Posted on 05/10/2012 4:10:07 PM PDT by Red Steel
PHOENIX (AP) - An audio recording has surfaced of an Arizona sheriff playing his refusal to cooperate in a racial profiling investigation for laughs at a fundraiser for an anti-illegal immigration group in Texas. He ridicules politicians who sought the probe and displayed contempt toward federal authorities who were - and are still - investigating him on two fronts.
The dismissive comments in 2009 by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio came as the U.S. Justice Department had already launched a civil rights probe of his trademark immigration patrols and the FBI already was examining abuse-of-power allegations for the sheriff’s investigations of political foes.
In the September 2009 speech in Houston, Arpaio boasted that he arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants... “But I’m not. After they went after me, we arrested 500 more just for spite,” the self-proclaimed “America’s toughest sheriff” said, pausing for laughter and applause.
In an interview Thursday, Arpaio defended his comments before Texans For Immigration Reform as a collection of humorous off-the-cuff remarks intended merely to show that he wasn’t going to back down to critics.
“These are not official, under-oath speeches,” Arpaio said. “It’s strictly a speech that when I’m talking to certain groups, they like to hear what I have to say, because they know I’m under the gun.”
-snip-
Elsewhere in the speech, Arpaio - a former federal drug agent - makes the Justice Department the butt of his jokes, saying, “It usually takes them two years to open a letter up and then another two years to buy the airline ticket.”
-snip-
Arpaio said his only regret in making the speech was that he used the wrong figure for the number of illegal immigrants arrested after the civil rights inquiry began.
“It was wrong,” Arpaio said. “It wasn’t 500. It was thousands.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
And so it begins....the assault on Sheriff Joe ramps up just as the “official” Obama re-election campaign kicks off. This is going to backfire on Holder and Obama......BIG TIME.
Joe’s da man!
We’re with you Joe!
Not BO, Joe!
YeeHaww! I think this is one fight Holder is going to wish he hadn’t picked. Mess with bull...
If Romney wants to do something conservative, offer Joe a spot as head of the Department of Justice.
Help reelect Joe:
sheriffjoe.com
That fellow is suffering somthing of a Cultural public lynching for what looks like an act of self defense. I hope hispanics remember Geroge Zimmerman and the dominant culture that is arrayed against him.
BTTT
I’d like to see Sheriff Joe file a brief requesting dismissal of the suit on the grounds that Holder has no standing; that he was appointed by a Constitutionally-ineligible president. Then let the discovery begin.
Perfect.. .feels like 'wishful thinking' to imagine a 'Mitt boldness', however; in the face of the RNC...
Obama was scared enough to have his Draft card records destroyed days after Arapaio asked for them.
So has the AG turned over HIS papers to the posse?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.