Thread: What Janet says about Joe and Phil

What Janet says about Joe and Phil
Apr. 14, 2008 10:50 PM

Did you wonder why Gov. Janet Napolitano has had nothing to say about the feud between Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio?

Me, too.

So I e-mailed a series of questions to Napolitano's office and received on Monday the following written answers from the governor's spokeswoman, Jeanine L'Ecuyer. advertisement




First, I asked if the governor agreed with Gordon's decision to ask the Justice Department if Arpaio is violating civil-rights laws with his recent immigration sweeps.

"What matters to the Governor," L'Ecuyer wrote, "is that law enforcement at all levels coordinate their efforts, to ensure effectiveness of the operations, preservation of civil rights, and frankly, the safety of all law enforcement officers involved."

Does that mean that Napolitano disagrees with Arpaio's approach to immigration-law enforcement?

"As you've seen, in the material I sent to you (which involved the Arizona Gang and Immigrant Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission, or GIITEM program) there are concerns," L'Ecuyer wrote. "The Governor believes in and supports the approach (Director Roger) Vanderpool has taken with DPS."

The Department of Public Safety's GIITEM operations are task-force driven and aimed mostly at gangs, while Arpaio's independent "saturation patrols" target a specific area, using traffic stops and other minor infractions to catch anyone who may be in the country illegally.

Given the fact that the governor wants "law enforcement at all levels (to) coordinate their efforts," I wondered if Napolitano saw a role for herself in attempting to develop some type of uniform approach to immigration enforcement among police agencies statewide, since it doesn't appear that anything is going to happen on the federal level until after the election. If ever.

"I know this is a point you like to make," L'Ecuyer wrote. "The problem is, it has been tried and didn't work. Remember the summit at NAU several years ago? Case in point. Elected County Attorneys and Sheriffs are independent actors who are not required to take direction from the Governor. As for local PDs, they must be responsive to their own elected leaders. If all it took to fix immigration was a 'kum bay yah' meeting with the Governor that would have happened . . . I think you're correct, nothing will happen on the federal level until after the election."

Lastly, I asked if the governor believes that the feds are using Arizona as a guinea pig on this issue, hoping that we might come up with a program that could work nationally.

"Hard to answer, but I doubt it," L'Ecuyer said. "I think the feds would love to make this issue disappear, and if they could permanently shove it off onto the states, they would. States are clamoring to be heard (take the H2-a visa issue, for example) and the feds keep marching on, ignoring just about everyone and getting no real work done."

Last week, when The Republic's Matt Benson asked the governor about the mayor/sheriff feud, she said, "That's for the sheriff and mayor to work out. I'm a governor, not a referee."

Actually, there are times when a governor is a referee. Or should be. This is one of them.

Choosing to answer a newspaper writer's questions about law enforcement and immigration is a beginning, but just barely.

In the end, the resulting column represents only what Janet's friend Jeanine told E.J. that Janet told her about Phil and Joe.

Which leads us to one final question:

Is this state government or third grade?



Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com. Read his blog on azcentral.com.


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... i0415.html

The Department of Public Safety's GIITEM operations are task-force driven and aimed mostly at gangs, while Arpaio's independent "saturation patrols" target a specific area, using traffic stops and other minor infractions to catch anyone who may be in the country illegally.

Where do gang members hide/live? With their own ethnic groups! That's the FIRST place you look for them..DUH!