As of May 20ll, nearly 6,300 lawsuits have been filed against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) since Arpaio was elected in 1993. This is costing taxpayers (you) over $50 million, according to Maricopa County Risk Management Records.
This past December alone, Arpaio has accumulated new lawsuits over allegations that he forced a woman to give birth while handcuffed to a prison bed and a report that more than 400 sex crimes went ignored by the MCSO, dozens of which were committed against children.
Read enough? The Department of Justice concluded a three-year investigation of the MCSO, in which Civil Rights Division Attorney Thomas Perez stated that Arpaio’s office possesses “a systemic disregard for basic constitutional protections.”
While this may be the worst of it, the list continues.
Whatever your political views or policy beliefs, this is behavior that transcends party lines. It saddens me to think that citizens of our state are not able to generate outrage across the political spectrum even after continual reports of misconduct levied against our elected law enforcement officials are printed and broadcasted nationally.
Your views on immigration are irrelevant when it comes to holding Arpaio accountable for letting dozens of child sex-crimes go uninvestigated. And the race, skin color or ethnicity of the child-victims shouldn’t be a factor. Even though — no surprise here —they are mostly Hispanic.
In the minds of Arizona citizens, Arpaio is more myth than man, for whom only an apocalypse-style haboob could tear from his hold on the MCSO. Appalled by his apparent immunity from punishment, I became curious as to what it actually takes to recall an Arizona sheriff from office.
According to the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL), only 19 states permit the recall of state-elected officials, Arizona being one of them. 25 percent of votes cast in the previous election for the official are required within 120 days for the recall to be put on the next ballot.
The Maricopa Secretary of State website has 1,380,571 ballots cast in the county for the 2008 election, which means that in order for Arpaio to face a recall election, a little more than 345,000 extra signatures would be required.
Admittedly, that does seem like a daunting number.
A petition at Change.org that calls for the resignation of Arpaio and six top MCSO officials has only 20,000 signatures after being posted nearly a month ago. Unfortunately, the signatures are received from constituents across the country, not just Maricopa County.
Arpaio is up for re-election this year, so efforts towards a petition are no longer appropriate. However, the 5.2 percent that kept Arpaio in office in 2008 may have since reconsidered whether “America’s Toughest Sheriff” is a good fit for Arizona.
I would hope that at least 345,000 people find legalized racism, allowing child molestation and a proverbial myriad of undocumented or unnoticed allegations reason enough to send our negligent, 80-year-old sheriff into well-deserved retirement.
Reach the columnist at damills3@asu.edu
