Joe Arpaio Is More Than A Racist

Yesterday, President Donald Trump issued his first presidential pardon to disgraced former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, who was Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona from 1992 to 2016, was tried and convicted of contempt of court after refusing a court order to stop racially profiling and detaining people without reasonable suspicion that they were committing a crime. Apparently, Arpaio sought to find illegal immigrants and deport them back to their country of origin.

Many people (*cough* many Trump supporters) think Arpaio did his constitutional duty, but if anyone truly cares about the constitution, one would know that the 4th amendment protects people from improper search and seizure and warrants to conduct such searches and seizures must be issued upon probable cause. Arpaio did not have probable cause, let alone a warrant to search and detain people. Now when it comes to pulling over people, you don't need a warrant to pull them over (you still need a warrant to search the trunk of the car, for example), but you still need probable cause to pull someone over. Probable cause might include something like speeding, or driving with a broken taillight, or speeding away from committing some other crime, among other things. The color of one's skin or their physical appearance does not fall under probable cause.

How does one "look" like an illegal immigrant? The question is impossible to answer because anyone can be an illegal immigrant if they are a foreign national who has legally overstayed their tourist visa or entered into this country illegally. However, Arpaio was targeting people who "looked" Hispanic because according to his logic, most illegal immigrants come from Mexico and Central America. But you can't detain people based on their skin color or physical appearance. That is unconstitutional.

So when President Trump decided to issue his first presidential pardon to Arpaio, he sent a message that government sponsored racism is absolutely acceptable and that the constitution is worthless.

However, whether or not you disagree with me, or the constitution for that matter, no matter your age, sex, gender, political affiliation, ethnic background, skin color, etc.; the lack of accountability in investigating sex crimes, other crimes in general, corruption and abuse of power, and wasting tax dollars, are things that unite all strands of society.

During Arpaio's 24 year tenure as Sheriff, at least 400 sex crimes were inadequately investigated or not even investigated at all. In 32 cases of child molestation, Arpaio failed to investigate these cases, though suspects were known in all but 6 of those cases. In one particular case, Sabrina Morrison, a 13 year old with a mental disability, was raped by her Uncle, Patrick Morrison, back in 2007. The next day, she told her teacher, who called the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. A rape kit was taken, but the detective assigned to the case said their were no signs of rape and concluded the case. Sabrina Morrison's family then branded her as a liar, and her Uncle continued to rape her under threat of murder if she reported him again. She became pregnant by him at one point and had an abortion.

Meanwhile, Morrison's family had no idea that the rape kit had been tested and found the presence of semen. The laboratory that had the rape kit requested a blood sample from Patrick Morrison, but instead of obtaining that blood sample the detective assigned to the case closed it. It remained closed for 4 years. It wasn't until 2011 that a blood sample was finally obtained, which matched the DNA found in the rape kit. Patrick Morrison was arrested and charged with one count of sexual conduct with a minor. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Due to the negligence of Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, Sabrina Morrison filed a $30 million lawsuit against Arpaio and Maricopa County, which was eventually settled for $3.5 million.

A child whose childhood was ruined, her reputation shot, and her mental health further damaged, on top of not getting the justice she deserved should disgust you.

Taking a page out of the scorebook of J. Edgar Hoover, Arpaio used his office to intimidate and investigate people for politically motivated reasons, claiming he was investigating these people for corruption. However, going back to probable cause, Arpaio had no probable cause to investigate people like Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, or Dan Saban, who ran against Arpaio for Sheriff of Maricopa County in 2004 and 2008, or Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. Arpaio and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas also went after some Maricopa County judges, supervisors, and employees of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for alleged corruption. In a grand jury, all the cases were either dropped by Arpaio or dismissed by the court due to the absolute lack of evidence.

This witch-hunt led to Thomas being disbarred by the Arizona Supreme Court due to the flagrant abuse of power in investigating these people. 11 of the targeted people filed lawsuits against Arpaio and Maricopa County, receiving a total combined settlement of at least $8,670,110 and the cost of their legal fees, which totaled at least $5,505,928, paid for, for a grand total of at least $14,176,038.

But that's not all. The Maricopa County Office of Management and Budget found in a 2011 analysis that Arpaio had misspent about $100 million in taxpayer money over the course of 5 years. This money was spent patrolling the roads for illegal immigrant drivers in addition to funding investigations against political opponents. The money was supposed to go to improvements on the jails and for the salaries of prison guards.

Most people work very hard and pay a sizable chunk of their tax dollars to government at all levels. Such an egregious misuse of taxpayer dollars and government power is disgusting.

So when President Trump pardoned Arpaio, not only did he send a message of support to white supremacists and racists, he also sent a message to child molesters, rapists, sexual assaulters, thieves, corrupt bureaucrats, and fraudulent criminals that those activities are acceptable as well. So at the cost of protecting bigotry, we get the whole package.

Arpaio's pardon is an absolute miscarriage of justice, a piss stain on the constitution, and another nail in the coffin of the Trump administration.