I do not often agree with Robert Robb of The Arizona Republic, but back in July he had a thought provoking commentary with which I agree questioning the utility of Arizona electing so many offices that are appointed offices in other states. Appointed officials would have some advantages.
I mean really, do we need to elect county assessor, recorder, treasurer, county attorney and county superintendent of public instruction? This is simply an attempt to replicate state elected offices, several of which would be better served as appointed positions, e.g., state mine inspector, corporation commission, and superintendent of public instruction.
The one office I have always believed should not be an elected office is county sheriff. Why is this a political office? Wouldn’t we be better served if the sheriff was a professional law enforcement officer appointed by the County Board of Supervisors after a rigorous candidate search and public commentary period?
The fact that we elect sheriffs is how we get clowns like Paul Babeu aka Studboi1, and Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio. They demean the office of sheriff and destroy the credibility of professional law enforcement officers with whom they serve with their political antics.
How many millions of dollars has Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio already cost the taxpayers of Maricopa County with his unprofessional and unethical misconduct?
For example, Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio and his unholy alliance with right-wing conspiracy organizations like World Net Daily (Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse investigation into President Obama’s birth certificate), and Larry Klayman, a disreputable attorney and founder of Freedom Watch Inc., the former Chairman of Judicial Watch, who filed a lawsuit challenging President Obama’s recent executive orders on immigration deferrals of prosecution.
An appointed sheriff would never be able to get away with this kind of partisan political activity and whoring for publicity. They would be fired in a heartbeat for unprofessional and unethical misconduct. Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio would have been history long ago if county sheriff was an appointed office. Food for thought . . . and a ballot measure in 2016.
Anyway . . . the Arizona Capitol Times reported that the Obama administration is urging court to toss Arpaio immigration lawsuit:
The Obama administration is urging dismissal of a lawsuit that would dismantle the president’s immigration program, an initiative designed to spare nearly 5 million people in the U.S. illegally from deportation.
In a court filing late Monday, the Justice Department told U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell that the sheriff’s theory is speculative and unsubstantiated and that Arpaio has failed to show he will suffer any injury at all from the federal government’s program.
The sheriff’s challenge to the federal program is “meritless,” the Justice Department said in its court filing.
The Justice Department said the federal program “does not grant legal status to any alien. Rather, it authorizes a temporary exercise of prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis for certain individuals who have been in the United States since 2010 and have deep ties to the community.”
The department said the Supreme Court has made clear that the federal government has broad discretion on immigration enforcement.
Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio’s motion for a preliminary injunction is set to be heard in federal Court on Monday. In a press release from Progress Now Arizona, Congressman-elect Ruben Gallego will hold a press conference and Christmas Caroling outside of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on Monday. Stand up and be counted.
Congressman-elect Gallego, Supervisor-elect Gallardo, Rights Groups Blast Arpaio’s Newest Attack on Immigrant Families
PHOENIX – On Monday a Washington D.C.-based District Court judge will hold the first hearing for a preliminary injunction in Sheriff Arpaio’s lawsuit against President Obama, The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Arpaio’s meritless suit claims the President’s recent executive action on immigration was unconstitutional.
In response, dozens of activists from a coalition of Arizona immigrant rights groups will join Congressman-elect Ruben Gallego and Supervisor-elect Steve Gallardo at a press conference Monday morning to demand an end to Arpaio’s expensive, frivolous lawsuits. The activists will highlight the social and economic benefits of the DACA and DAPA programs. Participating organizations include Mi Familia Vota One Arizona, Center Neighborhood Leadership, SEIU Arizona, Promise Arizona, National Council of La Raza, The Arizona AFL-CIO, Arizona Worker Rights Center, LUCHA and UFCW.
“The holiday season should be about spending time with your family, helping others and reflecting on your blessings, not splitting up families and begging for attention with a frivolous lawsuit,” said Raquel Terán, Arizona State Director of Mi Familia Vota.
The press conference will be followed by local immigrant families who benefit from the President’s action sharing their stories and singing immigration-themed Christmas carols outside of Arpaio’s office.
WHO: Congressman-elect Ruben Gallego, Supervisor-elect Steve Gallardo and immigrant rights organizations
WHAT: Press Conference and Christmas Caroling Action
WHEN: 11 a.m. Monday, December 22
WHERE: Outside of the Headquarters of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, 550 W. Jackson St., Phoenix.
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Steve would think differently if a sheriff was elected who instead of stoping people for driving while brown stopped him for driving while republican!
This is an often drawn out canard used to silence support for Police because it assumes all Police are racists. The truth is that Police tend to find reasons to pull over cars being driven by people who are most likely out looking for trouble. When I was a young man (and yes, I am white) my friends and I were often pulled over by the Police for ID checks and interrogations as to what we were up to. And why was that? Because a car load of young males is the most likely group to wind up in trouble while driving around.
Nothing is different today. Police do not normally pull over 50 year old people of any race for driving around. Nor do they usually pull over women. It is just good policing to keep an eye out for a car load of young males of any race because statistics show they are the most likely to get into trouble. And today Police have to have a reason to pull them over, unlike when I was young.
Aren’t most of “…dozens of activists from a coalition of Arizona immigrant rights groups…to demand an end to Arpaio’s expensive, frivolous lawsuits…” activist organizations the ones that are constantly bringing lawsuits against Arpaio? There is no reason to hold a rally calling for the lawsuits to stop. They could easily stop the lawsuits by simply stop filing them!
But of course, they aren’t talking about THEM stopping the filing of lawsuits, oh heavens no. They want Arpaio to stop filing his lawsuits because they don’t like them. What is it about the left that they constantly seek to stop all expression of thought and/or opinion of the right?
Keep right on filing, Sheriff Joe! And we’ll keep electing you as long as you want to run.
I find it hard to believe that you think the appointment of Sheriffs would take the politics out of the position. The politics would simply be transferred to a handful of politicians rather than the voters who currently elect them. Your hatred of the people elected to the positions are more responsible for your dislike of the system by which they achieve office than the the actual process itself.
You speak of the lawsuits Arpaio has inspired but none of those lawsuits have gone to trial. The insurance company decided to settle as a cheaper alternative, as is their right based on the insurance policies they have with the County.
I like the current system of electing Sheriffs and I like Arpaio and Babeu. And since they keep getting elected, I guess I am not alone.
They settle out of court because if it goes to court it would cost the insurance and the county more! Appointments can be blocked or removed.
That is a theory that most insurance companies operate under. It is cheaper to settle than to litigate. That is why we have thousands of bottom feeding litigation attorneys advertising on TV to sue someone if something bad has happened to you…the settle out of court rather than go to court. The attorney fees for going to trial make it prohibitively expensive to take it to trial. BUT when insurance companies do take the case to trial, they win 94% of the time. That is why if litigation attorneys can’t settle out of court, they drop the case.
My point was that people complain that Sheriff Joe “loses” court cases all the time when he actually doesn’t lose anything. His cases are settled by timid insurance companies and gutless County attorneys who would rather settle than fight.
Appointments create timid Sheriffs more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing what is right. An INDEPENDENT Sherif needs to be elected on his/her own right.
You are right
There are many more buffoons in county offices as result of people blindly voting for a name they seem to recognize or a party their grandfather always said to vote for. What does party affiliation have to do with the constable, especially a garbage truck driver buffoon in Mohave County? Do away with elected treasurers, elected recorders, elected constables, elected assessors (your buddies need your assessment ratio’s changed to ag? On the market for a million but want it assessed as goat grazing land? A disgraced, recalled legislator need a job.) But you are correct about the two yahoo “shurfs”. They are actually a disgrace to many other real professional sheriffs in this State.
I have been saying this for years. No one knows who the city attorney is and if you did he would have been fired like the phoenix police chief! Don’t hold your breath that the rich old whites who run the arizona democratic party will get behind it and tell the anti arpaio hispanic community come and join us!
Your Crazy Uncle “Sheriff” Joe Arpaio and “Rhino” U.S. Senator John McCain are going to start doing nice things for and to you now that reelection is just around the corner and after the election and if they win they will go
back to being the mean people they were before. YOU PEOPLE WILL NEVER LEARN! You might think about putting term limits on their offices also but you people are to stupid to do that much less to even think about it!
It’s a shame we all can’t see things as clearly as you, Donnie. It never would have occurred to me that a politician running for office might not act the same way he might once he is actually elected. It is all so clear to me now. I think you have an obligation to continue sharing these insights with the rest of us dullards so we can learn. You have so much to give.