Arpaio Pardon

[Baiter]

The Joe Arpaio pardon reinforces two things about Trump.

1. He rewards loyalty

Joe Arpaio was an original supporter of the birther argument, one of Trump's favorite topics, and wouldn't give up even after Obama produced it, calling it a forgery.  Trump rewards loyalty.  It's that simple.

2. Trump supports racial/national profiling

Arpaio has a long history of racial profiling, detaining hispanics without cause, sometimes in what he called "concentration camps" without cause (i.e., no actual proof that these detainees were in AZ illegally).  After the courts ordered him to stop, he continued, and Trump pardoned him claiming it was done in service for this country.  It is complimentary to the border wall Trump wants to erect, the Muslim ban, revised time and time again until some form of it finally passed, and his comments on the Charlotte incident is just another confirmation of Trump's stance on non-whites in the U.S.

I just got finished reading a biography of Albert Einstein.  One of the biggest things that stayed with me is the prejudice that Einstein faced as a Jew, primarily in Germany with the rise of the Nazis, but also from many of his European colleagues who used gross generalizations about Jews to pass judgement.  Ultimately the rise of the Nazis forced him to flee Europe and wind up in the U.S. where he became a icon of and renounced all German ties.  Einstein was a long time pacifist, but wound up being so afraid of the Nazi hatred that he wrote President Eisenhower about the potential of a nuclear weapon... and in such the atomic bomb was invented, and WWII was ended because of it.  Afterwards, Einstein regretted doing that because he didn't realize at the time that Germans were not close enough to developing their own. 

It's just one in a long line of interesting examples of the advantages of welcoming others into our country.  Things have changed since then in this country, and much of it is not for the better.

[Don Panetta aka 404]

The Joe Arpaio pardon reinforces two things about Trump.

1. He rewards loyalty

Joe Arpaio was an original supporter of the birther argument, one of Trump's favorite topics, and wouldn't give up even after Obama produced it, calling it a forgery.  Trump rewards loyalty.  It's that simple.

2. Trump supports racial/national profiling

Arpaio has a long history of racial profiling, detaining hispanics without cause, sometimes in what he called "concentration camps" without cause (i.e., no actual proof that these detainees were in AZ illegally).  After the courts ordered him to stop, he continued, and Trump pardoned him claiming it was done in service for this country.  It is complimentary to the border wall Trump wants to erect, the Muslim ban, revised time and time again until some form of it finally passed, and his comments on the Charlotte incident is just another confirmation of Trump's stance on non-whites in the U.S.

I just got finished reading a biography of Albert Einstein.  One of the biggest things that stayed with me is the prejudice that Einstein faced as a Jew, primarily in Germany with the rise of the Nazis, but also from many of his European colleagues who used gross generalizations about Jews to pass judgement.  Ultimately the rise of the Nazis forced him to flee Europe and wind up in the U.S. where he became a icon of and renounced all German ties.  Einstein was a long time pacifist, but wound up being so afraid of the Nazi hatred that he wrote President Eisenhower about the potential of a nuclear weapon... and in such the atomic bomb was invented, and WWII was ended because of it.  Afterwards, Einstein regretted doing that because he didn't realize at the time that Germans were not close enough to developing their own. 

It's just one in a long line of interesting examples of the advantages of welcoming others into our country.  Things have changed since then in this country, and much of it is not for the better.

I keep seeing this amount of absolute ignorance and hypocrisy lately on this subject its just mind boggling how many people have zero clue about the origins of Arpaio's legal issues.

First, Arpaio is very likely a racist. That much is true. With that being said, he was mostly following the law set in place by both Bush and (grossly expanded upon) by Obama. Arpaio was held in contempt for simply continuing to enforce the secure communities act, which essentially forced local police to track and detain undocumented immigrants for federal law enforcement officials.

Secure communities as expanded upon by the Obama administration forced local police to hold suspected migrants until their immigration status was confirmed. The expansion of Secure communities was decried as a racial profiling program with virtually zero coverage by the mainstream media. A number of studies, such as Berkley's study proved that the program did indeed racially profile Latinos.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Secure_Communities_by_the_Numbers.pdf

Arpaio wasn't removed from the secure communities program until the end of 2011. Arpaio claimed that DHS couldn't exempt him from federal law.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/15/homeland-security-kicks-sheriff-joe-arpaio-out-secure-communities-program.html

DHS repeatedly claimed they would end the secure communities program then but the Obama administration did not officially announce an end to secure communities until Nov 2014 and finally put an end to the program effective Jan 2015.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1121-immigration-justice-20141121-story.html

This did very little to curtail Obama's xenophobic immigration policy which wound up deporting well over 1/4 of the 11.6 million undocumented migrants reported in the 2008 census. Ending secure communities did very little to actually curb the Obama administrations deportations while he repeatedly lied to the American people claiming he wanted immigration reform. In the end, Obama deported more migrants from America than all other US presidents that came before him combined. Even Trump's latest numbers are down nearly 2% compared to Obama's lowest numbers in his 8 year term.
https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_ill_pe_2008.pdf
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/obama-record-deportations-deporter-chief-or-not

tldr: Arpaio is a bigot directed by Obama the bigot. The two bigots fought in court and one bigot won over the other only so that the winning bigot looked good in the press.

[WannaTheater]

So are you for the pardon, or against?

[Don Panetta aka 404]

So are you for the pardon, or against?

I'm for it. I'm also for indicting Obama on racial profiling charges too.

Are you for indicting Obama on racial profiling charges too? If you're not, you must be a Nazi.

[Yosho]

I'm generally not for pardons, but the guy is in his 80s and has spent a large portion of his lifetime protecting the public.  Perhaps he was misguided or over reached the law, I honestly don't think any of us really knows as it sounds like it's a technical issue of when it stopped being legal.  I don't think this is outrageous in the same way some past Presidents have used the power of pardon.  I also think much of the public criticism is politically motivated and hypocritical.

[WannaTheater]

Are you for indicting Obama on racial profiling charges too?

I prefer to stay discussing the present conversation, vs the typical "Hillary's emails" redirection.  And Nazi?  Seriously?

I don't believe Obama was found guilty in any lower courts of racial profiling... yet Arpaio was (not that exact offense, but related). 

For me its about Trump exercising his power to pardon a guy who wasn't even sentenced yet, during a time that racial (or left vs right) tensions are accelerating.  I believe it sends a clear message about him.  And his message is not his scripted "We can all unite."

I do agree with Yosho on the political motivations of it all.  But I think it should not have been touched.  What, was Arpaio looking at a MAXIMUM sentence of 6 months?  For his "service" to the state, do you really think he would have served any time?  Why couldn't Trump wait it out?

Did anyone else notice that while the world is "Quick, look over there at Trump's pardon," Mexico again publicly denounced and rebuked any concept of them paying for Trump's wall or any other barrier?

[Don Panetta aka 404]

So are you for the pardon, or against?

I prefer to stay discussing the present conversation

I'm sorry. You were saying?...

[Baiter]

Now that Arpaio is clear of the charges, he is now comfortable enough to declare he is considering running for office... Mayor, Legislator, or Senate... more specifically to run against AZ Senator Flake, because of Flake's opposition to Trump.

Also today, Trump reiterated his support for Arpaio who did a "great job for the people of Arizona" but was treated "very unfairly" by the Obama administration.

In other words, this may be just the beginning for Arpaio.

But alas, it's important to understand his history a little better...

• He ran a jail he described as a “concentration camp.”
• Prisoners in his jails died frequently, often without explanation.
• An inmate who was paraplegic and asked for a catheter almost had his neck broken by one of his jailers.
• He botched hundreds of sex-crime cases of underage girls—oh, and ... one of his “sheriff’s posse” was indicted
• for child pornography.
• He marched only Latinx prisoners into a segregated area with electric fencing.
• A black woman horrifically lost her baby in his jail.
• A prisoner baked to death in his cell at a temperature of 109 degrees.
• He sent a deputy to Hawaii to “look for Barack Obama’s birth certificate.”
• He was ordered to pay the Phoenix New Times co-founders $3.75 million dollars for false arrests.
• His people killed a puppy in a botched SWAT raid.

http://www.theroot.com/10-disgusting-things-joe-arpaio-did-as-sheriff-of-maric-1798459059

The article itself has links to articles on each of those points.  Some of those could happen over a long law enforcement career, but the pattern and convictions are the tell tale sign.

[WannaTheater]

I prefer to stay discussing the present conversation

Correct. 

I'm sorry. You were saying?...

Please refer back to the title of the thread for clarification, which is "Arpaio Pardon"
Things like, "Are you for it or against it?" which was my follow up question.  ....Pretty much everything in my response was about the Arpagio Pardon (again in the title of the thread), my view, how it transpired, and perhaps why it happened.  Not why Obama should be indicted and if I am a Nazi.

Baiter-  He sounds like a great leader.  (*DISCLAIMER* I have not individually verified each one of Baiter's bullet points, just went on face value)

[Don Panetta aka 404]

Correct. 
Please refer back to the title of the thread for clarification, which is "Arpaio Pardon"

Things like, "Are you for it or against it?" which was my follow up question.

Is there a meter to measure self awareness levels?

[Don Panetta aka 404]

Now that Arpaio is clear of the charges, he is now comfortable enough to declare he is considering running for office... Mayor, Legislator, or Senate... more specifically to run against AZ Senator Flake, because of Flake's opposition to Trump.

Also today, Trump reiterated his support for Arpaio who did a "great job for the people of Arizona" but was treated "very unfairly" by the Obama administration.

In other words, this may be just the beginning for Arpaio.

But alas, it's important to understand his history a little better...

The article itself has links to articles on each of those points.  Some of those could happen over a long law enforcement career, but the pattern and convictions are the tell tale sign.

Trumps lies are just a way to stir people into thinking Arpaio is the victim. At the end of the day, Arpaio is a bigot that got out-bigoted by our previous bigot-in-chief.

[Yosho]

To Baiter's list... so those were Arpaio's crimes and that was what he was convicted of?  Please explain, I thought he was just convicted of criminal contempt for not following a judge's order due to bad legal advice (at least that's his story).

I'm pretty sure Bradley/Chelsea Manning and Marc Rich did far worse.  Marc Rich I can understand as President Bill Clinton was/is famously corrupt, but Bradley Manning is simply ideological on the part of President Obama.  Again, I'm not really for any pardons, but I didn't hear the outrage from the Democratic party when either of these occurred or apparently even today upon reflection.  This is mock outrage whipped up because the establishment doesn't like President Trump (with good reason) - he's offensive and a threat to them.

[WannaTheater]

In re-reading:

Arpaio was held in contempt for simply continuing to enforce the secure communities act, which essentially forced local police to track and detain undocumented immigrants for federal law enforcement officials.

He was held in contempt for his “flagrant disregard” for a federal judge’s order.

There may be disagreement about intent, how he did things in the past, if the order was fair, what Obama said and did, etc.  But at the end of the day a judge's order is a judge's order.  There are legal ways to contest.

[Don Panetta aka 404]

In re-reading:
He was held in contempt for his “flagrant disregard” for a federal judge’s order.

There may be disagreement about intent, how he did things in the past, if the order was fair, what Obama said and did, etc.  But at the end of the day a judge's order is a judge's order.  There are legal ways to contest.

He was found guilty of a misdemeanor with virtually no chance of jail time after 6 years of Obama cronies trying to nail him as the poster child for their own blunders, including Laws the Obama administration created and local laws enforced by Janet Napolitano: Once governor of Arizona and the head of the department of homeland security directly appointed by Obama.

As for this "flagrant disregard" The xenophobic Obama administration spent millions pinning the immigration issue on Arpaio even though there were already multiple laws already put into place VOTED ON BY ARIZONA TAXPAYERS which literally mirrored Obama's expansions of the Secure Communities act. For example, Arizona's Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (Arizona SB 1070). SB 1070 is literally what Secure Communities does at a federal level.

Really guys. Do a little more homework than what is being told to you by CNN. I probably know far more about the immigration issues in this country than most people i know. I've debated immigration issues with quite a few people who appear in television and print claiming to be immigration experts/correspondents etc.

The boil-over you currently see has been decades in the making.

[WannaTheater]

Really guys. Do a little more homework than what is being told to you by CNN. I probably know far more about the immigration issues in this country than most people i know. I've debated immigration issues with quite a few people who appear in television and print claiming to be immigration experts/correspondents etc.

I am not really sure what you are trying to argue here, or what point you are trying to make, other than your disdain for Obama.  At the end of the day, no matter how much more you know about it all (which I don't doubt), doesn't change the facts.

Here is the Fox news version:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/31/ex-sheriff-joe-arpaio-found-guilty-criminal-contempt.html

Here is the Breitbart version:
http://www.breitbart.com/news/joe-arpaio-convicted-of-crime-for-ignoring-judges-order/

Conclusion:  Joe Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt, and facing an upcoming sentence.  Debate, argue, blame, hate on Obama, all you want.  Doesn't change a thing.

You are for the pardon.  Great!