Posted on 08/25/2017 8:09:52 PM PDT by hapnHal
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned a notorious former Arizona sheriff who willfully violated a federal judge’s order by unlawfully detaining individuals his officers claimed might be in the country illegally.
Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had previously proclaimed himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” was convicted of criminal contempt last month for violating a 2011 order that barred Arpaio and his office from detaining individuals solely based on suspicions about their legal status. Arpaio, 85, was scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 5.
“Throughout his time as Sheriff, Arpaio continued his life’s work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration,” the White House said in a statement late Friday. “Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now eighty-five years old, and after more than fifty years of admirable service to our Nation, he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Trump’s pardon of Arpaio, the first of his presidency, amounts to a tacit endorsement of Arpaio’s discriminatory tactics and reads as a favor to a political ally. The media-savvy former sheriff, known for parading inmates around in pink underwear, supported the former reality TV star’s presidential campaign and spoke at the Republican National Convention last summer. Both men were prominent promoters of the racist conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States.
Arpaio, who served as sheriff from 1993 through 2016, had long been accused of discriminatory practices against Latinos. A 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division concluded there was reasonable cause to believe that Arpaio and his office engaged in a pattern or practice of unlawful policing and racial profiling. Arpaio’s officers called Latinos “wetbacks,” “Mexican bitches,” “fucking Mexicans” and “stupid Mexicans,” the Justice Department found, and Latino drivers were four to nine times as likely to be stopped by his officers as non-Latino drivers were. A lawsuit filed by the Justice Department was settled in 2015.
“With his pardon of Arpaio, Trump has chosen lawlessness over justice, division over unity, hurt over healing,” Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement Friday. “Once again, the president has acted in support of illegal, failed immigration enforcement practices that target people of color and have been struck down by the courts. His pardon of Arpaio is a presidential endorsement of racism.”
At a Tuesday evening rally in Phoenix, Trump had signaled that the pardon was coming. The president claimed Arpaio had been “convicted for doing his job.” But Trump said, “I’ll make a prediction: I think he’s going to be just fine, OK?
Now James O’Keefe, Scooter Libby and every other political conviction even if their sentence is over. Clean the records and stick a thumb into the the Left’s eye.
“A 2011 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division concluded there was reasonable cause...”
Obama’s out of control, incredibly biased Dept of Justice, viewing things thru their bias-colored glasses, found it was evil of Sheriff Joe to try to detain people who were in the USA illegally.
My wife entered the US LEGALLY. I later adopted 2 kids from overseas - LEGALLY. Obama can kiss my butt, and Sheriff Joe’s as well!
I voted for Cruz in the primary, but the longer Trump is President, the better I like him!
I wonder how many times this will get posted on FR...
I love the sound of Liberal heads exploding. Sounds like victory!
What “unpopular” decisions?
Fixing a few typos here:
...pardoned a former Arizona sheriff who ignored a notorious federal judge’s unlawful order by continuing to do his job and enforce the law.
Either you trust President Trump to know what to do, and when, or you don’t. I trust the man. Quit wringing your hands, and let the man do his job.
**Now, let’s talk about Eric Snowden, home alone in Russia.
Time to come in from the cold.
**Now let’s talk about Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, director of that movie ‘The Innocence of Muslims’..2013
This movie was wrongly blamed for inspiring the carnage that took place in Syria culminating in a night of gunfire and four dead American Seals. This man was only convicted in the court of public opinion. We need to welcome him back to the living human race.
Yeah! Thank you President Trump! Thank you for saving Sheriff Joe from the leftists!
you mean Libya? not Syria?
AMEN!!
Here is the post and the reply’s I made 31 July 17. Interesting reading and comments....and now it’s 25 August
Thanks President Trump “MAGA”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3573573/posts
Oh, yes. Libya. Thank you.
Yes, they were all political convictions and none of them did anything against the law.
My question wasn’t a dig on you personally. It looks like they already deleted some of the other threads about Arpaio being pardoned.
Now the threads are changing a little to say the left is unhappy and so is McCain but I guess I’m repeating myself by saying both.
My thought was that if trump wasn’t going to pardon him- He could escape to a sanctuary city- Golly wouldn’t the left implode if that happened?
[[but it’s also pretty insignificant when you look at the bigger picture.]]
It wasn’t insignificant to Joe or his family- He was being railroaded by a mean vicious vindictive left- what they were trying to do to him was totally unjust- standing up for justice is never insignificant because it affects us all
It’s also worth noting that Arpaio was charged with a crime that carried a maximum 6 month penalty in jail. Why is that important?
According to federal law, a defendant charged with a crime carrying such a penalty is NOT eligible for a jury trial. That’s why Arpaio wasn’t charged with anything more serious. They didn’t want a jury (which Joe asked for) to decide the case. They wanted a liberal judge to decide the case.
The whole thing stinks.
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