U.S. Finds Pervasive Bias Against Latinos by Arizona Sheriff Arpaio??

[Jake Martinez]

What’s suspicious about this picture?

Posted on The New York Times-By MARC LACEY-On December 15, 2011:

“PHOENIX — In a strongly worded critique of the country’s best-known sheriff, the Justice Department on Thursday accused Sheriff Joe Arpaio of engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by unfairly targeting Latinos for detention and arrest and retaliating against those who complain.

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 Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which Mr. Arpaio leads, had “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos” that “reaches the highest levels of the agency.” The department interfered with the inquiry, the government said, prompting a lawsuit that eventually led Sheriff 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 on Thursday morning that more than 400 inmates, deputies and others had been interviewed as part of the review, including Sheriff Arpaio and his command staff. Mr. Perez said the inquiry, which 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.

Mr. Perez said he hoped Sheriff Arpaio would cooperate with the federal government in turning the department around. Should he refuse to enter into a court-approved settlement agreement, Mr. Perez said, the government will file a lawsuit and the department could lose millions of dollars in federal money.

A separate federal grand jury investigation of Sheriff Arpaio’s office is continuing, focusing on accusations of abuse of power by the department’s public corruption squad.

Sheriff Arpaio was singled out for criticism in the report, which said that he had used racially charged letters he had received to justify raids and that he helped nurture the department’s “culture of bias.”

Asked at a news conference about Sheriff Arpaio’s role in the department’s problems, Mr. Perez said, “We have to do cultural change and culture change starts with people at the top.” Mr. Perez made a point of reaching out to Sheriff Arpaio’s underlings. “These findings are not meant to impugn your character,” he said to the department’s deputies.

Sheriff Arpaio, 79, who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” brushed off the criticism in a news conference as politically motivated. He said he was particularly upset by an announcement by the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, that as a result of the findings of discrimination, the federal government would no longer allow sheriff’s deputies to check the immigration status of inmates in their custody.

“This is a sad day for America as a whole,” Sheriff Arpaio said, suggesting that the federal government’s action was tantamount to setting up a neon welcome sign for illegal immigrants. “We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration.”

Long a lightning rod for controversy, Sheriff Arpaio looms large over Arizona and beyond. His turf, Maricopa County, with 3.8 million residents, is one of the country’s largest counties in terms of both area and population. Republican candidates at all levels clamor for his backing, aware that he has become a potent symbol of the antipathy many Americans feel about illegal immigration.

Before he endorsed Gov. Rick Perry of Texas for president last month, Sheriff Arpaio was courted by much of the Republican field, including Representative Michele Bachmann, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Herman Cain, a businessman who has since suspended his campaign.

The inquiry’s findings 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 are mistreated.

“The absence of clear policies and procedures to ensure effective and constitutional policing,” the report said, “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 Latino drivers were four to nine times more likely to be stopped in the sprawling county, which includes Phoenix and its environs, than non-Latino drivers. The expert who conducted the study called it the most egregious racial profiling he had ever seen in this country, said Mr. Perez, the prosecutor, without naming the expert.

The report said that roughly one-fifth of the traffic-related incident reports generated by the department’s human smuggling unit contained information indicating the stops may have been conducted in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable seizures.

The report also suggested that Sheriff Arpaio’s well-publicized raids aimed at arresting illegal immigrants were sometimes prompted by complaints that described no criminal activity but referred to people with “dark skin” or to Spanish speakers congregating in an area. “The use of these types of bias-infected indicators as a basis for conducting enforcement activity contributes to the high number of stops and detentions lacking in legal justification,” the report said.

Sheriff Arpaio has insisted that he is just enforcing the law and has mentioned in previous interviews that he has an adopted grandchild who is of Mexican descent. He has responded defiantly to past criticisms, with more raids. In the last three years, he has sent deputies into 56 Phoenix-area businesses, resulting in several hundred arrests for identity theft.

Asked at the news conference on Thursday whether he cared about the Latino community, the sheriff said, “I do have compassion, but enforcing the law overrides my compassion.”

As a result of the report, John Morton, director of immigration and customs enforcement, sent a letter Thursday to Maricopa County officials saying that the federal government would no longer provide the immigration status to deputies for anyone involved in a traffic stop, civil infraction or other minor offense.

The report is likely to increase calls for the resignation of Sheriff Arpaio, whose fifth term ends next year. He has vowed to run again. The sheriff, who has won election by wide margins even while frustrating his critics, has seen opposition to his leadership increase in recent months with reports that his department misspent county money and failed to adequately investigate more than 400 sexual-abuse cases, many involving illegal immigrants.

On Wednesday, Sheriff Arpaio’s critics took their case to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which controls the sheriff office’s purse strings. The board heard a heavy dose of criticism of the sheriff, but also present were some of his backers, who praise his no-tolerance approach toward illegal immigrants. “Police officers make mistakes,” said Jerry Sheridan, Sheriff Arpaio’s chief deputy, in defense of the department.

The Justice Department report quotes from some people characterized as victims of the department’s overzealous ways. It cites the case of a Latino driver who won a $600,000 legal settlement after a deputy intentionally struck him with his patrol car during a traffic stop.

In another case, an inmate was not allowed to use another inmate as an interpreter to tell a detention officer that her sheets were soiled. She was told she had to make the request herself in English, even though she did not speak the language well.

After Sheriff Arpaio received a letter complaining that employees of a McDonald’s in Sun City, a retirement community, did not speak English, the sheriff forwarded the letter to a top aide, who mounted an immigration raid in the area.”

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/us/arizona-sheriffs-office-unfair...

Question:  When will Americans wake up?

I am sure that this suspicious move by the Feds less than a year out from our 2012 Presidential Election is not part of the numerous disgusting and/or deplorable strategies being actively used by the DNC and the White House that are meant to distract us from the President’s eligibility issues, as they did in the run up to the 2008 Presidential Election that was revealed by the following articles and/or blog posts, which are heating up around the country in the run up to the next election while attempting to garner the Latino vote with the help of the above Left-Wing propaganda rag that is only one of the numerous funded by anti-American George Soros-You Decide:

On September 26-27, 2009, the following eye-opening articles and/or blog posts were published by The Post & Email that revealed a recently released declassified FBI report that exposed then Senator Obama’s ties to the Weather Underground, which was a radical marxist terrorist organization founded by Bill Ayers. These articles also revealed the objectives of the Students for Democratic Society (SDS) as stated by Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayer’s wife, during a National Council meeting of SDS in December, 1968: “We are building a working class revolutionary movement to overthrow the capitalists, and the imperialist structure of the United States and the world.”  She stressed the importance of an international alliance with the “third word” in order to “smash American imperialism”, and advocated the creation of an international revolutionary consciousness.  Suspiciously this information was also kept from the American public in the run up to the 2008 Presidential Election by main stream media outlets that are funded by anti-American George Soros as a means of helping then Senator Obama get elected-You Decide:

Declassified FBI report exposes Communist seedbed for Obama Associates — Part I-Posted on The Post & Email-By John Charlton-On September 26, 2009:

http://www.thepostemail.com/2009/09/26/declassified-fbi-report-expo...

Declassified FBI report exposes Communist seedbed for Obama Associates — Part II-Posted on The Post & Email-By John Charlton-On September 27, 2009:

http://www.thepostemail.com/2009/09/27/declassified-fbi-report-expo...

On or about December 12, 2009, the following article and/or blog post revealed the foreign influences of George Soros on the Obama campaign in detail, to include who ran cover Obama’s Islamic background and the connections and players in the campaign of misinformation waged by Obama supporters during the 2008 Election:

Who ran cover for Obama’s Islamic background? ‘Tracing The Politics And The Money Behind Obama’s Campaign!’-Posted on Post & Email-by John Charlton-On December 12, 2009:

http://www.thepostemail.com/2009/12/12/look-who-ran-cover-for-obama...

On or about November 29, 2011, is was revealed that there are numerous state ballots with President Obama’s name that were facing legal challenges across the country. They are claiming that, while he is listed as the only Democratic candidate, he must be removed from the 2012 presidential primary election ballot over allegations of fraud in that “he does not meet the minimum qualifications as set forth in Article II, Section I, Clause V concerning the natural born citizen status.”

Source:

Ballots with Obama’s name facing more legal challenges!-Posted on WND.com-By Bob Unruh-On November 29, 2011:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=372849#ixzz1gKfJA2bY

Like I am sure that the Feds are not going after Sheriff Arpaio for his cold case Posse’s investigation into the President’s eligibility, which the Sheriff recently announced is scheduled to publish their findings of their investigation in early 2012 that has recently sparked a media whirlwind and an increase in his death threats as revealed by the recent articles and blog posts listed below-You Decide:

Sheriff's eligibility 'posse' sparks media whirlwind!-Posted on WND.com-By Drew Zahn-On September 20, 2011:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=346981

Sheriff Joe's posse delivers promised Obama surprise: ‘Panel probing eligibility for 2012 ballot wants to see original birth certificate!’-Posted on WND.com-On October 31, 2011:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=362625#ixzz1cSojaozk

Sheriff Joe Threatened For Probing Eligibility!-Posted on WND.com-By Jerome R. Corsi-On November 9, 2011:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=366125

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Gets More Death Threats Over Obama Investigation: ‘Warned he 'will be filled with thousand bullet holes!'-Posted on WND.com-By Aaron Klein-On December 8, 2011:

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=375329#ixzz1fyTbJ4PL

Continue Reading:

The Greatest Fraud Perpetrated in American History!

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/the-greatest-fraud-perpetr...

What we haven’t been told about the President’s background!

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/what-we-haven’t-been-told-...

President and DOJ have contributed to the racial mess in our country!

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/president-and-doj-have-con...

Who owns our supposedly fair and balanced airwaves and news outlets?

http://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/who-owns-our-supposedly-fa...

Note: The following articles and/or blog posts relate to this disturbing issue-You Decide:

Possible DOJ Perjurer Says Sheriff Joe Arpaio Racially Profiles Mexican Illegals?-Posted on ExposeObama.com-By Ben Johnson, The White House Watch-On December 17, 2011:

http://www.exposeobama.com/2011/12/16/doj-perjurer-says-sheriff-joe...

Feds Go After Arpaio For Civil Rights Violations!-Posted on NewsMax.com-On December 15, 2011:

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/ArizonaSheriff-CivilRights/2011/12...

“Food For Thought”

God Bless the U.S.A.!

Semper Fi!

Jake