Sheriff Joe Stares Down the Banditos

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in another showdown with the banditos. Only this time, La Racista and the MALDEF gang are bringing the federales.

That's right, the Obama administration is investigating Sheriff Joe at the behest of leftist Hispanic bullhorn brigades. AZ Central reports:

Officials from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division notified Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Tuesday that they had begun the investigation, which will focus on whether deputies are engaging in "patterns or practices of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

Sheriff Joe is not intimidated:

"I am not going to be intimidated by the politics and by the Justice Department," Arpaio said. "I want the people of Arizona to know this: I will continue to enforce all the immigration laws."

In the 1990s, the department conducted similar civil-rights investigations and found patterns of police discrimination in about 20 cases, including in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. In those cases, law-enforcement agencies agreed to significant changes aimed at preventing discrimination or face a court injunction, Harris said.

Los Angeles is now overrun with Illegal aliens, including violent Central American gangs. That's the real goal: Turn Arizona into California. You can't say Obama's Justice Department isn't ambitious.

E.J Montini, in another AZ Central article, hits the nail on the head:

Arpaio a Victim of a Witch Hunt

Opponents don't like sheriff's deputies using traffic violations as probable cause to stop a vehicle and then questioning those inside about immigration.

Still, not liking such a practice and suggesting that it's illegal are two widely different things. Cops use traffic violations to nab all types of bad guys. (Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was captured after being stopped for not having a license plate on his getaway car.)

Here's the kicker, courtesy of CNS. They quote a press release from Maricopa County detailing the prisoner interview deputies have conducted:

16,000 inmates were determined to be illegal aliens. Either they have already been deported or will be deported after being tried and/or serving their sentences for crimes committed in the valley. The work being done be Arpaio’s detention staff is a likely contributor to the recent reduction in crime in the valley,” the press release added.

The press release goes on to say that 20 percent of inmates in the Maricopa County Jail are illegal aliens and that of those, 2,000 illegal aliens - 70 percent - were arrested for felony crimes.

Law enforcement rounding up criminals and daring to check immigration status, the very idea! Not in Obama's Democratic-controlled America!

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/03/11/20090311investigation0311.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29630232/
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/03/12/20090312Montini0313.html
http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=44899