Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has laid down the gauntlet! He said, "I think with law enforcement, the last thing anybody wants is somebody with a gun, both that is angry and shaking... Arpaio is increasingly engaging in bizarre behavior, erratic ramblings and misstatements, contradicting himself within the same statement." This is quite a statement from the honorable Mayor. Will Joe take this sitting down or is he bent on revenge. We will see (and I will report) in the days and weeks ahead!KPHO News Reports:Gordon-Arpaio Feud Escalates, Debate Swirls Over Enforcement Of Immigration LawsPOSTED: 1:05 pm MST July 15, 2008
PHOENIX -- Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio squared off again Tuesday in their ongoing battle over enforcement of immigration laws. Gordon said the sheriff has lost his focus and is not helping the county at all with reducing crime. "The continuing bizarre behavior of the sheriff, including last night's demonstration of anger and sarcasm, is continuing evidence that the stress and criticism of the office is affecting the sheriff's judgment," Gordon said. Arpaio said Gordon is not an expert on law enforcement and represents only one vote on the City Council. He also said Gordon lies and misrepresents statistics.
Asked whether he would have Arpaio working for him if he were the sheriff's boss, Gordon said no. "I think with law enforcement, the last thing anybody wants is somebody with a gun, both that is angry and shaking," the mayor said. "You'll see Arpaio is increasingly engaging in bizarre behavior, erratic ramblings and misstatements, contradicting himself within the same statement."
Arpaio said Gordon has no business criticizing him for doing his job and that he has overwhelming public support compared with the mayor. "He constantly criticizes me with my 48 years of law enforcement," Arpaio said. "A poll came out today. It said 86 percent support me, 14 percent support the mayor. He better look at what the people think. We are politicians. We serve the people." "I don't know when he became an expert on law enforcement," Arpaio said. "He's just a mayor with one vote."
Gordon said Arpaio, who continued another one of his controversial crime suppression efforts in Mesa on Tuesday, is putting too much emphasis on immigration issues. "You see rising crime rates in the county. You see the response times that have gone sky high where he's responsible. And you see the arrest rates going down," Gordon said. "Any other chief wouldn't be there."
Arpaio said his deputies have made thousands of felony arrests and conducted thousands of investigations and that 3,000 members of the Phoenix police union have endorsed him for re-election in November.
He said Gordon has attacked him with "petty statistics." "I'm not going to debate this guy," Arpaio said. "I'm going to keep doing my job. The people support me. I'm the elected sheriff and I back up my officers."
Gordon said Arpaio, who continued another one of his controversial crime suppression efforts in Mesa on Tuesday, is putting too much emphasis on immigration issues. "You see rising crime rates in the county. You see the response times that have gone sky high where he's responsible. And you see the arrest rates going down," Gordon said. "Any other chief wouldn't be there."
Arpaio said his deputies have made thousands of felony arrests and conducted thousands of investigations and that 3,000 members of the Phoenix police union have endorsed him for re-election in November.
He said Gordon has attacked him with "petty statistics." "I'm not going to debate this guy," Arpaio said. "I'm going to keep doing my job. The people support me. I'm the elected sheriff and I back up my officers."
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What happened when th FBI, which Gordon wanted, came up and praised Arpaio after going out with him on a suppression sweep? Gordon is pandering while raising taxes, the more people the better for him. He can build more Sheraton hotels in Phoenix at taxpayers expenses for business interests. Gordon is out for Big Business, just because he hides behind the term Democrat, don't be fooled by his party affiliation.
Is this what we are to believe Gordon stands for:
Denogean: Protesters as offensive as Sheriff Arpaio
But I don't think you persuade the public that the man is an out-of-control, raving lunatic by behaving like out-of-control, raving lunatics.
That's the kindest description I have for the immigration rights protesters who beat to a pulp a piñata meant to represent the sheriff during Arpaio's visit to Tucson last week.
This was the scene for those who missed Thursday evening's piece of street theater on East Broadway.
The sheriff came to town to plug his new book (an homage to himself) with a book-signing and a live radio interview with KNST-AM (790) at Barnes & Noble Booksellers. And where the state's finest ringmaster goes, a circus inevitably will pop up.
The Coalición de Derechos Humanos (Human Rights Coalition) organized a protest. The normal stuff. Some chanting and marching. Folks carrying signs calling the sheriff a fascist. A few protesters even infiltrated the sizable crowd of Arpaio supporters and disrupted the live radio broadcast by shouting out insults.
What occurred about midway through the protest, however, was truly disturbing. Several young protesters outside the store brought out a piñata meant to represent Arpaio.
The piñata, with a picture of Arpaio's face taped or glued to the head, was clad in a sheriff's uniform and equipped with pink handcuffs. One woman held up the piñata, while two teenage girls took turns bashing it with sticks. The Tucson Citizen ran a picture the next day of a teenage boy carting away the remains of the beheaded piñata.
While the beating of Arpaio in effigy proceeded, Isabel Garcia, head of Humanos Derechos, a group that purports to stand for the dignity of all human beings, stood by and laughed.
The spectacle reminded me of the antics of an extremist on the other side of the issue, a Tucson man who does his best to incite riots by burning Mexican flags in public places. I wondered how Garcia would react if the virulent anti-illegal immigrant hard-liners were to burn her in effigy or hang a papier-mâché figure meant to represent an Mexican illegal immigrant.
Garcia told me Friday that she thought the Arpaio piñata was great, although she said it wasn't brought in by organizers.
"I think it's a fair expression of First Amendment rights. I thought it was funny. It had him with the pink underwear and, of course, his face. And it's a piñata. It was a fun thing for the kids that broke it," she said.
The piñata was symbolic of his policies, his views and his book, not the man personally, Garcia said. "It's not a symbol that we are going to beat him up."
Garcia said she "wouldn't sweat it all" if someone were to bash a piñata in her image. That would be minor compared to the abuse she has faced, including name-calling and plenty of death threats, she said.
"And we're expected to play nice?" she asked.
The protesters did their best to run Arpaio out of town, with signs urging him to go home.
Frankly, as an American, Arpaio has the right to go wherever he pleases.
But more important, the demand that Arpaio get out of our town is as bad as the suggestion by those on the other side of the immigration debate that anyone who dares utter the words "comprehensive immigration reform" should hitch a ride on the next donkey to Mexico.
Garcia responded that Arpaio is a racist who has violated people's civil rights and had a poisonous effect on his community.
"When the people say, 'Go back,' they are making a point of, 'Hey, keep your hatred in Phoenix,' " she said
As Garcia and her fellow protesters proved, we've got plenty of hatred right here in Tucson.
Now don't forget that Mrs. Garcia is on the Pima County payroll as a Public Defender. It's OK for your side to publicly abuse and beat an effigy of someone they dislike, which actually sends the message of "we are going to do this to you" and should be considered a serious threat with intent to do bodily injury. I say we do the same, lets create an effigy of a Latino and beat the crap out of it until its head falls off, I mean, fair is fair, right? I can hear the Latino outrage already if that where to happen.
Here you go, dee. So much for your claims that the employers go unpunished.
McDonald's franchisee fined one million dollars for hiring illegal immigrants.
Jul 16 06:36 PM US/Eastern
A company that owns 11 McDonald's restaurants in Nevada was fined one million dollars Wednesday after pleading guilty to employing 58 illegal immigrants.
The company, Mack Associates Inc., knew the employees were illegal immigrants and had offered them names and social security numbers belonging to other people, the US Justice Department said.
The company pleaded guilty in federal court in Las Vegas to conspiracy to encourage and induce an alien's unlawful residence in the United States and aiding and abetting an alien to remain in the country, the department said.
The company's director of operations also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting an alien to remain in the country.
And the former vice president of Mack Associates pleaded guilty to inducing an illegal alien to remain in the United States and faces a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a 250,000 dollar fine.
About 30 of the illegal workers have returned to their native countries while the rest were allowed to stay in the United States until the case closes.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080716223606.okp0nvxp&show_article=1
Liquid,
The sheriff is off his rocker. I read this recent article by someone who was actually a witness of one of herr sheriff´s racial profiling circuses. It was heart breaking.
Liquid,
Given the circus type atmosphere Arpaio always has with his sweeps and his masked volunteer posse, its not a wonder people reacted. Good thing it was a pinata vs anything that hurts anyone.
Pat,
You see again, its employers soliciting illegal workers, providing them papers so they can exploit them.
He is charged but we will see if they send him to jail! Looks like a long wait too! No Cattle Barn INjustice for him I guess.
How can the Sheriff be off his rocker when Gordon asked for and got FBI going along with Arpaio on his sweeps and even they found nothing wrong with it. Your blog story is just that, I see a lot of presumptions but no documented proof.
More 'trigger words', "circus", how quaint. Arpaio's checkpoints are no different than any other police department setting up a DUI checkpoint. Why then aren't you yelling about the 'profiling' of the drunk drivers? Or is it just about 'race'?
So to you, the pinata, was fine? You advocate violence if you are not heard and/or believed? should that then be construed as a meaning of war if you don't get your way?
Why allow "Illegal Immigrants" who are felonies free, why not paint with the broader brush and make it crime free?
Liquid,Liquid,
The Circus word was in the article, illustrating what they saw! (please re read what she wrote)
They are very, very different then most checkpoints I have seen. Most checkpoints are set up in neutral locations and stop everyone.
These checkpoints are purposely set up in Latino neighborhoods meant to instill fear.
I agree with Gordon. Arpaio is one nut short of a free wheel.
I know where the circus word was, it shows the authors bias and uses trigger words for descriptions. i side with Arpaio. What would you have Arpaio do? These 'Communities' fall within the jurisdiction of his area, should he not do anything there just because they are Hispanic dominated?
Neutral locations for checkpoints?? Most DUI checkpoints are set up fairly close to bars/restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages and also near home communities since these people also must return to there homes. Thats not so neutral when you really think about it is it? Checkpoints are set up in known locations for a purpose, to catch perpetrators of the laws.
Your recent article dee was written by a Hispanic! Go figure! No bias there, right?
Right, no "cattle barn justice" for him because it doesn't require a huge building to arrest and detain one or even a just few people. We aren't talking about 400 people here.
Yes, this is one of the cases where the employer supplied the fake documents to hire these illegal alines (that isn't always the case). But guess what? No one forced the illegal aliens to work there either. There are two guilty parties here.
We let almost anyone carry a gun here in the US. Look at all of the cops who should be disciplined yet aren't and the troops that we recruit with mental and legal troubles.
Arpaio epitomizes why we should have gun control and more scrutiny over who should be allowed to enter law enforcement in the first place. This guy doesn't seem stable at all.
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