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When Sheriffs Go Bad…..

Posted July 28, 2008 by Lisa Votino

The Washington Post has a great Editorial on “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio and racial profiling today. The appropriately titled Editorial, “The Reign of Sheriff Joe,” uses the example of Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, a Mexican citizen, who came to this country legally last year.
Mr. Ortega was in a car that was stopped by officers and showed them his legal papers. Of course that didn’t matter. Mr. Ortega was “handcuffed, treated roughly, jailed and finally turned over to federal immigration officials, who promptly released him.” According to the editorial, Mr. Ortega was detained for nine hours, in which he wasn’t offered a translator, didn’t have an explanation as to why he was being detained, nor was offered food or water. All of that and he showed his legal papers.
But that doesn’t matter to Sheriff Joe.
Sheriff Joe assumes all Latinos in Maricopa County are here illegally. In fact, the Washington post uses a great quote from the Sheriff, “We know how to determine whether these guys are illegal,” Mr. Arpaio told the Chicago Tribune recently, “the way the situation looks, how they are dressed, where they are coming from.”
It’s a shame in 2008 we still have law enforcement openly using racial profiling. One would hope we would be past this by now…

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