DOJ to charge Joe Arpaio with criminal contempt

[47of74]

My response to the pardon is as follows (after shoving a C note in the nearest swear jar)...

• Fuck Arpaio.
• Fuck the Republicans.
• Fuck Trump.
• And Fuck every last goddamn Branch Trumpvidian out there.

All in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the FSM.

 

 

[Cartmann99]

Ana Navarro is not pulling any punches tonight:

 

[fraurosena]

Ha! There is one thing everybody keeps forgetting. 

Accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt.

So the presidunce has just admitted to all the world that he knows Arpaio is a racial profiler, and is ok with it.

This just underlines what a bloody racist he truly is.

[KnittingOwl]

2 hours ago, 47of74 said:

My response to the pardon is as follows (after shoving a C note in the nearest swear jar)...

• Fuck Arpaio.
• Fuck the Republicans.
• Fuck Trump.
• And Fuck every last goddamn Branch Trumpvidian out there.

All in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the FSM.

 

 

That is a pretty good summary.  I don't have the words to describe Trump.

@fraurosena, it's easy to forget that.  That seems to get swept aside in the whole pardon process.  

[fraurosena]

Sally Yates just chimed in.

And so did Preet Bharara.

 

Edited August 26, 2017 by fraurosena

[sawasdee]

By pardoning contempt of court, the TT is undermining all respect for the federal legal system. This is worse than pardoning a crime such as fraud, or even Chelsea Manning  - this attacks the very structure of justice.

[fraurosena]

Stick that where the sun don't shine, you racist scumbags!

 

[Cartmann99]

I want CNN to invite the founder of Latinos for Trump to come and debate Ana Navarro on Arpaio's pardon. 

 

[fraurosena]

Yep. Arpaio is such a patriot, eh, presidunce?

I'm afraid this patriotism does not compute with my definition of what a true patriot is.

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Yep. Arpaio is such a patriot, eh, presidunce?

I'm afraid this patriotism does not compute with my definition of what a true patriot is.

Whoa, I got lost in that twitter thread! Everything I've read this morning says the people of Maricopa County are highly pissed. Good. Maybe they'll wake up and vote for someone who doesn't approve of violating people's rights.

I think that the good part of this is that now Jackboot Joe can't claim the fifth in any upcoming lawsuits and let's hope there are plenty, although there may be timing issues there.

It makes me wonder how the Trump team sees this. This was a power surge for DumbDon. He can't even begin to comprehend the law and he's probably enthralled with this new power he has. I can see him attempting to use it on some of those who might be facing jail time in the future and the ones who understand the implications of admitting to a crime and abdicating fifth amendment rights will slowly back away.

Hoping Karma pays a visit to Joe.

[fraurosena]

I've read that some of his victims might file a civil suit against him. I hope they do. And that they are awarded the maximum amount of damages possible. Would that be enough Karma for you, @GrumpyGran?

[GrumpyGran]

11 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

I've read that some of his victims might file a civil suit against him. I hope they do. And that they are awarded the maximum amount of damages possible. Would that be enough Karma for you, @GrumpyGran?

Nope, but it would be a start. He would find a way out of paying, they always do. But men like this always have a secret life. Those that they scream the loudest about somehow always end up in their very close orbit.

[GreyhoundFan]

"I was one of Joe Arpaio’s victims. He doesn’t deserve a pardon."

Spoiler

On Dec. 4, 2009, my wife, Eva, and I were driving in our truck in Phoenix when a Maricopa County sheriff’s deputy drove up alongside us in a police cruiser. The deputy stared at us both, then switched his lights on and pulled us over. We hadn’t been doing anything wrong, and at first, when he turned his lights on, we thought he was speeding off to respond to a call.

After a few minutes, he still hadn’t come over to our truck, so we both stepped out to see what was happening. The deputy got out of his car and yelled at us, furious. He demanded my driver’s license and Eva’s, even though she wasn’t driving. And he refused to answer my questions about why he’d pulled me over.

I had my suspicions, though. I was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, though I’ve been living legally in the United States since 1958 and have been a citizen since 1967. When we were stopped, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, led by Joe Arpaio, routinely engaged in racial profiling of Latinos in Phoenix and the surrounding area. After Arpaio refused to end discriminatory treatment of Latinos despite a federal court order that I and other victims had won, he was convicted of criminal contempt of court — which is what President Trump pardoned him for Friday night.

What happened to me and Eva that night eight years ago was all too typical: We were driving a pickup truck with landscaping tools, and we were Hispanic, so we got pulled over by an overzealous deputy working for a sheriff who never made any attempt to hide his contempt for immigrants.

The deputy asked me if I was carrying any drugs, weapons or bazookas. I told him I did not have any drugs or bazookas, but that I did have a gun in the truck, which I was legally permitted to carry. He ordered me to hand it over, which I did, and then he told me to step out and put my hands on the side of the truck and spread my legs.

“What’s going on?” I said.

“I’m going to search you,” he answered.

I asked him what he was searching me for.

“Drugs and weapons,” he told me.

I replied that I’d already told him I didn’t have any drugs and had already given him my gun, but he told me he was going to search me anyway.

Standing there in the street, he patted me down — my underarms, my torso, my legs, even my groin. My wife was watching the whole time. That was the most humiliating part: I couldn’t defend myself or her.

When the search was finished, I asked the deputy for the third time why he’d pulled us over. He said it was because he hadn’t been able to see the license plate on my truck. And then, finally, he let us go, with this warning: “Don’t think for a minute that this has anything to do with racial profiling.”

But that was exactly what it was. In all my time living in Phoenix, it was the first — and only — time where I felt I’d been pulled over just because of the color of my skin. The experience left Eva traumatized: She’d bring it up, often, out of nowhere, from that night until she died in January 2016.

Not long after we were stopped, I contacted the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and I joined their lawsuit against Arpaio — a lawsuit they had filed the year before we were pulled over. Three years later, in 2012, I finally had my chance to testify against Arpaio. Eva and I both worried that we were in danger from the sheriff, his men or his supporters in Arizona, though I never let her know I was almost as scared as she was. When we won the case in 2013, I was elated.

Arpaio never stopped his racist practices, though, which is why he was finally convicted of contempt.

I followed all the related cases closely. On election night last fall, I was so happy to see that the voters had finally rejected Arpaio. And again last month, when Arpaio was convicted, I felt as though we’d triumphed. My one regret was that Eva wasn’t there to share that victory.

That triumph, that elation, didn’t last long, because of Trump.

I trust in the judicial system, and I always will: I always trust the justice system of America. But I never thought the president would step all over it.

On Friday night, I got a text from a friend I used to work with, telling me the news of Arpaio’s pardon. Soon after that, my daughters called, then my sister, then another friend. I’m not an angry person, but Friday night, I was furious.

Arpaio built a culture in his department of discrimination and racism. By pardoning him, Trump is saying to the nation that it’s okay to insult another race or another culture. Instead of making America great, he’s making America a lot more divided, just as Arpaio did here in Phoenix.

The two of them both should look at their consciences and change their ways.

 

[Destiny]

6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Yep. Arpaio is such a patriot, eh, presidunce?

I'm afraid this patriotism does not compute with my definition of what a true patriot is.

I made the mistake of reading this thread. I’m gonna have nightmares, especially about the defenceless puppy. I can’t stop thinking about it, and then I have to go hug Luna again. It’s pissing her off. 

 

[fraurosena]

Sorry about that, @Destiny. 

Here's a pic of one of my pups being silly. He always manages to make me laugh. Hope it takes your mind off that awfulness.

 

 

Edited August 26, 2017 by fraurosena
there's a difference between of and off

[GreyhoundFan]

"The year I spent in Joe Arpaio’s tent jail was hell. He should never walk free."

Spoiler

I was born in Mexico, grew up in Tijuana, and moved to Arizona when I was 14. I went to high school in a small town called Holbrook, then went to Phoenix to go to Arizona State University. By that time, roughly 2012, Joe Arpaio’s vicious anti-Latino tactics had already raised racial tensions in Maricopa County, where he was sheriff.

At the time, Arpaio was infamous among my community for his “sweeps.” He would send police into restaurants, hotels or anywhere else he suspected undocumented people might be working and would arrest those who couldn’t produce IDs. People lived in fear of these sweeps; some families I knew even moved to New Mexico, hoping to escape Arpaio.

I heard all about Arpaio’s crusades firsthand. By 2014, I was working as a court interpreter for Maricopa County. Every day, I would interpret for Spanish-speaking people who had been arrested by Arpaio in the desert, trying to come to the United States to work. Arpaio’s men would arrest them and put them in detention facilities for months, holding them until they took a plea agreement — so he could get a conviction for them on the record. That way, if they ever tried to return to the United States, they would be placed in federal prison.

That same year, I got into a bad relationship and I drove while drunk. I was arrested, and it took the county an entire year to prosecute me. I thought it was the worst year of my life, until I was convicted and sent to one of Arpaio’s jails.

The minute I turned myself in to go to jail, they took me to the Fourth Avenue jail, the county’s hub for all arrests. There, they put me through something called “the Matrix”: being moved from one cell to another for about 12 continuous hours. It was extremely cold, and all I was allowed to wear underneath the striped uniform I was given was underwear and flip-flops. Guards threw me a bag with old bread, an orange and milk; nothing else was offered, and sleeping was nearly impossible. I laid for hours on cold concrete, only to be hustled abruptly to another cell, and then another. Finally, they put me in chains and moved me to another jail by bus.

I arrived at one of Arpaio’s several “tent cities,” outdoor jails where inmates shelter in army tents, mostly exposed to the Arizona elements. I was there on a work furlough program, meaning that I was allowed to leave to work during the day. Every day after work, I would return to the jail and spend the night in the tents. Each Sunday was spent entirely in the jail.

The rules of the tent city were strict, arbitrary and brutally enforced. There are no newspapers allowed; Arpaio hated newspapers. The only food allowed for those of us in the work furlough program was the food in the vending machines, which was grossly overpriced.

During the sweltering summer, the temperature could reach 115 or 120 degrees. I was in the tents when we hit 120. It was impossible to stay cool in the oppressive heat. Everyone would strip down to their underwear. There was no cold water, only water from vending machines; and eventually, the machines would run out. People would faint; some had heatstroke. That summer, ambulances came about three times. One man died in his bed.

But the winter was even worse. During the winter, there were no heaters. Most jackets and heavily insulated pants weren’t allowed; they don’t want you to be comfortable.

When the temperatures dropped, we were forced to come up with makeshift ways to keep ourselves warm. The showers were kept scalding hot during both summer and winter. We hated to shower, but we would fill our empty water bottles up with the nearly boiling water and put the bottles between our blankets when it was freezing outside. We also would save the plastic bags we found when we cleaned up the jail yard and wrap our feet with them, tucking hot water bottles inside to keep our feet warm while we slept.

Still, it was freezing, achingly cold. I was in so much pain that winter that now, when I’m cold, it reminds me of being there.

Arpaio saved worse abuse for others. Those who were in full detention had to wear pink socks, underwear and flip-flops. They ate peanut butter and bread, and the only other meal they received was baloney and bread. They also had the option of “slob,” which was an unknown, disgusting substance that looked like some kind of thick stew and tasted like cardboard. (The poor people in the work furlough program who couldn’t pay for vending-machine food had no choice but to eat it.)

It’s hard to recall memories of that year. When I heard Friday that President Trump had decided to pardon Arpaio, I was disgusted, dispirited and disappointed in the American political system.

I am not ashamed of what I did: I committed a crime and I paid my dues. How ironic it is, that the immigrant who committed a minor criminal act has to live with a conviction on his record for the rest of his life, while a criminal like Arpaio gets to walk away unscathed for his crimes, which are greater in scale and severity.

The people of Maricopa County have done so much — spent time, money and energy — trying to let the world know what Arpaio had done. And in a single moment, Trump has destroyed all of that hard work, all of those voices. The president should be bringing us together, especially in the wake of something like Charlottesville, but I think that Trump wants us to be divided, specifically by race. Arpaio’s pardon is proof of that.

There’s evil in the world that’s unrepentant, and I’ve experienced it firsthand. Arpaio being pardoned is a nightmare come true.

Although politicians like Trump and Arpaio are trying to divide us, this is the time for our community to come together and keep fighting for those whose voices go unheard and kept in the dark. Hope for a better future is what helped me survive the agonizing time I spent in those horrendous facilities, and hope will lead us into a better future for America.

I really wish Arpaio would have been sentenced to spend time in one of his prisons.

[fraurosena]

Too little, too late, Lyin' Ryan.

House Speaker Paul Ryan Criticizes Donald Trump’s Pardon for Joe Arpaio

Spoiler

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Saturday criticized President Donald Trump for pardoning a former Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to object to the move.

“The speaker does not agree with the decision,” said Ryan spokesman Doug Andres. “Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Mr. Ryan’s statement.

On Friday, the White House announced that the president had pardoned Mr. Arpaio, known as an immigration hard-liner who had been sheriff of Maricopa County for 24 years before he lost a re-election bid last year.

Mr. Arpaio, an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, was convicted last month for disobeying a 2011 federal court order to halt immigration raids. He was to be sentenced in October and faced up to six months in jail.

As sheriff he took aggressive measures to curb illegal immigration, including hunting people who crossed the border illegally in remote parts of his county, launching workplace raids and conducting traffic stops.

In a tweet Friday, the president described Mr. Arpaio as a “patriot” who “kept Arizona safe.”

A statement from the White House Friday said:

“Throughout his time as sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our nation, he is a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon.”

Mr. Arpaio didn’t respond to a request for comment, but in several tweets after the pardon he thanked the president and his supporters, while also asking for donations to his legal fund.

The pardon is the latest point of friction between the president and Mr. Ryan, who have sparred periodically since the campaign. On Thursday, Mr. Trump sent a pair of tweets faulting Mr. Ryan and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for their legislative strategy in raising the debt ceiling.

By failing to tie the debt-ceiling measure to a popular veterans-affairs bill, the pair missed a chance to resolve the issue and created “a mess,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Mr. Ryan, in an interview with CNBC, said he didn’t take offense. “I don’t really take it as going after me,” he said.

A spokesman for Mr. McConnell said Saturday the pardon is a “White House question.”

Other Republicans also criticized the pardon, including Arizona’s two U.S. senators. Sen. Jeff Flake tweeted that he would have “preferred that the president honor the judicial process and let it take its course.”

Sen. John McCain said that in granting the pardon the president “undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.”

Also weighing in was Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who competed with Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Citing Mr. McCain’s statement, Mr. Bush tweeted: “John McCain is right on the mark.”

But Rep. Trent Franks, an Arizona Republican, tweeted: “The president did the right thing—Joe Arpaio lived an honorable life serving our country, and he deserves an honorable retirement.”

Kelli Ward, who is challenging Mr. Flake in Arizona’s GOP Senate primary in 2018, said in a statement on her Facebook page that the pardon will help “counter the politically motivated assault on Sheriff Arpaio’s heroic efforts to enforce the nation’s #immigration laws.”

Fuck Arpaio, now for begging for money for his legal fund.

Fuck McTurtle, for not condeming the pardon and referring to the White House. Coward.

Fuck Jeff Flake, for that lackluster remark.

Fuck Trent Franks sideways, for agreeing with the pardon.

And fuck Kelli Ward, also sideways and twice for good measure, for calling Arpaio's actions 'heroic efforts'.

[candygirl200413]

Like Arpaio is dirt, actual scum of the earth and yet people are like "ehh you're overreacting". Again not surprised that fuckface pardoned him but just so disgusted.

[fraurosena]

I have to say that sometimes social media is a really good thing. Like now, when these fuckers get called out for their bullshit.

 

[Cartmann99]

25 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Saturday criticized President Donald Trump for pardoning a former Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to object to the move.

Well, the Trump/Arpaio fans are going to get out the 128 count crayons for this set of death threats! 

[apple1]

6 hours ago, GrumpyGran said:

Whoa, I got lost in that twitter thread! Everything I've read this morning says the people of Maricopa County are highly pissed. Good. Maybe they'll wake up and vote for someone who doesn't approve of violating people's rights.

They already did. They voted Arpaio out in the election Nov. 9, 2016.

[fraurosena]

I'm eye-rolling so hard now my poor insomnia plagued, burning eyes hurt so bad I'm never getting any sleep before dawn. 

 

[sawasdee]

All these people saying "But he was just enforcing the law!"

Well, he was and he wasn't. Immigration is federal law, and is enforced by federal officials, so he was encroaching on the territory of other law enforcement agencies. And meanwhile, by concentrating his energies, and his officers, on immigration, he failed to enforce those laws which were his responsibility, especially with regard to sex crimes.

I'm also curious about his property dealings, which he has tried to conceal. It seems to be generally accepted locally that there was financial malfeasance - how about the new (D) sheriff investigating that? Trump can only pardon federal crimes....

[fraurosena]

41 minutes ago, sawasdee said:

I'm also curious about his property dealings, which he has tried to conceal. It seems to be generally accepted locally that there was financial malfeasance

Shady property dealings, racial profiling... now where have we heard that before? 

[apple1]

I don't think this has been posted here previously. Warning: It is long and it is graphic and disgusting. I live states away and thousands of miles away from Arizona, and I am embarrassed to admit that what I had heard of Arpaio was that he gave prisoners pink underwear and made some sleep in tents. That's really all. Oh my, so very much more.

"It really does seem as if people do not quite appreciate just how evil Joe Arpaio truly is. If they did, this pardon would not just be ill-advised, it would be toxic. There would be no controversy. As it is, however, Arpaio remains “controversial”: some say he’s a bigot, some say he’s a righteous vigilante. But what people need to say is the truth, which is that Joe Arpaio is not only a bigot, but a vicious sadist who abused his power more than perhaps anyone else to hold public office in the United States during the 21st century."

Details in the article.

https://static.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/wait-do-people-actually-know-just-how-evil-this-man-is