Thread: Think tank condemns Arpaio's priorities { Update 2 }

December 02, 2008 |
Think tank condemns Arpaio's priorities
22 commentsby JJ Hensley - Dec. 2, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
It's the same attack, but from another end of the spectrum.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has repeatedly dismissed criticism of his office and its policies as the work of liberal-leaning media outlets and politicians who are looking to score points by taking on the controversial, conservative sheriff.

A report to be issued today by the libertarian-leaning Goldwater Institute looked at many of the same facts Arpaio's critics have used to assail him in the past year and reached the same conclusion: the Sheriff's Office has out-of-whack priorities that jeopardize public safety.
The report came with a list of legislative recommendations that could check some of Arpaio's authority.

"We are hardly soft-on-crime liberals," said Clint Bolick, director of the institute's center for constitutional litigation. "I think it hopefully tones down the rhetoric and focuses on policy solutions that will help focus scarce police resources and contribute to lowering crime rates."

Despite the source, Arpaio's response remained the same, with the sheriff focusing on Bolick, the report's author, instead of the Goldwater Institute's body of work.

"When you talk about the Civil Liberties Union, I think they treat me better than this guy does," Arpaio said. "I never had any trouble in 14 years with the Goldwater Institute, and I've done a lot of controversial things."

Many points in the Goldwater Institute study were supported with research by newspapers and other media outlets. But unlike those published reports, the Goldwater study comes with policy proposals designed to add detail to lines of police authority, which can get blurred in a sprawling area like the Valley, Bolick said.

"When you strip the veneer from the well-oiled publicity machine, what you find beneath is soaring violent-crime rates and improper use of scarce police resources," Bolick said. "I think this complements other concerns that have been raised by groups in other parts of the spectrum."

If the Legislature were to take the report's recommendations to heart, Arizona's county sheriffs would be left with three basic functions: operate jails, coordinate warrant service and patrol unincorporated areas of their counties.

Support for such legislation is sketchy, particularly among law-enforcement officials.

During the recent campaign to run the Sheriff's Office, Arpaio's challenger, Dan Saban, hesitated on whether he would support such legislation if it meant curbing the authority of officers in Arizona.

Arpaio echoed those concerns when he learned of the Goldwater Institute's recommendations Monday night.

"We don't need new laws. This guy wants new legislation over and over again," he said. "We're too big now, with too many laws."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... r1202.html

Our boards have become to passive lately and there are many people here just reading waiting for someone else to lead.

I'm going to make some posts like this one this week in the hopes each of you will observe closely and then being repeating this behavior.

Step 1: I go to www.yahoo.com and type in "Goldwater Institute"

to locate their website

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/

Step 2: I locate their contact information on their site which is

info@goldwaterinstitute.org
srhoades@goldwaterinstitute.org
jbryson@goldwaterinstitute.org

Goldwater Institute
500 E. Coronado Road
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phone: 602.462.5000
Fax: 602.256.7045

Step 3: I'm crafting my own short and distinct message.
---
Goldwater Institute:

I was unaware of your organization until I read today's article "Think tank condemns Arpaio's priorities" in the Arizona Republic.

I must say, your first impressions upon me are highly negative.

How dare you attack Sheriff Arpaio due to his popular enforcement of immigration laws set by Arizona and Congress? Did you happen to miss the fact that America has an illegal immigration crisis and a citizenry that is demanding more enforcement?

Unfortunately, there are clearly groups on both ends of the spectrum that are under the influence of the Open Borders lobby and we can now include the Goldwater Institute among that treasonous group.

Please send me information about your funding. I would like to know if your group receives any taxpayer funding from states or the Federal government so that I may lobby for your funds to be withdrawn. Hopefully, such information is a matter of public record.

You have just created a public relations nightmare for your organization by attacking Sheriff Arpaio and let me be one of the first to point that out to you.

William Gheen
President, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC
www.alipac.us
Post Office Box 30966, Raleigh, NC 27622-0966
Tel: (919) 787-6009 Toll Free: (866) 703-0864
FEC ID: C00405878

----

Step 4: Run my message through a spell and grammar checker real quick

Step 5: I'm placing a call, leaving this message verbally on their phone lines and then sending it to all addresses above.

I am CALLING before sending my emails because I know that calls are the most effective and have the most impact. E-mails have the least impact and are being sent only to reinforce my call.


Took ten minutes, who else will help?

W

I think Sheriff Joe should take his prisioners on a field trip to Washington!

Let the "specialists" get a feel of how out of touch they are and to stop drinking the Koolaid!

You are right we are becoming passive, time to wake up.

I've already received one reply from this group. Has anyone else contacted them to complain, or just me?

Dear Mr. Gheen,

Thank you for your note. First, I strongly encourage you to
actually read the report. Among other things, you will find that MCSO's
sweeps are far less-effective than other means of immigration law
enforcement, that the failure to coordinate with other law-enforcement
agencies within their jurisdictions creates dangerous conditions and
excess costs, that MCSO has not arrested a single major immigration
trafficker, that its diversion of resources to sweeps led to a financial
crisis that caused it to temporarily cease immigration law-enforcement,
and that while it has focused its resources in that manner violent crime
rates have soared.

We will send you the requested information. We do not
receive any funding from government sources.

Best regards,

Clint Bolick

Article heading should read "Think Tank condems Rule of law".

who the hell cares what a "think tank" really thinks

Here are some inconvenient facts for Mr. Bolick and his fellow OBL supporters:

http://www.mcso.org/include/pr_pdf/Arrests%20111808.pdf

When you strip the veneer from the well-oiled publicity machine, what you find beneath is soaring violent-crime rates and improper use of scarce police resources," Bolick said.

More inconvenient facts for Mr. Bolick:

Date: August 7, 2008
[b][u]County is NOT in a “Crime Crisisâ€

December 2, 2008
Breaking News
COMMENTARY - Goldwater Institute slams Arpaio practices

By Goldwater Institute

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office prides itself on being an agency that provides "professional quality law enforcement, detention and support services." But a close look at the office by the Goldwater Institute shows MCSO falls short in these three core areas.

A new policy report, Mission Unaccomplished: The Misplaced Priorities of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, takes a candid look at what the Sheriff's Office is doing and provides recommendations on how MCSO and other police agencies can provide more effective and efficient law enforcement services.

"The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is tasked with the important job of keeping crime rates low," said Clint Bolick, author of the report and Goldwater Institute litigation director. "Judged by its own statistics, MCSO appears to be falling seriously short of fulfilling its core law enforcement duties."

Among the areas Mission Unaccomplished analyzes is MCSO's record keeping and reporting. The study finds MCSO record keeping inadequate and inaccurate. For example, each year when the Sheriff's Office provides crime clearance statistics to the county, the figures are accompanied by the disclaimer that the data "is not considered accurate."

The paper also examines the 166-percent increase in homicide rates between 2004 and 2007, the same period that MCSO began diverting resources to other priorities, such as trips by high-level employees to Honduras for ambiguous law enforcement activities.

Mission Unaccomplished also looks at MCSO's closing of satellite booking facilities, immigration sweeps, and lack of transparency.

The paper recommends practical ways the Sheriff's Office can better achieve its goals of quality law enforcement, support services, and detention, including:

· Regular audits by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors

· The legislature formally clearing up blurry jurisdictional lines

· The legislature adopting uniform standards for clearance of criminal investigations and requiring prompt, accurate reporting of clearance rates

You can read Mission Unaccomplished: The Misplaced Priorities of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001RMq0Q6lrw1tR ... 4dYlNnPIL2.


http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?id=9955