The history of Joe Arpaio is filled with unconstitutional actions and vile racism. The ‘Phoenix New Times’ followed Arpaio’s unsavory actions for two decades. At one point Arpaio became so angry that he had two reporters arrested from their homes in the middle of the night for ‘misdemeanors.’ Maricopa County was forced to pay $3.75 million to those reporters when a judge ruled that Arpaio’s actions were indeed a violation of their constitutional rights.

Today, after Trump pardoned Arpaio, the Phoenix New Times published list of many of his human rights violations during his tenure.

Arpaio, himself, described the way he ran his jail as a “concentration camp.” The death rate of inmates in his prison far exceeded the national average, and often remained unexplained.

One incident involved a jailer who nearly broke the neck of a man who was a paraplegic; he had simply asked for a catheter.

As a publicity stunt, Arpaio once marched all of his Latino prisoners into a segregated are surrounded by an electric fence.

One prisoner, who told the press that he had active Crohn’s Disease, was sentenced for 111 days. He was refused his medication, and the infirmary was ordered to perform surgery to ascertain the “cause of his illness.” The surgery was botched, and his fellow prisoners watched him nearly bleed to death.

Ambrett Spencer was ordered to serve time in the Maricopa Country Jail for drunk driving; she was pregnant. She woke up in the middle of the night in severe pain. An ambulance did not arrive for about four hours. When she arrived at the hospital, she gave birth to a nine-pound baby girl; she was stillborn. Ms. Spencer’s pain resulted in internal bleeding, known as placental abruption. This condition is often treatable if the mother is cared for in a timely manner.

Arpaio forced his prisoners to live in inhumane conditions. The cells were often too hot for human occupation. One man literally baked to death in his cell. His body temperature was recorded at 109 degrees. The little ventilation available to the cell had been cut off by a detention officer who was angry the deceased man’s cellmate for a remark.

Arpaio ran a “mugshot of the day” on the jail’s website to embarrass prisoners.

Arpaio’s conviction, pardoned by Trump, was for ‘racial profiling,’ and cost Maricopa taxpayers $70 million.

Arpaio refused to investigate hundreds of rape cases in his county; some involved children.

The list goes on and on.

Trump pardoned a man who truly hated the men and women he was given to oversee; a racist and a bigot who deserved a far longer sentence.

Please re-post; thank you.

Op-ed by James Turnage

SOURCE

Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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