"America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio refuses to cooperate with DOJ investigation on whether his office racially profiiles

**Terminator** · 07-08-09, 11:14 PM

PHOENIX -- The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office will not cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice in an ongoing investigation into whether the office uses racial profiling, Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced in a news conference Tuesday.
Arpaio said he's halting all interviews between his staff and DOJ investigators.
The sheriff claims the DOJ is investigating his office for political reasons, not because of racial profiling; according to Arpaio, the Democrats in Washington don't agree with section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows local law enforcement

agencies to assist with illegal immigration enforcement efforts.
"It only took them 60 days to come after me," Arpaio said. "Sixty days. It usually takes about two years to open up a letter in the Justice Department

."
The DOJ informed the sheriff's office in March that it was investigating. Since then, Arpaio said the agency has yet to cite any specific examples of racial profiling.
"The new attorney general has said that his top priority is to go after racial profiling," he said. "Don't pick on me to show you're doing something. If you're going to do it, pick on someone that's guilty -- there's a big difference here."
Arpaio said he'll fight the investigation, even if it means suing the federal government

.

**Norm357** · 07-08-09, 11:23 PM

"America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio refuses to cooperate with DOJ investigation on whether his office racially profiiles

Good.

**MacLean** · 07-08-09, 11:38 PM

Not sure about Arizona, but here the Sheriff is the only constitutionally defined LEO - and tenth amendment cases have been won by Sheriff's in Montana over unfunded federal mandates.

I wish him all the best.

**pgg** · 07-09-09, 01:09 AM

Its good to see agencies fight back against the federal DOJ

**TXCharlie** · 07-09-09, 02:42 AM

That's really hypocritical, considering that FBI profilers regularly profile most serial killers as being white, and most aggressors in Family Violence as male.

I'm not too sure the DOJ can even define what racial profiling is - It is not defined by percentages. I'm not so sure it can even be defined as using race to make decisions when race in fact is an overwhelming factor, such as the white serial killer profiles.

Just because more illegals are Hispanic than white, this DOJ seems to believe that going after illegals shows bias against Hispanics. I'm also not too sure it would be wrong to check out a group of Hispanics crossing the border, while not checking out a group of whites or blacks, who are "probably" not illegal but may be.

To me, this is akin to the TSA ignoring the profiles of terrorists and searching 80-year old grandmothers just so they won't be accused of racial profiling. Could an 80-year old grandma be a terrorist or a stooge of a terrorist? sure - But it would make a lot more sense to search young mid-eastern looking males.

Of course, we all know that would be considered racial profiling, but I think it's debatable whether it actually is, if statistics prove the validity of the profiles. If you don't have the manpower to search or investigate everyone coming throuh the gates or over the border, it makes common sense to go after the most likely people, so banning racial profiling in some instances is akin to banning common sense.