At another U.S.A. meeting, after the May 2 march, she told the group how the MCSO had complained directly to her about J.T. Ready's presence in the nativist camp. Apparently, if Arpaio was unconcerned about the presence of J.T. Ready and the other neo-Nazis on the pro-Joe side, someone in the Arpaio camp realized there was a problem with having Hitler-worshippers supporting the sheriff in front of cameras.
"Phoenix PD calls MCSO; MCSO calls me," she informed her fellow U.S.A. members, confessing that she wondered, "Okay, you guys are all cops, and you expect me to do something about this?"
Stephen Lemons
U.S.A. founder Rusty Childress with Sheriff Joe, inside the MCSOs taped-off command post on March 21, 2008.
Stephen Lemons
Demonstrators step on a Mexican flag during a 2007 protest at Pruitts.
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Heller also discussed how Ready once tried to date her, and she asked other U.S.A. members to endorse a letter to Arpaio telling him that Ready and the other neo-Nazis had nothing to do with U.S.A.
"[The letter] was kind of suggested by the contact," said Heller, not explaining who this mysterious "contact" was. Heller continued, opining that the letter could give Arpaio some wiggle-room when it comes to rationalizing the neo-Nazis' presence on the nativist side during the May 2 march.
Later, when discussing President Barack Obama's visit to ASU this week, Heller mentioned that she promised "the department" that she would make an appearance at ASU to show support for Sheriff Joe while the president was in town.
Heller's comments suggest that the MCSO is attempting to influence U.S.A. and use the group as a political tool.
Does Arpaio's fondness for U.S.A. members, and the favoritism shown by the MCSO toward them, violate the professional ethics expected of a law enforcement organization? Tom Hammarstrom, executive director of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, did not comment on the MCSO directly. But he pointed out, "Arizona peace officers are taught that they should perform all of their official duties without bias or favoritism."
Even so, clearly Arpaio and his office see nothing wrong with returning the love of anybody who supports them — even neo-Nazis or groups that accept neo-Nazis as members. Even at a time when hate crime is on the rise in Phoenix — up 10 percent in 2008.
To Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, the message from Joe Arpaio is chilling.
"When law enforcement officials sidle up to right-wing radicals," said Potok, "they are bringing contempt on all men and women who stand up for the law in this country. They are telegraphing a message that the law protects everyone except for certain groups."
Indeed, in the latest issue of Intelligence Report, Potok notes that, nationally, hate crimes against Hispanics are up 40 percent since 2003, and the number of hate groups is also on the rise across America, topping 926 last year. Arpaio's infatuation with extremists and the National Socialist Movement could not come at a worse time for those who are their targets.
"These are the people who are charged with enforcing the law equally," Potok told New Times, referring to police officers and sheriff's deputies. "It's critical that our communities be able to trust police officers. When the police are viewed as the enemy by certain segments of the community, I think ultimately all law and order breaks down."
It is open for debate whether Joe Arpaio acts in the manner he does because he is a racist or harbors neo-Nazi beliefs. But one thing is for sure: He is a politician who is always shilling for votes, always looking for ways to feed his ego by keeping himself in the public eye. Though the abuses are the same, he seems more a rabid opportunist than an extremist.
Going back to April 2005, Arpaio was a hero in Arizona's Hispanic community when his deputies arrested Iraq war veteran Patrick Haab for holding seven Mexicans at gunpoint at a Valley rest stop. Haab's vigilantism dovetailed with the Minuteman Project's launch on Arizona's border, and Haab quickly became a folk hero among nativists and Minutemen. The sheriff, however, saw Haab as nothing but a lawbreaker.
"You don't go around pulling guns on people," Arpaio said of Haab at the time. "Being illegal is not a serious crime. You can't go to jail for being an illegal alien . . . You can only be deported."
The sheriff was lambasted by the nativist right, while County Attorney Andrew Thomas received all the glory from that side of the political spectrum for dropping the charges against Haab. It was then that Arpaio's political antennae must have tuned in to a way to garner more support for himself and his campaign for an unprecedented fifth term as sheriff in 2008: go after illegal aliens.
Thomas helped grease the skids for Arpaio with a creative interpretation of Arizona's human-smuggling law, which allowed felony charges against those smuggled in, as well as the smugglers.
Arpaio sicced his 160-deputy force of 287(g)-trained deputies on the undocumented in Maricopa County. During a series of media-frenzied sweeps, he became the poster boy of the anti-migrant movement, and he was re-elected.
So now that he's safely into his fifth term, why does he persist in pursuing Mexicans, even if he is the darling of nativists? Why doesn't he let up, given that under way are a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of his activities and a review by the Department of Homeland Security of his 287(g) agreement?