"Members of Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability kick off a hunger strike on March 29. The date was picked to coincide with the week of celebrations for Cesar Chavez, the Mexican American civil rights activist who fought for fair labor conditions.
Luis Avila, an organizer with MCSA, said the group has planned several activities to protest Sheriff Joe Arpaio that week, including vigils, news conferences and protests. He declined to give details on the events.
The fast starts at 6 p.m. March 29 at Santa Rita Hall in downtown Phoenix, where Chavez fasted for 24 days in 1972.
"We are going to bring attention to his abuses of power," said Avila. "We have people coming from all over the country for the spiritual fast during the week."
For months, MCSA showed up at Board of Supervisors meetings to pressure it to put an end to Arpaio's controversial immigration sweeps, to better monitor lawsuits related to his office, and to more closely examine his emergency response times and jurisdictional reach."

(The following are responses from AZCENTRAL.COM readers...)

posted by BringItOn on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:44 PM
If these people spent as much time trying to become legal citizens as they do protesting Joe Arpaio, it would make life so much better for all of us.
Illegal Immigrants: Work at becoming legal. Obey our laws. That is a great start.
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posted by broosewane on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:54 PM
If it's worth doing ,it's worth doing right, 100 days minimum..
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posted by OIFIIIMP on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:56 PM

Roger BRINGITON. My thoughts exactly.
BTW, have you heard of any plans to call this protest "A Day Without Tortillas" ?
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posted by Margaret9753 on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:52 PM


The longer they keep it up, the better their chances of winning Darwin Awards.
Joe has been investigated on this nonsense before and has come out just fine
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posted by Majority on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is coming.....
Really, what like it did in 2006 and 2007 when the Demorats were incharge of Congress??? You are pretty funny.......
I agree with steeldog95...............self-immolation would also get the attention of Phoenix Fire, with sirens going, all that goooooood stuff.
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posted by kathnee on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:30 PM
That's good. Some of them could stand to lose a lot of weight. Hope Mary Rose Wilcox participates.
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posted by steeldog95 on Mar 23, 2009 at 12:18 PM
I heard self-immoliation is a great way to get your point across...