Editorial: Arpaio pardon is petty payoff of political convenience
Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017 -- President Donald Trump's pardon of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is no grand gesture of compassion or equanimity. It is a petty political payoff to a two-bit tin-horn who lied and used his authority to pick on the most vulnerable for his own aggrandizement.
Posted — UpdatedThe Arpaio case is the direct result of the sheriff’s despicable tactics to sweep up undocumented immigrants. In 2007, Arpaio’s deputies held a man with a valid Mexican tourist visa for nine hours. The man sued, in federal court, on the basis of racial profiling.
It was an outgrowth of that case, and the 2011 injunction against profiling issued by a federal judge (a Republican appointed by President George W. Bush), that eventually led to Arpaio’s contempt of court conviction – and thus the pardon.
Maricopa County taxpayers have spent an estimated $72 million defending Arpaio and his department against racial profiling charges. The contempt of court violation resulted in the establishment of a $1 million fund, also financed by taxpayers, to compensate Latinos who were illegally detained when the sheriff, and deputies on his orders, ignored a court order to end racial profiling and continued the illegal detentions.
Like Trump, Arpaio was a leader of the “birther” movement – spreading the false theory that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States. He even sent posse to Hawaii in 2012 to verify the president’s birth certificate.
In 2007, two owners of The Phoenix New Times, a tough critic of the sheriff, were arrested after the newspaper accurately reported on a Maricopa County subpoena seeking readers’ internet browsing records. The charges were dropped. The paper’s owners won millions in a settlement after suing the sheriff’s office.
Last fall, after six terms in office, the voters decided enough was enough. America’s self-appointed “toughest sheriff” was soundly defeated by a Democrat. He was convicted on federal contempt of court charges with the distinct possibility of serving time in prison.
America’s toughest sheriff? Please. Trump’s pardon proves he’s a wimp who had to cash in a political debt to stay out of prison.
His tinfoil badge melts under the harsh beam of truth.
Neither the president nor the ex-sheriff – and certainly not the nation – have anything to celebrate over this shady pardon of convenience.
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