Joe Arpaio

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Joe Arpaio 2011

Joseph M. "Joe" Arpaio (born June 14, 1932 in Springfield , Massachusetts ) is a former American sheriff . From 1992 to 2016 he was responsible for the law enforcement service in the US state of Arizona in Maricopa County , which also includes the metropolis of Phoenix . Arpaio described himself as "America's toughest sheriff". He became known for unusual methods aimed at minimizing the cost of the penal system and maximizing the inconvenience for those in prison. In July 2017, Arpaio was convicted of violating court orders, but was pardoned by US President Donald Trump in August . He applied within the party to succeed US Senator Jeff Flake , but lost the primary.

Life

Arpaio was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Italian immigrants. His mother died in childbirth. After high school, he worked in his father's shop. 1950 to 1954 he was a soldier in the US Army and temporarily stationed in France. In 1957 he became a police officer. He married in 1958. He has two children with his wife Ava.

Arpaio worked for a long time as an officer of the US drug administration ( DEA ) and fought the drug trafficking in Mexico , but also in Turkey . In 1982 he quit his job and joined his wife's travel agency.

Arpaio campaigning for Donald Trump in February 2016

He was first elected as a Republican sheriff candidate in 1992 . After six terms in office, he failed in the election on November 7, 2016. Arpaio was one of President Obama's political opponents and a member of the conspiracy-theoretical Birther movement, which claims that Obama was not born in the United States.

Tenure as sheriff

Detention methods

As Sheriff Joe Arpaio only trial detainees and convicted petty criminals had set who were sentenced at most to one year, it was legally possible for him to do without a fixed accommodation in keeping the prisoners. For example, he bought tents from the US Army for around 120,000 US dollars from leftover stocks from the Korean War and thus founded Tent City next to a garbage dump, since the land prices were the cheapest there. The capacity of the camp is now designed for 8,000 inmates; when it was founded, 4,000 was assumed.

The prisoners in the tent camp have to endure the heat of Arizona in beds stacked on top of each other and have little opportunity to move. Only the guards have an improvised sprinkler system for cooling. The prisoners' beds are searched daily by a special task force. Only three television programs were allowed in the tent camp during Arpaio's tenure, the weather channel, the cooking television and the parliamentary channel, which broadcasts political debates. The food was identical every day: white bread with biscuits in the morning, stew and potatoes in the evening. The sheriff calculated with 50 cents per prisoner per day.

Since attempts were made to smuggle underwear out of the detention center, it has been dyed pink. Unwelcome inmates had to wear classic black and white prison clothing as well as convict clothing. Red flip-flops were also part of the equipment. When Mike Tyson was detained in the camp, he was made to wear pink socks and was handcuffed with pink. Female convicts wore striped uniforms designed to make them feel unfavorable and fat. Male prisoners had to accept the furnishing of their accommodation with plush and cuddly toys. Some of the electricity needed to operate televisions had to be produced using an ergometer .

Surveillance cameras, which were also set up as webcam , were installed throughout the facility . A video A Day with Sheriff Joe ( German : A Day with Sheriff Joe) was produced and publicly offered for sale. Shepherd dogs that were trained on German commands were used as guard dogs.

Inmates - including women - were used in chain gangs outside the camp. The prisoners went in groups of four people tied to a common anklet. Even when the temperature was around 40 degrees Celsius in the shade, they did clean-up work and cleaned the streets. Care was taken to ensure that they were exposed to the eyes of the rest of the population in order to humiliate them further.

"Clean Sweep"

Arpaio led since 2007 raids by which he himself describes as Clean Sweep ( German : clean) called. He sent armed units to residential areas and had the papers checked. Even an initial suspicion of illegal entry led to the arrest of those checked. In the satellite town of Mesa , he carried out a raid with 60 armed men, arresting three city hall cleaning women who Arpaio accused of having forged their papers.

criticism

Joseph Arpaio's methods often met with incomprehension and clear criticism, but also with approval. Arpaio was elected five times in Maricopa County.

Arpaio was sharply criticized by human rights organizations and civil rights movements such as Amnesty International , the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Jewish Committee . His raids in particular met with criticism from the state police, who feared bloody confrontations.

President Barack Obama's cabinet had it checked whether the sheriff only targeted people because they speak Spanish or because they are not white (see " Racial Profiling ")

“Let them sniff. Take a look at my popularity curve. 69 percent. Upward trend. Can Obama compete with that? "

- Joseph M. Arpaio

complain

Since the images of the webcams that showed inmates in the toilet and in the changing rooms were posted on the Internet without the consent of the inmates, the civil rights organization "Middle Ground Prison Reform" filed a lawsuit against Arpaio for almost 1.4 billion dollars.

In late August 2010, the US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Arpaio in a federal court in Phoenix for refusing to work with federal agencies and denying them access to files and access to correctional facilities.

The county has paid more than $ 43 million in damages for various deaths and injuries related to Arpaio's methods.

In July 2017, Arpaio was found guilty by a federal court of violating judicial instructions on equal treatment. He was facing a six-month prison sentence. On August 25, US President Donald Trump pardoned him for his “exemplary selfless service to the public”. Arpaio had supported Trump in his presidential campaign.

Application for the US Senate

In January 2018, Arpaio announced that it would run in the internal party primary to succeed the no longer running US Senator Jeff Flake in order to become its candidate for the main election in November 2018 . Arpaio received 18.9 percent of the vote in the primary on August 29, 2018, trailing Kelli Ward and Martha McSally , who won the nomination with 52 percent.

Web links

Commons : Joe Arpaio  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sheriff Joe Arpaio Slammed in Federal Civil Rights Probe Report
  2. ↑ Evan Wyloge: Support for Sheriff Arpaio declines even in some GOP strongholds . In: azcapitoltimes.com. December 20, 2012 (accessed October 8, 2014).
  3. ↑ Fernanda Santos: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Loses Bid for 7th Term in Arizona . In: The New York Times . November 9, 2016, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed November 10, 2016]).
  4. ↑ Article in BBC News
  5. ↑ Lourdes Medrano: Joe Arpaio: Why is Obama administration suing an outspoken Arizona sheriff? In: Christian Science Monitor , September 2, 2010.
  6. ↑ Joe Arpaio: Trump pardons "America's toughest sheriff". In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 26, 2017.
  7. ↑ Trump's toughest sheriff wants to become a senator. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 9, 2018 (English).
  8. ^ Arizona Primary Election Results. In: The New York Times , August 29, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Arpaio, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arpaio, Joseph M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sheriff
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Springfield , Massachusetts