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Because of the spin that could be put on it.
"Oh, yeah, they'll take this kind of info and they'll run with it," said Respect/Respeto's Guzman. "They'll probably turn around and say, 'See, the people of Guadalupe want us there!' Which is shit."
Indeed, if Rebecca Jimenez is removed as Guadalupe's mayor or is successfully recalled, Arpaio and his nativist supporters are poised to scream victory. And yet, the effort against Mayor Jimenez, like the effort against Patty Jimenez, has more to do with Guadalupe's factional, sometimes PTA-like politics. Bad blood continues over unrelated issues, like the erection of a three-story apartment complex near the entrance to the town at Avenida del Yaqui and Calle Cerritos, or the simple fact that two members of the same family are on the council.
But despite the council's squabbling, the majority is united on one point: It wants Joe Arpaio's MCSO out of the tiny town.
What might be lost with the infighting is the recognition and influence Guadalupe has garnered by resisting Arpaio's bullying.
It wasn't just the mayor who took a stand, but the whole town, including those at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Centro de Amistad, the Town Council, and average residents who wouldn't allow their small, proud community to be used as part of Arpaio's bid for re-election.
Guadalupe's rebellion is now renowned nationwide, and Arpaio's sweep there is regularly mentioned as an egregious example of the heavy-handed tactics of the MCSO.
"The mayor of Guadalupe implored [Arpaio] to leave her community alone," the New York Times stated in its editorial Immigration, Outsourced. "State and county officials have pointed out that Sheriff Joe has ignored tens of thousands of outstanding criminal warrants while chasing day laborers and headlines. They say he has grossly violated the terms of his 287(g) agreement — which calls for federal oversight of local police — and have called on Washington to rein him in."
During his recent 10-day, pro-immigrant walk from Tucson to the state Capitol in Phoenix, Texas human rights activist Jay Johnson-Castro made a stop in Guadalupe to show solidarity with the people there.
"This is the Selma, Alabama, of 2008," declared Johnson-Castro during a rally in Guadalupe's open-air Mercado. "This is ground zero for the immigration debate."
And as part of a conversation with New Times last month, Phoenix Mayor Gordon insisted he remained ready to help Guadalupe in its fight.
"It would have to go through an evaluation process," Gordon said of aiding the town. "But if the city manager and the police chief recommend it, then certainly I would support it."
Gordon spoke of a spectrum of options, including the involvement of more than one agency or the possibility of a retired Phoenix police commander or some other former Phoenix officer taking over the job of policing the community. He cited the high marks ex-Phoenix Assistant Police Chief Michael Frazier received when Frazier took over the El Mirage police department from the MCSO and revamped the department in six months' time.
"There isn't a professional agency that's going to let Guadalupe or any town or city go without public safety," Gordon said. "All those criminals that would terrorize that town would terrorize Phoenix, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert. Save for Arpaio's agency, all the other agencies work and train together. So the professionals will come up with a solution."
Contrary to Lieutenant Shepherd's insistence that Guadalupe officials are welcome to return to the MCSO, sheriff's Commander Tim Campbell informed Gordon in a hand-delivered missive last month that the county agency "will gladly walk away from the town" and throw Phoenix the keys to the substation on its way out.
Such a cavalier attitude doesn't bode well for the safety of Guadalupanos or for the rest of the Valley as long as the MCSO is keeping watch.
Guadalupe is no murder capital. According to the MCSO, it hasn't had a homicide in at least the past year and a half. However, the Arizona Department of Public Safety's GITEM (Gang Intelligence and Team Enforcement Mission) task force has identified a concentration of six gangs with more than 160 members in Guadalupe. The gangs could use the town as a staging area for illegal activities if the municipality is left unprotected.
"It would pretty much be a town held hostage if there's no one down there trying to keep anyone in check," said GITEM Detective Jim Hill, whose squad has been working in Guadalupe for several months. "I would assume that if nobody takes the contract, it will either revert back to the state or the county. Just because the sheriff says he's [breaking the contract], I don't think he can abandon part of the county. But [Guadalupe] wouldn't have dedicated resources."
So even if you don't live in Guadalupe, Arpaio's overkill there and his instinctive need to retaliate against the tiny community by promising to abrogate his contractual obligations, is threatening.
Arpaio's peculiar pathology is that he persists in his folly, no matter how wantonly self-destructive. Already, Maricopa County's top cop has kissed off the $1.2 million contract with the town, wasted $20,000 on a Guadalupe sweep that further alienated townspeople from the MCSO, and garnered himself probes by the FBI, and, if the New York Times has its way, a congressional committee.