ARIZONA SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO
This dog-loving Sheriff served
for 22 years but with mid-east and criminal immigrants pouring over our
southern border and VOTING, America is at risk!
November 2020 update |
TheDogPress.com
First published August 2014
Barbara "BJ" Andrews, Editor-In-Chief
We
had important elections this month and a
lot has changed since we first covered Sheriff Joe. The man
described as the "toughest sheriff in the country" back in 2009 has faded
from the press and American values have been diminished.
Arizona voters loved him but with a porous
southern border, a flood of middle-eastern immigrants who would vote
(legally or not) against the man who for decades has stood against illegal
immigration, citizens were worried.
In June of 2014 Newsmax quoted Arpaio as saying
the Obama administration is "dumping"
migrant children at bus stops in this state to ease
crowding at detention facilities in Texas."
Born in 1932, the 82-year old lawman faced
difficult challenges with drug gangs running huge operations on both sides
of the border. One deputy commented "He's a prime target."
Arizona residents overwhelmingly supported him
but it was said "if law-breakers can sway the outcome,
Sheriff Joe will find this year's election his hardest battle for justice."
He lost to Democrat Paul
Penzone in 2016.
TheDogPress.com has been following Sheriff Arpaio since March of
2009. Why? Because even then he was regarded as a "hero cop" and a "stand-up
lawman." in August 2010 we were flattered to discover that Snopes
extensively quoted our reportage on Joe Arpaio.
Sheriff Arpaio has his detractors but Arizona
voters love him and dog owners want to “sic em” on Animal Rights Activists.
Arpaio runs a humane and caring animal shelter but "heartlessly
deports illegal aliens" and few criminals want to be repeat offenders
in his county.
Yes, it's true, he once housed stray dogs in the
air-conditioned county jail
cells until he could raise enough funds to build a better shelter. “The
sheriff wears his heart on his sleeve as openly as the badge on his chest.
He created an investigative division focused solely on cases of animal abuse
and neglect. He's supported ballot initiatives aimed at improving animal
welfare.” – AZ Central
Maricopa
County was spending $18 million dollars a year on rounding up, housing
and/or destroying stray cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take over
animal control and the County Supervisors said okay.
Arpaio took the 30 year old First Avenue jail that
was no longer used for inmates and outfitted it for dogs. Sure, his
critics opened fire, charging him with keeping inmates in tents and dogs in
air-conditioned comfort.
He just shrugged it off, staffed the animal
shelter with model prisoners who looked forward to feeding and caring for
the saved strays. A DogPress subscriber who lives there said "Teresa
and I adopted a Weimaraner from Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He
was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a
microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78."
Today Sheriff Joe has prisoners who are trained in
animal nutrition, care, and behavior and they give classes for anyone who'd
like to adopt an animal. Sheriff Arpaio pays prisoners out of adoption fees
collected by the animal shelter.
He's made many changes, among them quickly
dropping an $18 million dollar Sheriff's department budget to under $3
million most of which is for utilities, vehicles, and building maintenance.
The rest of the country should take a look at the
way he runs the jail system. He has a huge farm, donated to the county
years ago, where inmates can grow most of their own fresh vegetables and
food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand. He has a hog farm,
which provides meat and fertilizer. His hog farm also fertilizes the
Maricopa County Christmas tree nursery where prisoners work growing and
tending the gift to the county.
You may remember him as the sheriff who painted
the jail cells pink, invented Tent City and made the inmates wear pink
prison garb. We were privileged to interview him in 2010 although
Arpaio tries to avoid publicity. He does what he does because it
works, needs to be done and promotes prisoner involvement and learning.
In
this interview we were not surprised to learn that, like the fence-mending
cowboy of the old west, he doesn’t call a committee when something needs
fixin’. Sheriff Joe uses common sense, whatever tools are at hand,
fixes the problem and moves on.
Here's an idea. Find and elect a “Sheriff
Joe” to your state’s House and Senate. Then quickly, before it’s too
late, send him to Washington to apply a little common sense to the federal
prison system.
There's a reason Arpaio has been reelected (with
an average of 83% of the vote) as Maricopa Arizona Sheriff for over two
decades. Actually, there might be a whole pile of reasons: Sheriff Joe
Arpaio created “Tent City Jail,” got jail meals down to 40 cents a serving
and charges the inmates for them. He stopped smoking and porno
magazines in the jails, cut off all but 'G' movies, and took away their
weight machines. Instead, he started chain gangs so the inmates could build
their muscles working on county and city projects.
Then he started Chain Gangs For Women so he
wouldn't get sued for discrimination.
He
took away cable TV until he found out there was a Federal Court Order that
required cable TV for jails so he hooked up cable again but only let in the
Disney Channel and The Weather Channel.
When asked why the weather channel he replied
“So they will know how hot it’s gonna be while they
are working on my chain gangs.”
He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional
value. When the inmates complained, he told them, “This
Isn't The Ritz/Carlton......If you don't like it, don't come back.”
Maricopa County prisoners eat a lot of bologna sandwiches. Sheriff Joe
Arpaio is not sympathetic to complaints. He tells inmates: “It's
120 Degrees in Iraq and our Soldiers are living in tents too. And they
have to wear full battle gear. But they didn’t commit any crimes, so
shut your mouths.”
A few years ago the sheriff got in trouble
with the ACLU - again. He painted all Maricopa county buses and vehicles
with a mural that had a special hotline phone number where people can call
and report suspected illegal aliens.
In his expert opinion, Immigrations and Customs
Enforcement wasn't doing its job well enough so he had 40 deputies trained
specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and
bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He's a 'Git-R
Dun' kind of Sheriff.
In 2009, He was investigated for alleged
discrimination by the new Obama administration's Justice Department.
It seems Sheriff Joe arrests illegal immigrants and deports them or turns
them over to ICE...
That outrage news motivated TheDogPress.com staff
do do some research. We discovered that Phoenix has the highest kidnapping
rate of any U.S. city and Mexican police risk their lives along with our
Border Patrol. The new Mexican President has been forced to call in
federal troops to deal with gun battles in the streets. So, for
protecting his citizens, Joe Arpaio is investigated by President Obama's
Chicago buddy, Eric Holder, who runs the U.S. Dept. Of Justice? How
"just" is that? If it weren't an ironic truth, it would be a joke.
Then the U.S. Department Of Justice launched yet
another investigation which will tie the Sheriff and his staff up in
paperwork and prevent him from doing the job Arizona citizens depend on him
to do. The DOJ can't ignore complaints but on the other hand, it
should be too busy dishing out JUSTICE to criminals to have time to harass
U.S. Peace Officers.
By mid-2014, kidnappings, murders, drug dealing,
and illegal immigration numbers had broken all records for this great
nation. Maricopa County residents and Sheriff Joe were literally under
attack by drug cartels and the Federal Government!
But he's not the only one. Arizona's
Governor was sued by the Obama administration for enforcing the federal law
that was previously enforced by the Bush administration. Texas is
talking about "another Alamo", ("instant information" on
ii The Alamo) and having to use the National Guard to defend their southern borders.
Equally interesting personal insight on Joe Arpaio
is the case of a pit bull that severely bit a 4-year old boy in the face
when he was left in care of a negligent baby sitter. The judge ruled death
for the dog but Sheriff Joe had the facts and stepped in to insure that the
dog lived by putting him in jail...
As reported by the local NBC news station, the
judge sentenced the dog to "life in prison" with Sheriff Arpaio who said "I
want to thank Judge Griffith for saving the life of Mickey and sentencing
him to my jail."
No matter which state you live in or what your
political affiliation, cast your vote for America and continue to support law
enforcement that supports and protects our citizens.
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