Thread: Payback: Feds Plan to Sue Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Payback: Feds Plan to Sue Sheriff Joe

Jeremy Pelofsky
Reuters
April 3, 2012

The Obama administration on Tuesday said it was preparing to sue Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department for violating civil rights laws by improperly targeting Latinos in a bid to crack down on illegal immigrants.

The sheriff’s high-profile crackdown on illegal immigrants has helped thrust the issue onto the national political stage with some states passing tough new laws aimed at pushing out those in the country illegally.

The administration’s Justice Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office have been in settlement talks for months over allegations that officers regularly made unlawful stops and arrests of Latinos, used excessive force against them and failed to adequately protect the Hispanic community.

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Government plans to sue Arizona sheriff for targeting Latinos

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio talks to the media about the Department of Justice's investigative findings accusing the Maricopa Sheriff's Office of racial profiling and a pattern of discrimination at the Sheriff's office in Phoenix, Arizona December 15, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Laura Segall

By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON | Tue Apr 3, 2012 6:20pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday said it was preparing to sue Arizona county sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department for violating civil rights laws by improperly targeting Latinos in a bid to crack down on illegal immigrants.

The sheriff's high-profile crackdown on illegal immigrants has helped thrust the issue onto the national political stage with some states passing tough new laws aimed at pushing out those in the country illegally.

The administration's Justice Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office have been in settlement talks for months over allegations that officers regularly made unlawful stops and arrests of Latinos, used excessive force against them and failed to adequately protect the Hispanic community.

Those negotiations have broken down because of a fight over the Justice Department's demand that an independent monitor be appointed by a federal court to oversee compliance with the settlement, which has now reached 128 pages in draft form, according to the Obama administration.

"We believe that you are wasting time and not negotiating in good faith," Roy Austin, deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's civil rights division, said in a letter to the lawyer for Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).

Austin said in the letter that Arpaio's team demanded that a meeting slated for Wednesday include for the first time negotiations over the monitor and previously had demanded that the Justice Department provide more details about its findings.

"MCSO's refusal to engage in good faith negotiations requires us to prepare for civil (court) action," Austin said. He added that the Justice Department has recently discovered more information about the "failure to reasonably investigate sex crimes" by Arpaio's office.

The Justice Department in a December report outlined numerous alleged civil rights violations, including that Latino drivers were four to nine times more likely to be stopped than non-Latinos by Arpaio's force.

The sheriff has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and lashed out at the Obama administration for targeting his department and failing to deal with the problem of illegal immigration with some 11.5 million believed to be in the United States.

In a strongly worded statement on Tuesday, Arpaio said the appointment of a monitor would force him to abdicate responsibility for his police force, including decisions about policies, operations, jail programs and enforcement.

"To the Obama administration, who is attempting to strong arm me into submission only for its political gain, I say: This will not happen, not on my watch!" Arpaio said in the statement.

Arpaio's force has been under investigation by federal authorities since 2008 during the Bush administration. Obama's Justice Department spent months fighting for access to documents and to some of his deputies. Arpaio was interviewed twice during the probe.

(Additional reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix; Editing by Anthony Boadle) U.S.

Government plans to sue Arizona sheriff for targeting Latinos | Reuters

Bring it on Obama and laraza bottom feeders....Since you don't follow the RULE OF LAW!
Lets get it out in the open!
A little lame stream attention will only HELP!
God keep Arpaio safe!

With all of the suits they have bringing, the DOJ is either spread very thin or they have WAY too many liberal lawyers.

Arpaio rejects ultimatum from federal government
by KTAR Newsroom (April 3rd, 2012 @ 1:36pm)

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has stood up to an ultimatum handed down by the federal government.

According to a press release from his office, Arpaio was told by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy Austin of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division that his agency would be required to have an outside monitor in place or there would be no point to holding meetings concerning alleged racial profiling by MCSO.

The release stated that, generally, the use of an outside monitor of an agency such as MCSO would remove power from the elected sheriff and give control to a person or group selected by the federal government. Essentially, Arpaio claims that the use of an outside monitor would be tantamount to allowing the federal government to control the county's sheriff office and would nullify the will of the people of Maricopa County and Arpaio's elected office.

"I am the constitutionally and legitimately elected Sheriff and I absolutely refuse to surrender my responsibility to the federal government," said Arpaio in the release. "And so to the Obama administration, who is attempting to strong arm me into submission only for its political gain, I say, ‘This will not happen, not on my watch!'"

Sheriff's Deputy Director and Attorney Jack MacIntyre said that a federal monitor is an extreme idea and that the federal government has failed to produce any evidence that would show Arpaio's office committed racial profiling.

"We have never agreed to a monitor replacing the duly elected Sheriff," said MacIntyre in the release. "We have always been open to negotiating these issues raised by the DOJ, but never the appointment of a monitor."

Arpaio rejects ultimatum from federal government - KTAR.com

We are going to have to rally more support to Sheriff Joe to take on this level of intimidation and attack from the Executive Branch.

W

I'm getting scared for Joe and really nervous about the flat thuggishness of this president. Things are really heating up fast...

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

I'm getting scared for Joe and really nervous about the flat thuggishness of this president. Things are really heating up fast...

Well said. The Obama administration is obviously coming down hard on him and the entire state of Arizona with unlimited taxpayer dollars. Sheriff Joe has just been trying to enforce our immigration laws which for whatever reason/s our federal government has refused to do for years. Unbelievable!

RUSSIA TO AMERICA - YOUR MEDIA IS PROPAGANDA, YOUR PRESIDENT IS A FRAUD, AND YOUR CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN GUTTED



Pravda asks: What happened to American media?

How can Sheriff Joe NOT target Hispanics, when the vast majority of illegals have just hopped the border? This is all a distraction from Obama's failed policies and Sheriff Joe's investigation into his lack of qualifications to hold office.