Immigration, Justice

Let's Remember Why Pardoning Joe Arpaio Would Be A Miscarriage Of Justice

In case some of the salient details about this odious man have escaped you.

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Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Sometimes, even I forget why I hate “Sheriff” Joe Arpaio so much. Like most of you, I know the broad strokes: racist man abused his law enforcement privileges to profile and harass brown people. But over time, some of the salient details have escaped me.

For the most part, those details don’t matter. Arpaio has become such a white-wing mascot that it doesn’t even matter to me why he’s terrible, it’s enough that the Deplorables love him for me to hate him.

Last night in Phoenix, President Trump suggested he would pardon Arpaio. He’s been hinting at if for days because Donald Trump doesn’t think racism is wrong and he tries to tell us that in some way every single day.

Trump’s threat should remind us that this GOP hero is not facing jail time for “racism.” That’s, you know, not a crime. He’s facing time because he violated a court order to stop randomly detaining brown people on his suspicion that they were in the country illegally, without evidence.

Let’s highlight that: Sheriff Joe Arpaio was randomly detaining people who looked Mexican to him, on suspicion of violating immigration laws, WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE and in VIOLATION of a court order.

He was sentenced to six months in prison for criminal contempt of court. That is what Trump is considering pardoning. Trump’s claims that Arpaio was just “following the law” is in reference to a man who was conducting illegal racial profiling in criminal contempt of court.

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As we’ve seen a lot this month, the kinds of people Trump and his fans support really tells you all you need to know about who they hate and why.

In any event, the Washington Post has a great Arpaio explainer today. Here are some Arpaio trivialities that I’ve forgotten over the years.

* Arpaio is a birther.
* He used to make prisoners wear pink underwear before Abu Ghraib made it official American policy.
* He spent so much time hunting for brown people that sex crimes were barely investigated.
* Investigations into his practices started under George W. Bush.

That last part is a most inconvenient truth for Trump and other Arpaio supporters. The entire theory of a pardon was based on their belief that Arpaio was maliciously hounded by a black Kenyan who never should have been president in the first place. But it’s actually Bush who started trying to deal with this guy.

In any event, voters finally rid themselves of Arpaio through normal democratic efforts. And a court finally punished Arpaio through normal legal proceedings. For Trump to come over the top and free one of his birther buddies with a presidential pardon is… exactly the kind of guy Trump is. Pardoning Arpaio is a miscarriage of justice, but Donald Trump is a walking abortion of the very concept of “equal” justice.

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I’m not surprised, I won’t be outraged. I’m just sitting here patiently waiting for white people to reject the bigot-in-chief so the rest of us can live in peace.

Probably going to be sitting here a long time.

What you need to know about former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s record on illegal immigration [Washington Post]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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