Joe Arpaio is not a “skinhead,” a member of the Ku Klux Klan, or a Neo-Nazi militiaman, but he is a racist.
His crimes include institutionalizing racial profiling, neglecting to pursue sex crimes and abuse of power.
The former sheriff of Manicopa County has been found guilty and awaits sentencing on Oct. 5, 2017.
In 2011, when a federal judge ordered Arpaio to suspend the profiling, Arpaio called the court’s order “ludicrous crap.”
Billing himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” he held that post from 1993 to 2017 when his bigotry caught up with him and he was defeated by a Democrat, Paul Pinzone.
Had the sentencing occurred, Arpaio faced up to six months in jail.
Then something bizarre occurred. President Trump, keenly aware that this letter was being written, hinted at a pardon for the sheriff and on Aug. 25 granted it.
The Department of Justice investigation had concluded that Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history.
As a result of the pardon, Arpaio avoided serving jail-time of up to six months.
What brought the president and a county sheriff together?
Could the 45th president have been moved by the fact that Arpaio is 85?
Unlikely! Trump if not known for sentimentality.
More likely, this is a case of two bigots seeing eye to eye on issues of immigration and law and order.
As is often the case, there was an ideological bonding.
Both were “birthers” challenging Obama’s right to be president. Trump also ignored all precedent because his predecessors waited at least two years before granting pardons and some held off till leaving office.
Joe Arpaio is also known for his cruel treatment of prisoners.
Viewing himself as an avenging angel, he had “Tent City” constructed.
This was an outdoor jail where prisoners slept in tents where the temperature sometimes reached 120 degrees. To embarrass them, he forced prisoners to wear pink underwear.
Had Arpaio read the Constitution, he might have come across the 4th amendment which outlaws “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Those of us alive in the 1940s may remember seeing movies about prisoners working on a “chain gang.” Arpaio liked the idea and implemented it.
He even went so far as to refer to Tent City as a “concentration camp.”
Ever the penny pincher, he claimed to have saved Arizona $2,000 by eliminating salt and pepper from the prisoners’ diet.
He also put his 2,000 prisoners on two meals a day and then eliminated meat from their diet.
Medical care was so abysmal that a federal court judge ruled it another example of unconstitutional behavior.
What can we learn from these Quixotic events? There isn’t much new.
Trump continues to do whatever he pleases telling lie after lie.
He never lets the facts interfere with his opinions. He has frightened the Latino community to the point where they may block vote against the Republican Party for decades.
Trump’s disdain for the judiciary has not abated.
Lest we forget Judge Gonzalo Curiel who was hearing the fraud case brought against Trump University.
Trump claimed he could not get a fair trial because Curiel was of Mexican descent although the jurist was born in Indiana.
When I think about how we must all survive these grim days, the words of Tom Paine, written in 1776, come to mind.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered.
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
