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('Religious Dedication to Tent City' by uusc4call via flickr.com) '437,946 served time here'.
On Friday night, Oct. 31, in another in a chain of Closed Probes, Ann Scheel issued a news release on behalf of US Attorney John Leonardo saying that after an ‘exhaustive’ four-year investigation of Maricopa County, AZ’s “America’s Favorite Sheriff” and cronies, there won’t be any indictments. The release was skimpy on details, but in a letter to County Attorney Bill Montgomery, Scheel mentioned several allegations that had been investigated: civil-rights violations, misuse of public money, and perjury.
She said prosecution had been declined because of a lack of evidence or an insurmountable burden of proof.
You will remember Arpaio as the loathsome individual who kept suspected, sometimes apparent, undocumented immigrants in tent city prisons, fed them the now famous ‘green bologna’ meals, routinely withheld critical medical care of prisoners; paraded male prisoners in public wearing pink underwear; broke up families in his haste to deport thousands without due process; had his picture taken with White Supremacists…and with his political friend Janet Napolitano back in the day when they were useful to each other. Heh.
In point of fact, the FBI’s initial 2008 investigation was broadened to include the ‘abuse of power’ allegations in 2010 at the request of the Maricopa County Supervisors, asking for a parallel state investigation. Fibbies were apparently cross-deputized toward that end.
Given this news release by the OBomba Justice Department was thrown out in the Friday Trash, this was a hard weekend to secure comments on the matter. I finally reached my relatively anonymous contact at The Unknown Bloggers Group; she simply self-designates with the alphanumeric wd666.
As luck would have it (good luck, that is) I reached her in her car, jammin’ lickety-split on the highway on her way to cover the Democratic Convention on Tuesday in Charlotte.
We agreed to meet, as she’s been covering the Arpaio story for years, and she ‘damned straight, had somethin’ to say about it’.
We met six hours ago at the local Laundromat; it was thankfully empty as I’d reckoned it would be. When I arrived, wd666 was seated in aone of a row of grey chairs that were bolted to the floor, one-legged crossed over the other, and wearing the sole piece of her group’s simple uniform: a brown grocery bag with cut-out eye and mouth holes…over her head. I sat two seats down, got out my tape recorder, and urged her to let ‘er rip.
“Have you heard that fat-ass Arpaio honking on about ‘being vindicated’ as he rushed back from Tampa? I’d like to vindicate him…with my Doc Martens or a ball bat (just joshin’ around, ya know).
Oh, yeah, let’s see…another closed investigation; did you read that frickin’ letter Schell wrote to Montgomery? Christ, he uses $84 million earmarked for jails, spent it on “unrelated expenses and salaries”, but they reckon it’s okay cuz no one personally profited from the “misspending”! So the prosecutors couldn’t claim there was criminal intent! Guess those prisoners mightta thought there was ‘criminal intent’ or ‘negligence’, eh?
And good god all-Friday; those MCSO P-credit cards the Supervisors were claiming were ‘misused’ by the department? Ha! No, no…the expenses they racked up were simply ‘not properly documented’! Kinda like MERS robo-signing, ya know; ‘Oops, we failed to document things properly; so sorree…what’s the fine for that, anyway? Hell, these fucks don’t even get fined, fer cryin’ in a barrel!
Shoot, you remember how Arpaio convinced County Attorney Andy Thomas and his other goons to file criminal charges against Judge Donahoe and two County Supervisors, claiming they were hindering an investigation into a ‘conspiracy’ on a court building’s construction? Yeah, well, a judge threw out the cases as bogus, and Thomas was disbarred by an Arizona court ethics panel, but these folks can’t find how anything he did could be construed as intentional harm to Judge Donohoe and the Supervisors? After Thomas and attorney Lisa Aubuchon were convicted of perjury for lying about Donohoe, the Feds reckoned ‘since they hadn’t lied in their papers to the court, they couldn’t charge them with perjury? Arrrggh!
Whaaat? They accidentally lied in court and conspired to ruin their political enemies? Oopsie!”
Clearly overwrought by now, wd666’s paper bag was sucking in and out against her face along with her hyperventilation, and looking a little damp around her mouth hole. I asked her if she needed a minute to calm herself, or if she’d like some water, although soda from the machine near the door was probably all there was to drink, and then…there was the matter of her headwear to consider… She coughed a bit, declined my offer, straightened in her chair, and continued:
“You know what I think? Besides the fact that this DoJ sucks in every way imaginable? I think this particular probe’s end is all wrapped up with Issa’s investigation into Holder and ‘Fast and Furious’. As soon as he testified to Congress the other day, AZ US Attorney Dennis Burke resigned, or more likely was asked to resign, and now it looks like Ann Scheel might be appointed to fill his job. Man, Burke was a rising star, too; that must suck.
Fox News has it that insiders are sayin’ Burke barfed behind the Committee’s closed doors, and AZ Rep. Paul Gosar says this goes all the way to the top, meaning Holder, even though Issa’s saying he doesn’t really think so.
But anyway, US Attorney is a Senate-confirmable job, and they’ll need McCain and Kyl to help get her okayed. Plus, this is a great week for Obama to…you know, make sure swing voters know his DoJ really and sincerely is all about ‘looking forward, not backward’, as he heads to the Convention. Heh, heh.
Piling onto the irony of all this, Miz Scheel reminded us that there are still those DoJ charges pending against Ugly Joe for racial profiling, immigrant sweeps, violating detainees’ civil rights, and more. She says that in civil matters, the burden of proof is far lower! Do ya think they might find some of his shit meets the ‘preponderance of evidence bar’? Sweet Jayzus; some days in Amerika are just too damned strange to believe!”
The Unknown Blogger then threw back her head over the edge of the plastic molded chair…and let loose with a rather demonic, yet somehow pleasant…laugh…that came all the way from her belly and out into the laundromat, brown paper bag a-rustle with portent. Heh heh heh heh…and so forth…
(cross-posted at kgblogz.com)
22 Comments
About Holder, I guess completely incompetent is really complete.
Funny stuff. Haven’t been to a laundromat in a dog’s age x 7. Is smoking prohibited in them now?
Check yer sweater labels, wendydavis: if they don’t don’t have that ’100%’ claim disclaimer, they’ll have ‘other materials’ which entry-level wise guys collect from the lint traps.
Oh, and in other recent identical news: “Years, Millions Later U.S. Drops ‘Largest Human Trafficking Case in U.S. History’ “
Corrupt with political calculations, too, normanb. The stuff Arpaio has done and provoked is evil, imo.
Ya think I’d puff while wd666 was unable to? Ever smoked thru a paper bag hole? Ewwww. Flammability problems. ;o) I was NOT there to wash my sweaters, darlin’; I was doing some first-person reportage this time.
As to your link: Christ in a Cadillac (she said sweetly). What did the memo look like that included advising that the few almost-worthy probes were dismissed while ‘claiming that it lacked evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt’. Are they now such mind-readers they think they can predict jurors’ judgements? Or…are they just not trying too very hard to find ‘the facts’?
Perhaps we should start an ‘unless you happen to be’ list:
* an heroic whistleblower in defense of our nation and the Rule of Law
* a general-purpose dissident who needs to be disappeared lest you influence others
* an OWS protestor
* a suspicious person of color in the right neighborhood at the wrong time (which is almost always)
* far, far down the chain in financial fraud
* a member of the WikiLeaks organization
* a convenient fall-guy in the War on Terror
Please add to the list at will; I need some sleep. ;o)
Really sorry I was too lazy to link to the story better, but now that you ask:
There’s my comment to DDay (You Know My Name/Look Up The Number) from a few weeks ago, including a link to a fuller story as well as a paragraph excerpt.
I’ll include the better link here, out of devotion ;o)
I also posted that link to ChasT back then since the hideousness involves his home state, but it’s staying disappeared as FDL-worthy news.
Gonna mosey on over to the Dem Convention Center, see if the rumor is true, that DDay’s CV contains more links than the fences around the convention area.
Thanks for all you do, darlin’
Wendy,
Just stopped in to say Hello! And congrats for this diary.
When I think of the Chief Deputy reaching into the “tinderbox” known as the Pink Underwear Monies, must have scared off the DOJ Dudes and Dudettes, and when thinking that if they lost their court case against Arpaio and Minions, these attorneys having to spend the rest of their days in Tent City and where the heat easily approaches 160 degrees daily, would be enough to convince the chain of command that this “may be” a ‘quiet’form of torture, that must be denied to the purview of the general public. And of course, these DOJ attorneys are not from Arizona, and thereby permitting the Sheriff to declare that the attorneys fall into his “new” category for “Documented Immigrandees” that cannot be deported, i.e.,for out-of-state tourism, and thus, subject to his ever-changing definition of the Rule of Law.
Jaango
He seems Naziesque. I know we’re not supposed to compare, but…
You know how much I don’t wanna write it up, don’t ya, dear? We’ll see, sigh. Really I liked the first link better, and your constraint on DD’s thread was noteworthy.
Dunno if the Unknown Blogger guessed right as to the ‘whys’ of all this, but it’s really messed up.
Cannae believe I didn’t associate you with Charlotte, even though I knew… Ach; brain-dead woman here. Let us know what it looks like, please.
I was thinking of you and hotflashcarol and others while I was writing. And myself, of course, and all the people he’s terrorized, killed, deported without cause, serious crime his department has left uninvestigated…
At least y’all got rid of Russel Pierce; a small victory. And I read that the fight over Chicano studies is still being waged.
Brewer, Arpaio, Pierce and many others involved really create a struggle with my dark side, jaango, my friend.
Yes; they should be in the tent city for some length of time to experience it. New Accountability Tourism; I like it.
Can’t say I use that one for the obvious reasons, but he is a dark man, no doubt, with a cruel streak he unleashes on brown people and red people, probably any one with some color. Dunno how much of a Muslim population there is in AZ. Here’s a link ‘all about Arpaio’ from AZcentral. I just couldn’t click into it; I’ve written about this man since I first read about him years ago, and this burns.
There are people who reckon he’s a new Wyatt Earp, and love him. He almost got his own teevee program awhile back; dunno what happened to that. New kind of entertainment like the new war one so many mention.
Fooking Americans; crazy.
I wonder how the investigation on this is going?
“PHOENIX – Authorities in Arizona are investigating a shooting in the desert where officials say camouflaged gunmen opened fire on a group of undocumented immigrants to see if it was the work of vigilantes or border bandits.
The men who were killed Sunday were part of a group of 20 to 30 undocumented immigrants crammed in a full-sized pickup truck driving in a wash in the remote desert outside of Eloy, about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. Investigators have no suspects in custody and they don’t yet know who is responsible, Pima County sheriff’s Deputy Dawn Barkman said Thursday.
Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/04/13/no-motive-in-killing-two-immigrants/#ixzz25MXIYfpw
The piece assumes a lot about the status of the people, no, mafr? Kinda reminded me of: ‘They’re all militants!’ (hard to prove ‘the runaways’ were undocumented, but…maybe they were. But to claim it’s prolly down to Mexican thieves and drug people…might be pushing it. Like when Jan Brewer kept telling the stories of beheaded bodies on the border…without any foundation.
Yeah, lots of emotion on the border. ‘Suspected smuggler’, ‘rival smugglers’. Sounds more like vigilantes to me. Thanks, dear.
Some of the non-prosecutions make sense – run out the clock on CIA torturers and banksters since they really don’t want to prosecute anyway. I really don’t see what advantage there is in not prosecuting Sherriff Joe-Bob. He’s hardly on team Obama or on their list of financial supporters.
Maybe they’re just terrified of being accused of political prosecutions? So anyone on the other side gets a free ride?
Or is Holder just incompetent? Sometimes the simplest explaination is best.
Just a random thought. Can a jury be drawn in Maricopa County that would have the courage to convict Arpaio of anything? I don’t know what’s going on at that end of the universe but it reminds me of Mississippi in the 1960s. Where being elected sheriff implied impunity.
I mentioned that story because it seems to be saying that in Arizona there appear to be armed vigilantes gunning down unarmed people.
Dunno for sure, 4cdave; and howdy, by the way. Nice to see you.
Holder is a puppet of the O Administration, so the factors/reasons/political calculations involved might be:
* looking for Bubba-vote cred as ‘tough on immigration’ (as if O isn’t to the right of Bush and past-Romney (dunno now)
* Arpaio and Napolitano go way back
* a bone for Darrel Issa, et.al.?
* reminding us that civil suits are still ‘possible’ to further help thread the needle for Hispanic votes, as was the ‘Dream extra-light’ executive order
* shoot; one other thing I’ve forgotten ;o)
Holder isn’t incompetent, just unmotivated. Remember his long history with Covington & Burling, attorneys to the Greater Vampire Squid and MICC.
I’m just guessing, of course, but in this case Occam’s Razor might be: under orders. Did you see AitchD’s link to the DoJ shutting down a long investigation on Thai sex trafficking in HI a few weeks ago? Same justification: too hard, not enough ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt’ evidence. Hmmm.
Interesting thought, THD, but sure they could if a prosecutor cared enough during jury selection/voire dire. There are plenty of good folks, though apparently a lot of them don’t vote. Jury selection might be based on driver registration.
Voters recalled State Senator (maybe the Prez) Russell Pearce recently, and he didn’t win his re-election bid with another R, reported to be a bit more moderate. I dunno that there’s some tide turning like that piece’s author speculates, but still…that shouldn’t influence prosecutors. They could probably always ask for a change the venue if they were serious.
Mississippi. Hmmm. See what you mean, but likely not that radical.
Sorry, mafr; I though they were driving the possibilities both ways, my cynicism got the best of me. Hell, yeah, though. Random Bing images of AZ Minutemen. Heroes to themselves; Legends in their own minds. ;o) (We have ‘em around here too, that ilk.) Camo clothes, arms galore.
Don’t forget purveyor of medical marijuana. They are on them like Bob McDonnell on an abortion clinic.
Whoosh. Of course, and thank you for the reminder, thurber. Along with the arrests and in some cases, conviction/incarceration…has been the US Attorneys filing forfeiture proceedings, sometimes on landlords who owned the buildings. Talk about a ‘climate of fear’.
Oregon, Colorado, and Washington have legalization initiatives on the ballot this year. Imagine if a state legalizes ganja, then Feds swoop in… That could get nasty.
Another important WD contribution to our understanding of the continuing levels of injustice that Obomba’s DoJ has assented to.
Possibly not to the Bush era’s degree of obvious partisanship dripping with political corruption that forced the resignation of Alberto Gonzales; but the stench of a DoJ that refuses to prosecute the injustices of the financial industry, torture, habeas corpus, and other civil liberty violations etc., is just a slight change of repugnant odor, not fresh air we expected. Rec’d
Hallo, hermit. Yes, his failures to prosecute are bipartisan, as are his prosecutions. He prosecutes the Good Guys regardless of affiliation or none, as long as they might damage his regime.
I keep wondering why they shut down the Thai human farmworker trafficking investigation AitchD brought; there must be some financial heavy-hitters buried in there. (Er…that was my sock-puppet speaking)
That we have little recourse under the law to change these things now really depresses me. At least today.
[Edited for accuracy on the Global Horizons investigations]