ARPAIO PARDONED

[Badger]

It reeks of favoritism.  As Sheriff Joe was only guilty of a misdemeanor, it's not like, say, letting Marc Rich off the hook.  But Arpaio never showed mercy to anyone.  "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." (Matthew 5:7)  Somehow, Joe Arpaio doesn't come to mind when I think of this.

What's sad is I had a very devout coworker who once referred to Arpaio as a "hero" of his for the specific reason that he humiliated his inmates, many of whom *were not convicted of anything*. It always disgusted me, that level of hypocrisy.

I wish more saw things the way you do. Arpaio deserves no mercy from the state after his horrific abuses of the law, and I hope he gets sued out the kazoo in court.

I should also mention that I consider Arpaio to be a disgrace to the profession of corrections and criminal justice for the manner in which he administered the Maricopa County Jail.

People who are sentenced to incarceration are not sent to jail or prison "to be punished".  BEING CONFINED IN JAIL OR PRISON IS THE PUNISHMENT, IN AND OF ITSELF.  I don't type in all caps a lot, but this point is a core principle of corrections.  Most of the abuses that stem from misconduct on the part of correctional officers and correctional staff stem from violations of that principle.  

Housing folks in tents in Maricopa County, AZ, just to save money and "make an example out of criminals" is indefensible.  "Making an example" out of a criminal defendant is contrary to justice; the punishment of confinement ought to be deterrence enough without tent cities, pink jumpsuits on male inmates with the words "Clean and Sober" on them, no air conditioning, etc.; these are, IMO cruel and inhuman punishments.  I don't have problems with a Sheriff taking a proactive approach to law enforcement, and I don't have a problem with a Sheriff running a tight ship in his/her county jail, but I do have a problem with someone in that position who deliberately comes off as a self-righteous sadist.  That's my personal opinion of Joe Arpaio.  Men like him give serious Sheriffs an undeserved bad name.

Well put FB. Arpaio like to Bill himself in the books you wrote as America's toughest Sheriff. I always thought even as a prosecutor he was America's biggest media whore Sheriff

[KingSweden]

It reeks of favoritism.  As Sheriff Joe was only guilty of a misdemeanor, it's not like, say, letting Marc Rich off the hook.  But Arpaio never showed mercy to anyone.  "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." (Matthew 5:7)  Somehow, Joe Arpaio doesn't come to mind when I think of this.

What's sad is I had a very devout coworker who once referred to Arpaio as a "hero" of his for the specific reason that he humiliated his inmates, many of whom *were not convicted of anything*. It always disgusted me, that level of hypocrisy.

I wish more saw things the way you do. Arpaio deserves no mercy from the state after his horrific abuses of the law, and I hope he gets sued out the kazoo in court.

I should also mention that I consider Arpaio to be a disgrace to the profession of corrections and criminal justice for the manner in which he administered the Maricopa County Jail.

People who are sentenced to incarceration are not sent to jail or prison "to be punished".  BEING CONFINED IN JAIL OR PRISON IS THE PUNISHMENT, IN AND OF ITSELF.  I don't type in all caps a lot, but this point is a core principle of corrections.  Most of the abuses that stem from misconduct on the part of correctional officers and correctional staff stem from violations of that principle.  

Housing folks in tents in Maricopa County, AZ, just to save money and "make an example out of criminals" is indefensible.  "Making an example" out of a criminal defendant is contrary to justice; the punishment of confinement ought to be deterrence enough without tent cities, pink jumpsuits on male inmates with the words "Clean and Sober" on them, no air conditioning, etc.; these are, IMO cruel and inhuman punishments.  I don't have problems with a Sheriff taking a proactive approach to law enforcement, and I don't have a problem with a Sheriff running a tight ship in his/her county jail, but I do have a problem with someone in that position who deliberately comes off as a self-righteous sadist.  That's my personal opinion of Joe Arpaio.  Men like him give serious Sheriffs an undeserved bad name.

I agree wholeheartedly with every word you wrote. Well said.

[Xing]

So much for Trump being the Law and Order President.

Law and Order only applies to the scary brown people. Good clean white folks like Arpaio deserve sympathy and forgiveness.

/s

Anyway, if your goal is "pssing of thoz afwuhl lirbauslh", congrats, I guess? It's clear that this is the only purpose of Trump's presidency.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

So much for Trump being the Law and Order President.

Law and Order only applies to the scary brown people. Good clean white folks like Arpaio deserve sympathy and forgiveness.

/s

Anyway, if your goal is "pssing of thoz afwuhl lirbauslh", congrats, I guess? It's clear that this is the only purpose of Trump's presidency.

Nah. Trumpolini's presidency is about petty graft and further-inflating his distended ego, too.

[Devout Centrist]

https://static.currentaffairs.org/2017/08/wait-do-people-actually-know-just-how-evil-this-man-is

I really have no words for the supporters of Sheriff Joe here. It's understandable that resident SS Gruppenführer Krazen would support this since he nothing else to do but lounge around in his wheelchair while the Argentine government feeds him more money, but the rest of you? F**king disgraceful.

This man was about as evil as one could get in the American justice system. There are no words to adequately express how terrible, incompetent, and just downright petty this man was during his tenure.
Even, even if you support racism or mass deportation, you should know that Sheriff Joe neglected to investigate sexual assault cases and, as a result, LET A KID SUFFER REPEATED RAPES AND ABUSE OVER THE COURSE OF YEARS. If you can still stomach that, f**k you. You don't deserve to live here.

[publicunofficial]

The best people in the world are guys who have sh**ttons of guns to protect them from a tyrannical and abusive government, but are ALSO huge fans of Joe Arpaio and David Clarke.

None of those people should ever  die, and the world would be worse if they did.

[pbrower2a]

With former Sheriff Arpaio, the problem is not the functions of traffic control, arrests of suspects, and overall reduction of crime. I recall a couple times years ago when I had to drive somewhere on New Years' Eve in which my father told me to be careful because the cops were out.

One time I told him: Good! Another time I told him that I would be more concerned about the drunks than about the cops.

I have seen drug deals go down near a hospital. Nice, convenient place -- in the event that something goes wrong and one of the dealers gets shot and needs to be rushed to the emergency room for gunshot wounds.

Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with rigid enforcement of the laws against street crime and really bad driving. But with former Sheriff Arpaio the issue isn't the strictness of law enforcement. It is with incarceration of offenders. Nobody says that jail, let alone prison, is to be a pleasant place to stay. 

Unpleasantness of jails is fine with me. Jail itself, let alone prisons, are to be deterrents in themselves. I would dislike the regimentation, the bad company, the lack of choice, and the lack of privacy. Who would like those? Maybe for some it is a rite of passage, but that's not a good one. I can think of others -- like voting, a driver's license, graduating from school, getting a promotion from "Associate" to "Assistant Manager"...

Incarceration exists for some combination of reasons. One is destruction of the offender,  as with capital punishment or (even more objectionable) killing someone with excessive work and inadequate food as in a Gulag or a KZ-Lager. Another is to separate an offender who has proved untrustworthy from the rest of us. Another is as a deterrent -- deal drugs, steal a car, or commit a robbery, and the State will make your life miserable -- do the crime, do the time. Finally, prisons exist to improve a very flawed person into someone  coming out better than he went in so that he is more willing and able to abide by the normal rules of human decency.

The first three might be necessary. The fourth is the ideal. So you are bored and broke, and you decide that you want a nice electronic gadget. You steal it. So you get six months in jail, and on Day 1 you are on the prison farm working in all sorts of weather for a month or so. Ten hours a day. But you do the work, and maybe you get an opportunity to do some baking. After four weeks of somewhat lighter work you get to figure that a baker's helper at least can stay out of jail. Pay your own bus fare, and buy your own tablet. You learn your lesson.

You were bored because you were unemployed; you stole because you could not think of an alternative. (You could have borrowed a book from the library... and learned something!)

Ideally people would come out of any place of incarceration better than they went in, and if that implies some major restructuring of their lives, then so be it. Learn to recognize the value of other people and the interrelatedness of us all. Be able to tolerate some hardship and recognize the many of the rewards in life are for people who get all the breaks.  Develop a work ethic. Avoid drugs and alcohol, and suppress expressions of anger.

Brutal incarceration (as opposed to rigid and humiliating incarceration) is more likely to harden an offender. To be sure, fear can motivate people, but it eventually wrecks them and makes them desperate.       

[Tartarus Sauce]

He needs to get sued out the wazoo in civil suits. I'm sure there are plenty of aggrieved families in Maricopa willing to take up the task.

He owes them monetary compensation at the very least for the abuses he carried out over two decades.

[MasterJedi]

He's considering running against Flake. Dems can only hope he wins the Republican nomination if he does run, would be a godsend for them.

[Dr. Arch]

He's considering running against Flake. Dems can only hope he wins the Republican nomination if he does run, would be a godsend for them.

What the HELL!?

[Rookie Yinzer]

Run Arpaio Run!

[Ban my account ffs!]

Run Arpaio Run!

You know, people said the same thing about Trump.  Don't do this.

[Devout Centrist]

Run Arpaio Run!

You know, people said the same thing about Trump.  Don't do this.

Trump didn't lose a position he held for twenty years by double digits.

[Kringla Heimsins]

He's considering running against Flake. Dems can only hope he wins the Republican nomination if he does run, would be a godsend for them.

Is there no end to this insanity?

[Badger]

He's considering running against Flake. Dems can only hope he wins the Republican nomination if he does run, would be a godsend for them.

On the contrary, he'd split the fascist-wing vote with Ward whom I seriously doubt would pull out for Arpaio.