I'll stick with Joe... most honest Arizonans have for years, no reason to change a good thing.
Sorry, I'm not in my 20s with little world experience or fresh from a university . . .
Honest is the last thing Joe is.
Famous Incidents During Joe's Saga
Wild and Crazy Stuff
1996: Sheriff Joe personally deputizes con man David Pecard. It soon appears that something is amiss when the new deputy promises to shorten a female inmate's sentence, then fondles her in an empty office. Pecard is charged on 12 felony counts and faces a court-martial for deserting the United States army seven times under different identities.
In 1999, Arpaio and his chief deputy, David Hendershott, attempted to frame 18-year-old James Saville in a phony bomb plot supposedly aimed at Arpaio. TV reporters were called ahead of time to chronicle the teenager's arrest outside an Italian restaurant where Arpaio was dining. Saville's lawyer noted the obvious entrapment, and Saville was unanimously acquitted by a jury after the MCSO's unscrupulous antics were aired in court.
Actor Nick Tarr was falsely arrested in 2002 while portraying "Joe Arizona" in a spoof of the sheriff sponsored by backers of a ballot initiative opposed by Arpaio. Tarr walked into a restaurant where Chief Deputy David Hendershott was eating. Hendershott wanted to charge him with impersonating a DPS officer. The DPS wanted no part of it, but Hendershott had his men hold Tarr and cite him. The MCSO dropped the complaint against Tarr, who has since settled for $125,000. Tarr was wearing pink boxers, hiking boots, an "I Love Arizona" tee shirt, a park-ranger hat and, over the tee shirt, an unbuttoned old Department of Public Safety shirt. (Impersonating an officer?)
In November, 2003, Sheriff's deputies arrested over 70 people for prostitution and solicitation. The officers arrested alleged prostitutes and their customers in more than thirty homes and ten massage parlors in the Phoenix area. Records indicated that several of the officers disrobed, fondled the breasts and genitals of the alleged prostitutes, and allowed their penises to be touched during the operation. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office stated that the Sheriff's office had gone too far in allowing this behavior, and sixty of the cases were thrown out. Several of the male customers in the case were prosecuted.
In 2004, In executing a misdemeanor arrest warrant on 26 year old Eric Kush for failure to appear in Tempe Traffic Court, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office SWAT team led a raid on an Ahwatukee home in a gated subdivision, looking for illegal weapons. No illegal weapons were found, but during the raid, the house burned down, killing a dog, and an armored vehicle rolled into a neighbor's parked car.
2004: Launched a campaign against political opponent and former Mesa Police Commander, Dan Saban. Sheriff's department leaked to a TV station by Arpaio's office that Saban sexually assaulted his foster mother, when it was the foster mother, according to Saban, who assaulted him when he was a young teen-ager, 30 years earlier. The reporter was fired, a defamation lawsuit against Arpaio failed, and Saban lost the election. He is running again in 2008, and appealing the verdict.
2005: Army Reserve Sgt. Patrick Haab arrested after gunpoint arrest of undocumented immigrants. County Attorney Andy Thomas dismisses charge. Haab later files a $1 million claim against the county.
2007: Sheriff has custody of quarantined TB patient in jail ward at Maricopa Medical Center. Arpaio announces that Robert Daniels will be treated as an inmate despite no criminal charge or conviction.
10/2007 - Phoenix New Times editors Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin were arrested on charges of revealing grand jury secrets after having published Arpaio's home address in the context of a story about his real estate dealings, which the county attorney's office is investigating as a possible crime under Arizona state law. They were subpoenaed to produce all documents related to that article including internet traffic information. The prosecutor wanted all information on all visitors to the site since 2004. The editors then published the contents of that subpoena as an act of civil disobedience. That day, they were arrested. The case was dropped and they were released the next day. A suit has been filed against the sheriff, the county attorney, and the prosecutor.
A report by Amnesty International condemned the jail for human-rights violations. Two independent studies and a Justice Department lawsuit found chronic inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Arpaio fired and demoted countless whistle-blowers - he calls them "dime droppers" - for going public with criticism of the Sheriff's Office. A number of those employees collected money after filing suit.
June 27, 2008: Latest illegal immigrant sweep in Mesa netted a total of 37 arrests. Total number of illegal immigrants: 14. That's one illegal immigrant for every 14 deputies and posse members.
June 2008 - June 2009: Investigations of Arpaio begin or continue by DOJ, FBI, ACLU, The Goldwater Institute, Valley mayors, Jewish Rabbis, Protestant Ministers. Jails condemned by Amnesty International. The County Board of Supervisors investigates Arpaio; Arpaio investigates the County Board of Supervisors.
May 2, 2009: Inmates go on hunger strike. Joe locks down the jails. Lockdown ends May 22.
June 3, 2009: Former Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools Sandra Dowling filed suit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County and the Board of Supervisors because of a 2006 SWAT team invasion of her home and subsequent criminal prosecution that ended in a single misdemeanor conviction.
June 11, 2009: Valley chefs try to spice up Sheriff Joe's 'vile' ham stew. Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Cafe was game for the challenge. She thought about using the beans on some crisps. And that the ham gravy could be the basis for a cream soup. Then she tasted the stuff. And got physically ill. "It was so vile," she said. "There's nothing I can do."The beans had a "tinny, synthetic flavor," she said. "I couldn't make it go away." That was even after she pureed them and tried them with a salsa. "Disgusting," she said. The "green goop" was just bad, she said. "It was downright nasty . . . Chili couldn't hide it. If chili couldn't hide the grotesque flavor, nothing can." (AZ Republic). FAIL
November, 2009: An ongoing battle with County government about, well, everything is, well, ongoing.........
Summer, 2010: The Feds launch investigation into Sheriff Joe's alleged profiling of illegals, and abuse of power.
(got all this info in less than a minute ^^^ came from
http://www.squidoo.com/sheriff_joe_arpaio
Joe has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in unnecessary lawsuits for his maltreatment in his gulag jails. For me, a taxpaying resident of Maricopa County, it is inexcusable to have this much corrupt malfeasance in such a high position of authority. You do know Joe got his name, 'Nickelbag Joe', in DEA LEO by busting people with a gram or less right? Oh and by the way, im not in my 20s or fresh out of the universitah... just sayin...
