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Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Conan tonight

Jill

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is going to be on the Conan O’Brien show tonight. Arpaio is the hugely anti-immigrant sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has overseen the deaths of many inmates (including the baby of one inmate), and whose prison policies are stomach-turning. I wrote about him here, and I’d encourage you all to read that background and then call up NBC to complain.

Arpaio is a criminal,* and having him as the face of law enforcement is a joke. There’s no reason why someone with a documented history of abuse that nears torture should be given a spot to self-promote on TV. NBC can be reached at 212-664-4444.

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*Using this term colloquially to mean “a really bad person.” As far as I know, he has not been convicted of any crime (although he has faced a whole bunch of law suits).

17 thoughts on Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Conan tonight

  1. I was going to ask under what premise he would even be on the Conan show. Then I followed the link and got sick a little in the back of my throat. Because what we need in this world is *another* spin off of Cops. I don’t watch night time talk television a lot but I am kind of surprised that Conan would have such a *politically* controversial figure on his program. But I guess if Ann C. can get air time nothing should surprise me.

  2. Arpaio is a criminal, and having him as the face of law enforcement is a joke.

    Arpaio is a criminal, but that same quality makes him an excellent candidate for the current face of law enforcement in the united states. A monstrous spokesman for a monstrous profession.

  4. I would love nothing more than to put that guy in a room, alone and unarmed, with a few of the prisoners he routinely humiliates. How many seconds do you think it would take for his tough-guy routine to break down?

  5. That is truly disgusting. I have never heard of him but I would like to see his arguments on immigration. I’d have a good time laughing.

  7. My boss was just going off yesterday about what a big Arpaio fan he is, and how he thinks the guy’s a saint and a fine example there should be more of.
    I had to leave the room before I did something I regretted.

  8. As an arizona native I can’t tell you how much I hate this so callef “sheriff Joe Arpio” this man is a sick freak . But as far as I know HE can kiss my rear end !!He needs to leave Maricopa County and not come back!!!!

  9. (It sounds like you were being tongue in cheek, I know.) I dunno, WilliamThe problem with television is that it gives monstrous people an excellent chance to put the best possible face on their monstrous system. All in good fun. I kind of doubt Conan will be asking hard-hitting questions about the stillborn baby.

    And given the way that formulaic crime/courtroom dramas portray justice in America, I doubt that viewers will be in a questioning frame of mind. If somebody like Arpaio is actually brutalizing prisoners, all Casey has to do is ask Judith Light to go pull a few strings, right? Fred Thompson would never allow that kind of thing on his watch, media circus be damned.

    I had to leave the room before I did something I regretted.

    Yeah. I can’t have these arguments, because I don’t _have_ a calm, reasoned response to, “But they’re criminals! Who cares?”

  10. I’m an Arizona native and have lived in Maricopa County for the last 8 years. GOD I WANT THIS SORRY EXCUSE FOR A MAN AND SHERIFF TO JUST DIAF.

    I can’t even be level headed about it. Fuck you, Sheriff Joe, fuck you.

  11. The best part, piny? IS ALMOST ALL HIS INMATES ARE NOT CONVICTED! Therefore, they are NOT criminals. They are awaiting trial and treated like animals. Isn’t that just fab?

    And let me not even begin on the “illegal alien” bullshit. God how I hate that term. It’s so dehuminizing. BUT WHO CARES THEY ARE MEXICAN AMIRIGHT?

    RAGE!

  12. Yup, marilove’s right. A jail is different than a prison — although there are inmates sometimes serving short sentences who technically are criminals. But regardless, criminals or not, they’re still human beings and deserve to be treated as such.

    Hey, William — I appreciate your anger, but please let’s not overgeneralize, okay? There are plenty of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, correctional officers, etc who aren’t brutal monsters.

  13. I used to work for my home county’s jail, and we actually housed a lot of federal inmates. It was a pretty large jail and considered “high security” but in a really small county, so most inmates where actually there long-term. We were basically a small prison.

    Anyway, most of the inmates in “Tent City” however? Not there long-term and indeed the majority have not even been CONVICTED yet, which is the scary part. Sigh.

    And AshKW, thank you for that. What with that officer shooting that man in the back, there has been a LOT of outrage and vitriol against ALL officers, and while I understand the emotion behind it, it’s just not logical. In my time, I have worked with many officers of the law. The majority are normal, wonderful human beings who don’t shoot people in the back. We definitely have a problem with how much power the police have in our country, especially in certain areas, but that doesn’t mean every officer everywhere is horrible. The majority really aren’t. Besides, we have a problem with authority in our government, PERIOD. Just because guns aren’t involved doesn’t mean that its any less harmful that government and religious leaders have so much damn power over us.

  14. Hey, William — I appreciate your anger, but please let’s not overgeneralize, okay? There are plenty of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, correctional officers, etc who aren’t brutal monsters.

    I don’t think its an over-generalization. I grew up, and still live, in Chicago and I’ve seen the routine brutality with my own eyes. I live in a neighborhood that has increased police attention because it used to be poor and black but is now gentrifying and a week doesn’t go by when I don’t see the police roughing up a black kid. I’ve had police point guns at me for asking questions. I’ve been personally assaulted by police officers. I’ve had acquaintances who were cops who bragged about beating handcuffed suspects to give them an “attitude adjustment.” I live in a city where a story broke about police routinely using car batteries on people’s genitals to extract confessions and no one was surprised.

    I’m sure there are good cops, but they cover for the legions of bad ones and look the other way. On top of that every single cop working today contributes to a system which arrests (usually brown) people for smoking pot and puts them in prison then laughs about them getting raped. We live in a country where every police force in every jurisdiction is militarizing. Where no-knock raids are routine. Where the police feel comfortable confiscating people’s cellphones so they can get rid of videos of one of their own executing an unarmed man.

    I know it isn’t popular, but the police aren’t the good guys. They aren’t an honorable group with a few bad apples.

  15. “I’m sure there are good cops, but they cover for the legions of bad ones and look the other way.”

    I was just going to say the same thing. I consider that to be conspiracy, making them all guilty. So until the Blue Shield start cracking and more police are willing to police their own ranks, fuck them.

    BTW I’m a native Chicagoan myself. We do not have very many decent cops around here.

  16. Every “bad” officer has at least 10 “good” ones backing them up and toeing that thin blue line. It’s not individuals, it’s a system without individuals because policing is all about conformity to a structure. There are officers who are good that work within it. But they don’t say very much, in part because it’s systemic and that system punishes those who do come forward. And the punishment is severe. Why? Because reporting on “bad” officers is the ultimate act of betrayal by a police officer.

    Now why would a “good” profession punish officers who report wrongdoing? Why would those “good” officers tell them if you don’t receive back up on your calls for backup you’ll know why? Why does Internal Affairs, an agency that’s supposed to go after “bad” officers initiate or reopen closed investigations against officers who report misconduct? Why are officers who report misconduct often run out, placed on unpaid administrative leave (as opposed to paid leave given to officers under investigation for serious offenses)?

    Why do so many “bad” officers receive promotions and awards? It’s really something to watch an officer who harassed and threatened you receive a civic award. On three different different occasions.

    Why have officers been brutally assaulted, shot to death, threatened and terrorized for reporting misconduct while the majority of “good” officers did nothing? Why are many of them who do forced to file lawsuits, which is when you finally find out what was going on the whole time behind that blue wall?

    Do you know that Frank Serpico is nearly as hated by NYPD officers now as he was in the 1970s? Most of these officers don’t even know him. Many were kids when he blew the whistle on the NYPD and testified before a special anti-corruption commission. How does this hatred get passed on?

    Until you address the system, you can have “good” officers in the mix, who still won’t say a damn thing when misconduct takes place. I know, I was mistreated by an officer while the one with him just watched. He didn’t report it. I did.

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