Five years after he started "crime suppression" sweeps that terrorized Latino neighborhoods,
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is finally having to explain himself. Not to TV crews in Phoenix or to fawning hosts on Faux News, but before a federal judge.
A class-action civil-rights lawsuit, is scheduled to begin Thursday in Federal District Court in Phoenix.
The plaintiffs accuse the Pink Panty sheriff of waging an all-out, unlawful campaign of discrimination and harassment against Latinos and those who look like them.
They say the sheriff and his deputies made illegal stops, searches and arrests, staged wrongful neighborhood and workplace raids, and provoked widespread fear among citizens, legal residents and undocumented immigrants alike.
One plaintiff, Manuel Melendres, is a Mexican citizen who had a valid visa when Sheriff Arpaio's deputies arrested him in 2007. He said he was handcuffed and held for hours, not read his rights or allowed a phone call,or told why he had been arrested. Two other plaintiffs were accosted by deputies at gunpoint during a neighborhood sweep, for no explained reason. They are citizens.
As always, criminal repugicans will continue to commit crimes until a Democrat finds the courage to stand up and say, "Enough."
I hope this scumbag ends up in the Maricopa County jail, where it's 140 degrees.
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