Thread: Arpaio Tactics Causing Fear And Loathing In Maricopa County

Arpaio Tactics Causing Fear And Loathing In Maricopa County
Zachary Roth | February 1, 2010, 1:43PM




Sheriff Joe Arpaio's crusade against Maricopa County officials has created a "year-long emotional roller-coaster" for some county employees, they tell the Arizona Republic.

Arpaio, whose controversial immigration enforcement tactics have made him a nationally known figure, is reportedly being probed by a federal grand jury. The investigation is considering whether the sheriff abused his power by going after political opponents and others who crossed him, including several county supervisors and judges.

In December, several judge's assistants revealed that Arpaio's deputies had tried to interview them in their homes about alleged judicial corruption. There's little evidence of actual corruption, and one judge called the move "pure intimidation."

Now in interviews with the paper, several county employees describe the fear and paranoia that they say characterizes their day-to-day working environment.

Among the employees' claims:
• In December 2008, the county spent $10,000 to sweep county offices, fearing that Arpaio might have implanted illegal wiretaps. None was found.

• One judge moved meetings to the chamber's restroom, thinking it would be less likely that Arpaio or his deputies might have hidden a listening device there.

• Many employees stopped using phone or email to communicate about sensitive matters -- even when using home computers.

• One employee who denied pay-raise requests for a high-ranking member of Arpaio's office said that he assumed he was being recorded whenever he had to call Arpaio's staff.

• Another employee said he had told his family never to call on his work phone. "You never know who's watching," he told the paper.

• Supervisor Max Wilson, once an Arpaio backer, said that when Arpaio publicly warned that Wilson "better be careful on cutting my budget," he saw it as a threat and talked to a top aide about whether to resign. Later, the aide, worried that he himself would be targeted, called a criminal defense lawyer and asked how much it would cost to get him out of jail.

• One compensation analyst, involved in the issue of whether to build a new court tower -- a move Arpaio strongly opposes -- said that sheriff's deputies came to her home twice this summer to ask questions. When she didn't answer the door, one cop left his card on her windshield, near a crack in the glass. Feared the placement was a message designed to warn her that she could be pulled over, she quickly had the crack repaired.

• Deputies also came to the home of another employee who works on compensation issues. Finding him to be out, they asked his neighbors about him. "Your neighbors obviously probably think something has been done wrong," he told the paper.

Working with his close ally, county prosecutor Andrew Thomas, Arpaio has brought charges against supervisor Don Stapley and Judge Gary Donahue -- among many others with whom he has clashed -- despite what appears to be little evidence of criminal wrongdoing by either man.

Arpaio has said he'll cooperate with the federal probe, but has hired a Washington-based former Bush Justice Department lawyer who has filed motions that appear designed to stymie it.


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... marico.php

My Neck hurts too and its Sheriff Joe's fault,,,Im sueing

LMAO

Any lame tactic to disrupt law enforcement

Come on Joe! We need you to hand out a bigger dose of fear and loathing! It may cure some of the ills that are so prevalent!

Hmmmm....seems to me that all of these people have something TO be worried about.

Innocent people just don't become concerned enough about the possibility that they may be being investigated that they begin holding meetings in restrooms and stop sending and receiving emails from and to their home and work computers.

And how ironic that all of this "paranoia" has emerged only AFTER Rick Renzi, Mary Rose Wilcox, and Don Stapley have been.....finally....arrested, charged, and indicted for their corrupt activities. I'm sure that the list of those who, at long last, go down with them is going to grow even longer.

That's why one of Napolitano's first priorities was to initiate the DOJ witch hunt against the MCSO and also why the increasing sense of urgency to go after Joe Arpaio and the Sheriff's Dept. This all goes one hell of a lot deeper than Arpaio's disagreement with OBL ideologies and anyone doubting that has only to ask the investigative journalist and radio host who has had his house shot to bits after exposing certain land schemes, etc. which involve all of the above mentioned as well as Napolitano, McCain and a few other highly placed, well known individuals.

All of this is nothing more than a type of pre-emptive anti-Arpaio propaganda being tossed out there by a bunch of guilty-as-sin people who are shaking in their boots wondering who is going to be the next one arrested.