaio hails from Janet’s home state. Conyers is suggesting that the 287g agreement be terminated altogether, which is fine by me.