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Publish Date: 7/28/2006

Support comes from the strong arm of the law

Vic Vela
The Daily Record

Joe Arpaio is introduced to a man in one of the offices inside the Alamo Building in Downtown Colorado Springs.
“Do you know who I am,” Arpaio asked him.

“Of course,” said the man.

Arpaio turned to this reporter and said, “See, people know me.”

“Pink handcuffs,” said the man, was what helped him recognize Arpaio’s name.

After extending a greeting, Arpaio turns and grumbles, “When I die all people are going to remember me for are pink handcuffs and pink underwear,” he said. “Forget about all the people I’ve put away.”

He has been called “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a title he wears as a badge of honor, much like his badge that reads Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona — a massive area of land that includes the city of Phoenix. He was in Colorado Springs this week to support former El Paso County Sheriff John Anderson’s bid for the open 5th Congressional District seat.

“You should get to know John,” he said. “He’s a really nice guy; I’m not,” he said self-deprecatingly.

Arpaio, as was once written in Harper’s Magazine, “has the charm of Archie Bunker.” Whether this is an endearing quality depends on one’s preference of company. He created Tent City Jail, which is made of Korean War army tents that are not air-conditioned — this, in the middle of the Arizona desert. Both male and female inmates are put to work in old-fashioned chain gangs as well.

And then there are the pink underwear and handcuffs. All the inmates wear pink underwear and socks, for what he claims to be better inventory control.

“Six years ago, some inmates were stealing white underwear,” explained Arpaio. “I had an idea to dye them pink.”

In fact, inmates’ bed sheets, towels and socks are all colored pink. The sheriff’s office claims the color pink has a calming effect on the inmates. He also ordered pink handcuffs as a replacement for handcuffs that started disappearing.

Prisoners are served two meals a day. There is no coffee served and no smoking allowed. His office has been sued time and again and has paid millions of dollars in jury awards and settlements. He has been called a liar, a bully, crazy, childish and every four-letter name in the book.

Arpaio doesn’t care.

“I’m not a social worker, I’m a cop,” he said.

Arpaio has his supporters. He’s been re-elected four times since taking over the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in 1992. And, of course, Arpaio has his enemies. Recently, a man was arrested in Canada for making death threats toward Arpaio and his family.

It seems as if everything Arpaio touches, someone becomes irate. His recent enforcement of an illegal immigration law in Arizona is no different. He says that all he is doing is enforcing a law, which the Mari-copa County attorney has said allows for those immigrants who pay smugglers to help them enter the U.S.-Mexico border to be arrested as conspirators.

“These coyotes are making more money on people-trafficking than those who drug-traffic,” Arpaio claimed. “And when you’re conspiring with that smuggler, you are guilty too.”

Arpaio, whose parents emigrated from Italy, said he has “compassion for Mexican people” who attempt to cross the border illegally, but said he is just doing his job as sheriff to enforce the law. He also said that if existing immigration laws were simply enforced, illegal immigrants would retreat.

“Everyone who crosses the border, arrest them,” he said. “They need to spend six months in jail. It be-comes a deterrent because they can’t work if they’re in jail.”

Anderson, one of six G.O.P. hopefuls running for Congress in the 5th District, raves about Arpaio’s stand on illegal immigration.

“I truly respect the hard stance he’s taken and has been a national leader by showing a commitment to enforcing the law,” said Anderson.

Arpaio hopes more people like Anderson run for Congress.

“You gotta have more sheriffs and law enforcement in Congress other than lawyers and lobbyists,” he said.

Perhaps maybe not Arpaio, however.

“I’d probably get every congressman (expletive) off at me,” he said.

Arpaio is interrupted at one point during the interview as his cell phone rings. It’s the governor of Arizona. The ring tone is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — fitting for a man who has always done things just in that fashion.

“When I die, that will play at my funeral,” he said.

Vic Vela can be reached at vvela@ccdailyrecord.com


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