It’s a free gym membership for inmates in Maricopa County jail in Phoenix. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, often called “America’s Toughest Sheriff”, is working hard to help First Lady Michelle Obama with her anti-obesity initiative.

For good cardiovascular health, a lower risk of heart disease, increased blood and oxygen flow, and overall weight loss, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has launched a program called, “Peddle Vision,” where inmates bicycle to create electricity that powers their television.

The tv is there. Now all inmates need to do is power it and they can enjoy hours upon hours of The View. Too bad Lance Armstrong didn’t think of this first. Imagine the sales in workout videos and the benefit to the planet, which of course would be negated when everyone plugged the videos into their electricity-powered entertainment systems.

You can’t win for losing.

But Sheriff Arpaio is doing it. He’s a true humanitarian. He’s not only helping these inmates gain self-confidence and a better self-image while giving them a svelte self, he’s also doing his part for the planet. Ed Begley Jr. needs an “I Heart Sheriff Arpaio” t-shirt.

Sheriff Arpaio hasn’t been well received in the media. TIME magazine has called him a “stern law-and-order advocate”, what his constituents have seen as a positive, who “has declared war on illegal immigration”. He’s also on ACLU’s short list of people they really don’t like.

He doesn’t mind. He isn’t shy about enforcing the law, since that’s his job, and his constituents relying on him to keep them safe apparently love him. He’s won all his elections with double digits.

“I will never back off from enforcing the laws of this county. They might as well get used to it. I am in this fight to stay,” he said on his website, SheriffJoe.org.

Of course, his actions are completely unfounded, especially in Arizona. They don’t have any illegal immigration issues. Or crime because of it.

A longtime rancher was killed on his Douglas-area property over the weekend, and neighbors worried that his homicide was connected to increasing border-related crime in the area.

Nope. No reason for Sheriff Joe Arpaio to be concerned about the safety of his citizens. No reason at all.

http://www.rightpundits.com/?p=5973

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is head of the Maricopa Country Arizona District. There are a lot of illegal aliens being deported from that area, and they want his head for running them out of town. But that is not what is happening: Sheriff Joe is running criminals out of town.
===================================================

Maricopa County Arizona District

http://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/

Go to.. Illegal Immigration Crime Report

http://www.maricopacountyattorney.org/

The index is right there, but a peek at the data, which is specifically correct, is as follows. Keep in mind, the illegal aliens are only 9% of the population in that area. …9%….

On October 2nd, the Maricopa County Arizona District Arizona District Attorney’s office released crime statistics that prove this point. Overall, while illegals represent only 9% of the population in Maricopa County (including Phoenix, which until recently, was a sanctuary city) they are responsible for approximately 22% of the crimes committed. Here is a breakdown of statistics by crime category. Illegal aliens account for:

*33.5% of those sentenced for the manufacture, sale or transport of drugs.
*35.8% of those sentenced for kidnapping.
*20.3% of those sentenced for felony D.U.I.
*16.5% of those sentenced for violent crimes.
*18.5% of those sentenced for property crimes.
*44 of those sentenced for forgery and fraud.
*85.3% of those convicted of criminal impersonation or false ID.
*96% of those convicted of human smuggling.
==============================================

Shouldn’t we be avidly supporting Sheriff Joe Arapio???
The Dopers are using his town as a major narcotics avenue. There is a LOT of money trying to run him out of town. Do we want that?
The same guy that pulls people over for being brown, the same guy that cost Arizona tax payers millions, the same guy that segregates the Mexicans in his jail?
=========================
This very badly needs links, or it becomes simple bigotry. Research him, and while there are endless accusations, nothing shows that suggests the anti posts are correct. If they are correct.. I wouldn’t support him either. I don’t think they are.

Sheriff Joe makes a comment about having to do another immigration raid on a Phoenix suburb, just because the mayor’s wife of that city say’s ‘Joe is not my hero.’

He’s had his chain gang working outside a local new paper’s building without any notice, nor was the Sheriff’s office called to have them clean up the so-called dirty field. This was the same paper that writes all the dirt about Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and the same paper who’s owner was arrested by his deputies in 2007……was it some kind of warning to the paper? hmmmm!

Is revenge and media coverage his motivation?

http://www.abc15.com/content/news/southeastvalley/mesa/story/Arpaio-calls-controversial-raid-remarks-off/ZYB_8ElWeU61ZcRQiBHsKQ.cspx?rss=704

Arpaio calls controversial raid remarks off-handed, private

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/05/joe_arpaios_chain_gang_visits.php

Joe Arpaio’s Chain Gang Visits New Times Property, Gets Trespassed by Security

Would you rather have a man who is upholding the law and respectable speak to your children or a racist from la raza or any other group that advocates for illegal alien criminals?

If la raza were to speak at your school, would you allow your children to attend? I sure would NOT!

By: Michelle Parks, ABC15.com
PHOENIX – Phoenix Police arrested a man on a disorderly conduct charge during a protest against Sheriff Joe Arpaio Thursday.

The community rally gathered more than 200 protestors at Manzanita Elementary School as Arpaio spoke. The group said they were complaining because Arpaio is a bad influence on children and dividing their neighborhood.

Abraham Hernandez was one of the protesters who attended but was reportedly denied access to the meeting area by school security and was told by police to leave the property.

Police reported that Hernandez was “using obscenities and acting in a menacing manner."

Officers asked Hernandez to cease using profanity because there were families and children present at the school.

Hernandez was arrested after he reportedly did not comply with police requests to stop.
As a teacher and a parent, I find this disturbing. My children would have refused to take part thankfully.

Is this Threatening the Sheriff by placing his address on Facebook and encouraging people to do harm to his property or to him is this a crime ? Now Under Arizona Statute: 13-2921. Harassment; classification; definition
Anonymously or otherwise contacts, communicates or causes a communication with another person by verbal, electronic, mechanical, telegraphic, telephonic or written means in a manner that harasses.
Repeatedly commits an act or acts that harass another person.

Surveils or causes another person to surveil a person for no legitimate purpose.

…

E. For the purposes of this section, “harassment” means conduct that is directed at a specific person and that would cause a reasonable person to be seriously alarmed, annoyed or harassed and the conduct in fact seriously alarms, annoys or harasses the person.
…….PHOENIX – A new Facebook group created to remove Sheriff Joe Arpaio from power has been the cause of controversy after one of the page’s members posted the location of the Sheriff’s home.

The group, which has grown to over 8,000 members in a single week, includes commentary about Arpaio, pictures taken from protests and information about future demonstrations. One of the latest posts, however, included a map to the Sheriff’s home in Fountain Hills and a satellite picture of the property.

TV showed the images to Arpaio, who expressed concern about publicizing such information.

"I think they have some motive," Arpaio said. "I don’t think they’re selling tours to my house."

The group was created by Devin Fleenor, who was inspired by an anti-Arpaio protest last weekend. He said the goal of the group was to unite voters against Arpaio, rather than encourage violence.

"Like him or not, I don’t think (talk of violence against the Sheriff) is going to help our cause," Fleenor said, explaining that it would only be fuel for Arpaio supporters.

Sheriff Arpaio says threats against him are increasing, and he told his security detail about the posting.

Fleenor, however, says he has been deleting references to violence against Arpaio, and he has taken down the map to his house.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/Anti-Arpaio-Facebook-group-publishes-location-of-Sheriffs-house-83088572.html

What do U think ?????????????????????????

Michelle Dallacroce, 41, of Phoenix, stood across the street with a bullhorn in her hand. She said she began chanting back: “America! America!” from across Thomas near a Wal-Mart.

This riled Yeo, who crossed the road and began yelling “Mexico!” in her face, Dallacroce said. Police said Yeo yanked on Dallacroce’s microphone cord, then pushed her in the chest, despite warnings by police to back off.

Yeo was taken into custody, cited for misdemeanor assault and released, Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said.

“She was really out of control,” Dallacroce said.

Dallacroce said she is the national spokeswoman, president and founder of Mothers Against Illegal Aliens. The group’s focus is to “protect the city” from illegal aliens who hurt people, she said. The organization’s Web site accuses national Hispanic organizations of attempting to “reconquer the Southwest.”

Immigration activists have gathered on Saturdays for the past eight weeks near Pruitt’s Home Furnishings and Carpeting at 34th Street and Thomas Road to challenge Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s enforcement of immigration laws and store management’s decision to hire off-duty deputies to keep day laborers from gathering on the property.

Yeo’s arrest was the latest in a series at the weekly protests. Sheriff’s deputies arrested the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona in early November for undisclosed reasons . Deputies said they arrested 11 people in the area last Saturday on suspicion of being in the country illegally after stopping them for traffic violations.

At that time, Arpaio said those arrests brought the total count to 55 since the protests began.http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/104572
This fight in Phoenix is the tip of the iceberg and we will see more of these stories and increasingly they will involve violence. The people will react on both sides of the border when their own politicians drop the ball.

Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies arrested eight illegal immigrants on Saturday during a protest outside a Phoenix furniture store embroiled in a heated immigration debate.

Immigration activists have gathered on Saturdays for the past six weeks outside Pruitt’s furniture store to challenge Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s enforcement of immigration laws. Saturday was the first time deputies made arrests during the rallies. The day laborers were arrested on suspicion of violating immigration laws.

Deputies had arrested 24 illegal immigrants in the area before Saturday, but those arrests were not made during protests.

“I thought it was time to do something more about it,” Arpaio said Saturday night. “The Pruitt’s situation is getting out of hand. They are demonstrating every week and destroying this business. I don’t think that’s fair.”

Demonstrators began protesting at the store near Thomas Road and 34th Street in late October, when the store hired sheriff’s deputies to keep day laborers away from the property.

The store asked the sheriff’s office to help because they felt the presence of day laborers was hurting their business.

More than 100 protesters have shown up for the rallies, including officials from the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona.

The union’s legal director, Daniel Pochoda, was arrested by deputies Nov. 5 after he was asked to attend a rally to observe the interaction between protesters and deputies.http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/103196

It causes honest and decent Americans to work hard to take back what the indecent, dishonest, and treacherous office holders in Washington have ceded away without lifting a finger. But I salute the business owner and the sheriff for starting to take back this country, even it is just one furniture store parking lot at a time.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Thursday that she opposed local legislation that would make Arizona the first state in the nation to criminalize undocumented immigrants.

“In my judgment, that’s not the best way to structure your law-enforcement and immigration enforcement system,” said the former Arizona governor who stood by her three-time vetoes of similar legislation.

Speaking before an audience of students at Arizona State University, Napolitano reiterated the Obama administration’s commitment to change immigration policies. She pointed to a recent set of principles set out by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“We are working with the senators and some other members of the Congress on what actual bill language will look like and how it would actually work,” she said without providing a timeline.

But her visit didn’t happen without protests.

Outside the university, dozens of demonstrators called for more than rhetoric from the Secretary of Homeland Security.

“We are tired of them telling us that they’re against these laws and they want immigration reform. We want action,” said Carlos Garcia, an organizer with the PUENTE immigrant rights’ movement.

The group that has opposed Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration policies denounced the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing cooperation with that law-enforcement agency through an agreement known as 287(g).

“Sheriff Arpaio has proven himself to be so abusive of civil rights and human rights that he should not have any contracts sanctioned by the federal government,” said Monica Sandschafer, founder and interim executive director of Leading United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) a coalition of families fighting for social and economic justice.

Sandschafer said that the 287(g) program in the jails has provided an incentive for local police to arrest undocumented immigrants for minor violations like traffic stops, so they could be deported.

Rosa Gutiérrez, a U.S. citizen and resident of Maryvale, a predominantly Latino community that has been severely affected by the economic meltdown, joined the protests.

She blamed the former governor’s immigration policies in Arizona, such as employer sanctions and 287(g) agreements for the crisis the state faces.

“Since she started attacking Latinos, Phoenix is in ruins,” said Gutiérrez, 48. “Everybody is leaving and the businesses are closed. We don’t have work. Before they started doing that, this place was the American dream.”

Another official in the Obama administration was also the subject of protest yesterday.

Attorney General Eric Holder was in Phoenix for a mortgage fraud summit and couldn’t avoid questions about the status of a Department of Justice investigation into racial profiling by Arpaio’s office.

Holder said that the investigation was “serious.”

"Our civil rights division is working on it in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney’s Office here in Arizona, and I expect that we will produce results, but at this point the investigation is ongoing,” he said.

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=202c1030c42944f3c0876f135bf0e276

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffs at the possibility that a federal civil rights and racial profiling investigation into his immigration raids and crime sweeps could be expanded into a broader look at his office’s use of power and finances.

Arpaio said the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights investigation is a politically motivated inquiry by the Barack Obama administration into his immigration enforcement tactics, and he has no indication yet whether investigators are or will be looking into any other matters, including finances. The hard-nosed sheriff said the FBI and Justice Department will not find any financial irregularities within his office.

“I have nothing to hide. Let them look,” said Arpaio, who acknowledged that such investigations can be drawn-out affairs. “They are just coming down here hoping to find something.”

But some legal and public officials with familiarity of Justice Department and FBI inquiries into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office say the federal investigation could be expanded. That includes investigators taking a closer look at financial management, contracting and vendor relationships, and how various pools of money are used by the MCSO, according to the officials and legal sources who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

The MCSO’s 0 million budget includes jails and law enforcement. County budget cuts could result in MCSO having a 8 million annual budget for the next fiscal year, according to Maricopa County spokesman Richard de Uriarte.

Federal investigators could examine MCSO’s vendor contracts; its equipment and vehicle purchases; how it uses federal grant money; the movement of pools of money within the office; and its overall financial management and use of county and federal money, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.

Arpaio stressed he is not aware of any criminal or financial probe by the feds into the MCSO, and that the Obama administration does not like his get-tough stances on immigration and law and order.

Justice Department attorneys began looking into Arpaio’s crime and immigration sweeps in late 2008 and earlier this year confirmed a federal civil rights investigation of the sheriff’s immigration and criminal enforcement, said Justice spokesman Alejandro Miyar.

Miyar said the MCSO inquiry started at the end of President George W. Bush’s second term, but the investigation has become more aggressive since Obama became president and Eric Holder took over as U.S. attorney general in January. Miyar would not comment specifically on the status of the Arpaio investigation, but said he was not aware of any expansion of the probe beyond the MCSO immigration and crime sweeps.

Arpaio, 77, confirmed federal investigators had been to his office and were conducting interviews, but said those inquiries will not deter his arrests of illegal immigrants and raids of businesses that employ them.

“You don’t see me stopping,” said the sheriff, who criticized the motivation and manner of the federal investigation.

There are some calls from Arpaio critics for a comprehensive financial audit of MCSO, but de Uriarte said he was not aware of any immediate efforts by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to conduct an audit.

The sheriff has been battling with the county board and other local officials over immigration issues, including spats with County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. The MCSO said June 17 it was investigating restaurant lease deals between Wilcox and the city of Phoenix-owned Sky Harbor International Airport.

Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas led an investigation that indicted Supervisor Don Stapley in December on charges of not disclosing business and real estate development deals on public financial disclosure forms. Stapley denies wrongdoing.

Former Maricopa County Schools Superintendent Sandra Dowling also is suing the county and Arpaio over a 2006 SWAT-team raid of her Phoenix home. Dowling was indicted on numerous counts, including theft, but ended up pleading guilty only to the charge of improperly giving her daughter a job within the county school system.

Arpaio’s office also has an investigation into Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard’s handling of the state prosecution of former Arizona Treasurer David Petersen. Goddard denies wrongdoing in that case.

Arpaio, who was elected to a fifth term in November, said his political adversaries in Arizona are encouraging the Justice Department to go after him,,,,,,,,,,,

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/06/15/daily60.html

More raids have been staged against West Valley drophouses that have been linked to the same human-smuggling ring, authorities said Friday.

Seventeen undocumented immigrants were arrested Thursday during raids at two homes south of Tolleson and one in Surprise, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

That brings to 119 the number of arrests during the past month at a total of seven West Valley drophouses, including others in Glendale, Goodyear, west Phoenix and El Mirage, Arpaio said. There was no violence associated with the homes in Thursday’s raids, unlike activities at other homes that have involved guns, beatings, kidnapping or extortion, he said.

The latest raids were conducted at neighboring homes in the 3100 block of South 94th Avenue, south of Lower Buckeye Road, and in the 17300 block of West Holland Lane, south of Greenway Road in Surprise.

Arpaio said the month-long effort is the result of information provided by undocumented immigrants in the first raid in early October.http://www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/1102gl-drophouse1102-ON.html?&wired