Collateral Damage

Citizen Latinos are now paying the price of rights abuse that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has levied against jail inmates, political enemies and media foes.

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In April, National Council of La Raza chief Janet Murguía gave a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. warning that politicians across the country are using immigration as a wedge issue to get elected in 2008.

 She emphasized that although the targets are mostly Mexican undocumented immigrants, all Latinos – including citizens – are ensnared in an anti-immigration net. The extreme rhetoric of the immigration debate is polarizing communities and making the resultant rancor “one of the largest civil-rights issues not only to the growing Latino vote but of our generation.”

On this national stage, Murguía held up to the national press and world two examples of how the controversial “crime suppression sweeps” tactics by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio spills over to affect citizen Latinos.

“When demonstrators in Arizona put on surgical masks whenever a Latinos walks by, because they think we carry turberculosis…it’s personal…When friends and neighbors get pulled over and asked for immigration papers – and are sometimes detained for hours – even though their families have been in this country for generations…it’s personal.”

 In Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s blustering, get-tough on immigration operations and legendary need to be in the daily headlines has pitted elected officials against elected officials, law enforcers against law enforcers, Latinos against Latinos, and Latinos against non Latinos.

Less than two hundred undocumented immigrants have been netted in the months since the sheriff has started his “crime suppression sweeps” – a questionable return for the thousands of dollars spent in man hours and resources.

And although debatable as a effective anti-illegal immigration tool, the “saturation patrols” have succeeded in bringing charges of racial profiling of citizen Latinos.

Arpaio denies these charges “I arrest everyone and put them in jail,” the sheriff has said.

Yet Arpaio’s immigrant round-up operations are not the only thing the elected Maricopa county sheriff is drawing heat for.

Arpaio is criticized for being fiscally irresponsible and wasting taxpayer money.

According to Maricopa County Risk Manager Peter Crowley, Sheriff Joe has cost the county an estimated $42 million in lawsuit settlements, attorney’s fees and rapidly increasing annual insurance premiums since 1995 alone. Over $50 million in lawsuits have been filed naming the sheriff and the county as defendants. One of the most serious lawsuits pending is Phoenix New Times v. Maricopa County and Sheriff Joe. This one is for $15 million alone and legal observers think county taxpayers may bet stuck with the bill.

The losses range from the petty to the tragic; The West Valley View won a $37,893 settlement for attorneys fees to compensate the newspaper in battling Arpaio’s decision to “ban” press releases to the West Valley View because the Sheriff did not think he got favorable coverage in the publication. The county had to pay $925,000 to settle a wrongful-death claim brought by the family of Rico Rossi, a 28-year-old man who suffered a heart attack while in custody.
In all, over 2,123 lawsuits have been filed against the MCSO during Arpaio’s tenure.

Nick Tarr was arrested for impersonating an officer, even though it was clear to everyone except the Sheriff’s Office, that he was not impersonating anyone but a clown, a Jury awarded him $125,000.

The MCSO has spent over $200,000 sending teams of MCSO personnel to Honduras. About $30,000 of the funds used were derived from RICO grants, a situation that has prompted the state to audit the RICO program.

The sheriff has overspent his budget by more than $1 million.

In addition, the sheriff county jails and “tent city” have been criticized for being “inhumane” and violating Constitutional protections “cruel and unusual punishment.” On May 3, 2008, the East Valley Tribune reported, “More than 60 Maricopa County jail inmates have died since 2004, many from illnesses that would be treatable in normal medical settings.”

Phoenix attorney Michael Manning has won cases totaling $18 million on behalf of families suing the sheriff for wrongful deaths of jail inmates. In January, Manning settled a wrongful death case on behalf of inmate Ben Crenshaw’s family against the sheriff for $2 million. Manning has sent a letter to Michael Mukasey, the U.S. attorney general, asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Sheriff Joe for a “pattern and practice of cruelty, abuse, deliberate indifference, and will civil rights violations against detainees and inmates….”

Arpaio’s critics also say that while Arpaio chases dishwashers and landscape workers, real criminals – about 43,000 of them with felony warrants that the MCSO is supposed to serve – walk free.

There have been some repercussions that have angered the sheriff. An executive order signed by Gov. Janet Napolitano in May canceled a $1.6 million agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office; money the sheriff was using for this immigration sweeps.
In response, Sheriff Joe Arpaio accused the governor of siding with his critics to pull the money from his department as political payback.
The number of voices calling for a change in the county Sheriff’s Office is mounting. The true test of Sheriff Arpaio’s policies and history will be if he is re-elected – or not – at the polls in the November election. 
 
Racial profiling or ‘crime suppression’
Arpaio’s critics say the sheriff tactics aimed at enforcing immigration laws target all Latinos, whether they are undocumented immigrants, or citizen and naturalized Latinos. They point out that he is not questioning non Latinos that have immigrated illegally from China or Canada.

His critics say that Latinos are increasingly concerned that the Sheriff disregards the Constitutional and civil rights of citizen Latinos.

“This isn’t even about immigration anymore, this is about civil rights of Americans,” says Francisco Gutierrez, another attorney with the Los Abogados organization. 

The usual procedure for a sweep is for about 200 deputies and armed sheriff’s “posse” volunteers to saturate an area. The deputies then focus on pulling over cars that have brown-looking people within. Then the interrogation begins about citizenship. When cars are pulled over at night and Latinos are encountered inside, deputies immediately demand to know their citizenship, even before addressing the reason for the stop. Drivers who appear to be Anglo are not interrogated about citizenship or immigration status, are cited for any traffic or vehicle infractions, and let go.

Observers taking notes and filming at the sweep sites say they have documented that non Latinos are never pulled over or questioned, only Latinos.
Sheriff Joe’s sweeps led Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to request a federal investigation of Arpaio for possible civil rights violations. He also accused Arpaio of using the operations as “made for TV stunts” and to get the anti-immigrant vote backing him in his upcoming election in November.

Gordon told Latino Perspectives that he was prompted to act when one of his Latina aides was racially profiled by a sheriff’s deputy, and a Latino child cried when describing the fear Arpaio’s sweeps caused in her.

A week after his speech Mayor Gordon wrote am official letter asking the Justice Department’s civil-rights division and the FBI to probe a “pattern and practice of conduct that includes discriminatory harassment, improper stops, searches and arrests.”

Gordon’s four-page letter added, “Over the past few weeks, Sheriff Arpaio’s actions have infringed on the civil rights of our residents. They have put our residents’ well-being, and the well-being of law enforcement officers, at risk.”

To date, Mayor Gordon, the Legislature’s Latino Caucus, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and several other Latino organizations have asked the United States Justice Department to investigate Arpaio. At presstime, the Justice Department has declined to comment on the requests.

“Simply put, (Arpaio) is using the guise of ‘crime suppression’ for the sole purpose of rooting out and deporting Hispanics who are in this country illegally,” the Latino Caucus letter states. “He is not, however, considering the collateral damage that is occurring. Specifically, that the civil rights of Hispanic citizens are being infringed upon by being unfairly subjected to racial profiling.”

The Jewish Anti-Defamation League,  has joined Latino groups in calling for an investigation of Arpaio.

There are some Hispanics who support the sheriff and his aggressive sweeps targeting the  undocumented. Anna Gaines, the most prominent Latino leader in the Arizona anti-immigration movement – have announced a group called America Citizens United to mount a recall campaign against Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon for speaking out against Arpaio.  However, they must gather about 23,700 signatures by July to force a recall election.

Sheriff Joe vows to continue his sweep tactics even in the face of rising protests from local police chiefs and police. These cops worry Arpaio’s need for publicity creates a “hostile environment” with the potential for violence between demonstrators on both sides of the issue.

“Holding a press conference in advance of a police operation and thereby inviting the polarized factions to gather in these neighborhoods creates a potential for violence and endangers the very communities the Sheriff seeks to protect,” says a statement issued by the Mesa Police Association. “This method of operation places our members at great risk, because they will place themselves on the frontlines of any confrontation.  Not one life of an officer or the general public is worth Sheriff Joe’s media tactics.”