“I have compassion … I’ve worked in Mexico City working with the president. I could go on and on. But I will tell you one thing: enforcing the law overrides my compassion. I took an oath of office and I’m enforcing the state and federal law.” Sheriff Joe Arpaio
[Note: This article was originally posted on December 16th, 2011. The IFNM website was attacked by hackers and many articles are now gone from the archives. As a public service, IFNM is now reposting said articles.]
Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio and his attorneys Thursday condemned a U.S. Justice Department civil rights investigation as politically motivated and a “witch hunt.”
That response came after the U.S. Justice Department laid out a stark, detailed list of alleged systematic discrimination against Latinos by Arpaio, who is known internationally as “America’s toughest sheriff” for his hard-line stance against lawbreakers and undocumented migrants.
In alleging the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office committed federal and constitutional violations, a 22-page Justice Department letter described “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos at MCSO that reaches the highest levels of the agency.”
Arpaio responded by telling reporters he had “an idea of the politics involved in law enforcement” after 28 years of working with the U.S. Justice Department as a law enforcement official in Mexico, South America, Texas and Arizona. Arpaio is a former agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
He pointed out how President Barack Obama opposed Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law now before the U.S. Supreme Court and how the president mentioned Arpaio as the person pushing the law, the sheriff said.
“By the way, I don’t want to say it’s all politics, but everyone I’m talking about happens to be Democrats,” said Arpaio, a Republican.
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