Thread: AZ-Sheriff takes crime sweeps to west Valley, 22 illegals

Sheriff takes crime sweeps to west Valley, 22 illegals arrested
August 14th, 2008 @ 5:34am
by Sandra Haros and Kevin Tripp/KTAR

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio planned to continue a crime suppression sweep in the west Valley today.

Meanwhile, state Attorney General Terry Goddard said he was monitoring the sheriff's sweeps, which critics claim are racial profiling, aimed at Hispanics and illegal immigrants. And, Gov. Janet Napolitano said she did not feel the operations were the best way to spend law enforcement funds.

The sheriff launched his latest operation Wednesday afternoon from a command post at Dysart and Bell Roads in Surprise. By late Wednesday, 22 illegal immigrants had been arrested, along with 10 people wanted on felony warrants.

Arpaio said more than 100 deputies and posse members were in rural areas of the west Valley, enforcing the state's law against human smuggling -- a job that he said no one else will do.

``Police will not arrest anybody under this law," Arpaio declared. ``We're still the only ones doing it. So if I'm the only one doing it, I'm going everywhere. It's only common sense. It's good law enforcement philosophy to go where you catch them. I want to get them before they get to the city. Those 22 now can't get to the city. They're in jail."

The sheriff brushed aside remarks made by the governor earlier Wednesday.

``I'm not changing. I'm doing my job. If the governor doesn't like it, that's her prerogative. I'm the sheriff, she's the governor. She's not going to tell me how to operate."

Goddard said he will have ``observers" following the Sheriff's office as it carries out crime suppression sweeps.

``To make sure that the laws, civil rights laws in particular, were not being violated," Goddard said, ``and we also had, of course, a great interest in public safety -- to make sure that the large number of demonstrators on both sides, a maximum effort was exerted to make sure that nobody got hurt."

Because of the ongoing investigation, Goddard declined to discuss what, if any, types of complaints have come to his attention in previous operations.

The governor said Wednesday that Arpaio's crime sweeps don't really do the job.

``I think as a law enforcement technique, they are not the best use of your law enforcement dollars because they're not targeted to really take off the street those who endanger public safety, and that really ought to be where the focus is," Napolitano said.

She said, however, that the sheriff has every right to conduct his crime suppression sweeps.

Arpaio has conducted previous sweeps at locations in Phoenix and in Guadalupe and Mesa. Arpaio said Wednesday that his enforcement efforts against human traffickers and co-conspirators have netted 1,051 arrests since March 2006.

The sheriff said the latest operation is funded by some of $36,000 in private donations to the Sheriff's Office since the governor took $1.2 million away from his office in May.

"I am proud to be doing the will of the majority of citizens in this county," Arpaio says. I assure everyone that my deputies and posse handle these operations respectfully and professionally. And the unsubstantiated allegations repeatedly made by a select few elected officials and open border activists will not deter us from enforcing the law."




http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=932986

Go Sheriff Joe!! I would love to see him head of DHS. He would probably have the country cleaned out of illegals, smugglers and drug cartels in a few weeks.

``I think as a law enforcement technique, they are not the best use of your law enforcement dollars because they're not targeted to really take off the street those who endanger public safety, and that really ought to be where the focus is," Napolitano said.

I read another article that said this moron Governor cut off Arpaio from law enforcement funding, and his operations are being paid for by donations.

Previous Post, additional information:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-127911-.html