"Ariz. sheriff accused of bias toward Latinos; Justice Dept. questions his policing policy" December 16, 2011|By Marc Lacey, New York Times
PHOENIX - In a harshly worded critique of the country’s best-known sheriff, the Justice Department accused Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office of engaging in “unconstitutional policing’’ by unfairly targeting Latinos for detentions and arrests and retaliating against those who complain.
Isn't that a bit like the pot calling the kettle black?
After an investigation that lasted more than three years, the civil rights division of the Justice Department said in a 22-page report that the sheriff’s office has “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos’’ that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.’’
Don't you wish the Justice Department would turn that toward the executive or Capitol Hill on so many other issues?
The department interfered with the inquiry, the government said, prompting a lawsuit that eventually led Arpaio and his deputies to cooperate.
“We have peeled the onion to its core,’’ said Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, noting during a conference call with reporters yesterday morning that more than 400 inmates, deputies, and others were interviewed as part of the review, including Arpaio and his command staff. Perez said the inquiry, which also included jail visits and reviews of thousands of pages of internal documents, raised the question of whether Latinos were receiving second-class policing services in Maricopa County.
The report stems from a civil inquiry and Perez said he hoped Arpaio would cooperate with the federal government in turning the department around. Should he refuse, a lawsuit will be filed, and his department could lose millions of dollars in federal funding, Perez said.
Translation: the Feds don't like this guy -- and maybe for good reason -- so extortion is also on the table as a pressure tactic.
A separate federal grand jury investigation of Arpaio’s office is continuing, focusing on accusations of abuse of power by the department’s public corruption squad.
Stepped on the wrong toes, did he?
Arpaio was singled out for criticism in the report, which faulted him as distributing racially charged letters he had received and helping to nurture the department’s culture of bias.
Asked at a news conference about Arpaio’s role in the department’s problems, Perez said: “We have to do cultural change, and culture change starts with people at the top.’’ Perez made a point of reaching out to Arpaio’s underlings.
“These findings are not meant to impugn your character,’’ he said to the department’s deputies.
Arpaio, 79, who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff,’’ did not immediately respond to the charges, but he has brushed off similar accusations in the past.
I saw "American Drug War," and my judgment is he's a prick.
The findings, which Arpaio is sure to contest, paint a picture of a department staffed by poorly trained deputies who target Latino drivers on the roadways and detain innocent Latinos in the community in their searches for illegal immigrants. The mistreatment, the government said, extends to the jails the department oversees, where Latino inmates who do not speak English were mistreated.
I don't doubt it; such is AmeriKa these days.
“The absence of clear policies and procedures to ensure effective and constitutional policing, along with the deviations from widely accepted policing and correctional practices, and the failure to implement meaningful oversight and accountability structures, have contributed to a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations,’’ the report said.
In other words, he is acting just like the federal government and most police departments across the US.
The report said that Latino drivers were four to nine times more likely than non-Latino drivers to be stopped in the sprawling county, which includes Phoenix and its environs. The specialist who conducted the study called it the most egregious racial profiling he has ever seen in the country, said Perez.
The report is likely to increase calls for the resignation of Arpaio, whose fifth term ends next year.
So that is what this is all about.
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Related: Arizona judge takes up profiling lawsuit
"Abuse cases botched in Ariz., police say" December 05, 2011|Associated Press
EL MIRAGE, Ariz. - More than 400 sex crimes reported to the Maricopa County sheriff during a three-year period ending in 2007 - including dozens of alleged child molestations - were inadequately investigated and in some instances not checked at all, according to current and former police officers familiar with the cases.
In El Mirage alone, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations - with victims as young as 2 years old - where the sheriff’s office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases.
Many of the victims were children of illegal immigrants, said a retired El Mirage police official.
The botched investigations have served as an embarrassment to a department whose sheriff is the self-described “America’s Toughest Sheriff’’ and a national hero to conservatives on the immigration issue....
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Related: Americans Paying To Imprison Themselves
AmeriKa's Immigration War
I Sued the Sheriff
Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed in Arizona
"No trial likely in 2012 for Ariz. shooter; Loughner still being treated for schizophrenia" by Jacques Billeaud | Associated Press, January 07, 2012
PHOENIX - The mentally ill man charged in the Tucson shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others is not expected to go to trial in 2012 as he continues to be forcibly medicated to make him psychologically fit to stand trial.
The case was put on hold indefinitely when psychologists diagnosed suspect Jared Lee Loughner with schizophrenia and a federal judge ruled the 23-year-old was not fit to stand trial in the shooting that occurred a year ago tomorrow.
Loughner is being treated at a Missouri prison facility, where he has been forcibly medicated for more than five months with psychotropic drugs. Even though psychologists say his condition is improving, his lawyers have vigorously fought the government’s efforts to medicate him.
“If he was restored to competency tomorrow, I don’t think there would be a trial until 2013,’’ Black said.
James Cohen, who teaches psychology in criminal law at Fordham University, believes the end result for Loughner will be the same, regardless of whether he goes to trial.
“He will be confined for the rest of his life,’’ Cohen said.
He believes Loughner’s lawyers oppose forced medication because they want him to act bizarrely at trial. It will be hard for a jury to see the depth of Loughner’s psychological troubles if he is placid in the courtroom and appears to be cooperating with his lawyers, Cohen said.
“They think the medications actually disguise what’s going on and that he should be judged on what’s really going on and not based on what the medication created,’’ Cohen said.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 federal charges stemming from the shooting.
US District Judge Larry Burns has ruled Loughner can eventually be made mentally fit to stand trial. His current stay at the Missouri facility is set to end on Feb. 8 but could be extended.
Loughner’s treating psychologist, Christina Pietz, has said in court that it could take another four months of treatment to make him ready for trial, meaning his stay could be extended until June if she can show the judge that Loughner has made progress but still needs more treatment.
If the judge finds Loughner is ready to stand trial, the criminal case will resume. But if Burns finds there is no likelihood of Loughner being made mentally ready for trial, he can dismiss the charges under a US Supreme Court ruling that stipulates a person can not be indefinitely held for trial.
If the charges are dismissed, it is unlikely Loughner would be released. Instead, state and federal authorities would probably petition to have Loughner civilly committed and seek repeated extensions of his commitment until his death.
Legal specialists say Loughner will have no choice but to use an insanity defense if he does go to trial, because the shooting was captured on video and witnessed by dozens of people.
Loughner’s lawyers have not said whether they intend to present an insanity defense, but noted in court filings that his mental condition will probably be a central issue at trial.
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Also see: Giffords joins Tucson for day of remembrance
Sunday Globe Special: Arizona Gunman's Last Shot
Couple from New Hampshire shot dead in Arizona
Ariz. authorities seek link in fatal shootings
Update: Ariz. ties slayings of deputy, N.H. couple
There was a day once when I had more time that I read them with enthusiasm.
"Rescue group euthanizes cat, sparking furor" December 29, 2011|By Associated Press
PHOENIX - Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man’s cat was euthanized when he couldn’t afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode yesterday.
Daniel Dockery, a 49-year-old recovering heroin addict, took his 9-month-old cat Scruffy to a Humane Society center on Dec. 8 because she had a cut from a barbed-wire fence, an injury that he said was not life-threatening. The agency said it would cost $400 to treat Scruffy, money he did not have.
The Humane Society cited policy when it declined to accept a credit card over the phone from Dockery’s mother in Michigan or to wait for her to wire the money. The staff said if he signed papers surrendering the cat, Scruffy would be treated and put in foster care, he said.
Instead, Scruffy was euthanized several hours later.
Stacy Pearson, who was hired by the agency specifically to deal with media questions about the cat, said the Humane Society has set up an account, funded through donations, that would cover the costs of emergency treatment of animals whose owners need a day or two to come up with money for payments. And the group is now accepting credit card payments by phone, Pearson said.
???????????
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"Grand Canyon to ban plastic bottle sales" December 16, 2011|Associated Press
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Park Service director Jon Jarvis nixed a bottle ban at Grand Canyon late last year just weeks before it was to be implemented and said the agency would develop a national policy. Former Grand Canyon Superintendent Steve Martin raised suspicions that the action was due to influence from the Coca Cola Co. - a major water bottle distributor - but the Park Service denied that.
Marcak said Grand Canyon has been encouraging visitors to ditch disposable bottles in favor of reusable ones and to fill them at one of nearly a dozen water stations on the north and south rims that were installed at a cost of more than $300,000....
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Also see: EPA bans new mining near Grand Canyon
