First, though, Louis wrote a letter to the editor of the Arizona Republic, which included a few sentences that later served as the heart and soul of his new book:
"Arpaio's callous comment . . . shows his arrogance and the insincerity of his so-called apology. He knows full well there were many victims, and he knows their identities . . . Sheriff Joe Arpaio failed these victims. At this point, there is little that can be done to undo the harm they have endured."
!["[Arpaio's] much more than just an embarrassment to law enforcement," Louis says. "He's a totally political beast who gets to wear a badge."](http://media.phoenixnewtimes.com/ex-police-chief-s-book-details-arpaio-s-negligence.7956098.40.jpg)
Louis, who long ago graduated Brophy College Prep, never had written much more than police reports and memos during his distinguished career in law enforcement.
Cobbling together what became a 342-page tome was a journey into an entirely new world, one beyond his comfort zone of acronyms for police-computer databases and departmental reports.
He says he stuck a notepad by his nightstand and purchased a digital voice recorder to memorialize his thoughts while driving. He wound up focusing his book on the "human element, about a guy who devoted most of his resources toward keeping himself in the news."
A few months ago, Louis shared what he had on paper at that point (about 50 to 60 pages) with his 82-year-old mother, a longtime fan of Arpaio's.
"Is this all the truth?" he says his mom asked him, about the dozens of poorly investigated — if investigated at all — cases that were discovered during a routine audit after he and Frazier took over in 2007.
"It was a real eye-opener for Mom, who really is a barometer for how a lot of folks think. It actually pained me in some ways to have to point out the way Arpaio treats people, the way he's given all of law enforcement in this county and state a bad name by targeting his perceived political enemies and anyone who crosses him for half a second, and how he deflects fault — always. But most of all, what happened in El Mirage affected so many kids and so many families, and Joe couldn't have cared less."
One of Louis' daughter-in-laws took a crack at the budding manuscript and told him, "You write like a cop." He says he took the friendly criticism to heart and tried to turn parts of the book more into a memoir instead of a glorified police report.
"A lot of this is from the heart, and I wanted to get that across," he says. "At the same time, I wanted part of the book to be an educational tool for other police departments, and even parents, about what to watch out for . . . to help protect kids. So I got into some stuff about how law enforcement is supposed to work, compared with the terrible situation we faced because of a real knucklehead [Arpaio]."
After the 2008 election, Louis says, El Mirage then-Mayor Fred Waterman, was at a function also attended by the sheriff. At the event, Arpaio told Waterman that Louis was a "political enemy," according to the mayor. The reason? Louis had donated money to the sheriff's election opponent, Dan Saban.
The sheriff's comment soon got back to the assistant chief, who was deeply troubled at what he considered a naked effort at intimidation.
"After 34-plus years of defending my country [in the U.S. Army] and community, I was now walking around with a target on my back as an 'enemy' of the county sheriff," Louis later wrote, noting that he told Chief Frazier that "it felt as if I was living in 1939 Nazi Germany."
This hardly was an exaggeration, he continued, in that "the sheriff has gone after judges, county supervisors, newspaper editors, and even the county's superintendent of schools. All because they voiced an opinion contrary to his own. He seemed to stop at nothing to hurt people, destroy their careers, and publicly embarrass them."
These are some of the best parts of Bill Louis' book, passages where he gets away from discussing police procedures and depicts Arpaio as a demagogue with a creepy group of yes-men and women ever eager to do his bidding.
The book is self-published, and Louis plans to approach book buyers at chains such as Costco and Barnes & Noble to gauge interest.
Louis says he hasn't heard yet from anyone in Arpaio's camp, even informally.
But on a recent weekend, he says, he was driving and noticed a black Ford Crown Vic that seemed to be tailing him. Louis says he pulled into a parking area after about three miles, and the Crown Vic followed him there.
So Louis took out his phone and took a photo of the vehicle.
"I don't know what was up there," he says. "I'm hardly a paranoid sort, but it did give me the creeps. I'm not so worried about Joe as about his fringe followers . . . the true-believer types."
Louis adds, with a chuckle, "No black helicopters yet, though."
He says he holds out some hope (but not much) that current Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery will follow through on a promise made months ago to look into the botched sex-crimes cases.
"The jury is still out on Mr. Montgomery," Louis says. "Sometimes it looks as if he might be trying to distance himself a little from Joe."
Here is something from the Bad Phoenix Cops site. The direct link is http://badphoenixcops.blogspot.com/2012/06/evaluation-of-phoenix-police.html?showComment=1341724090930#comment-c312488633849226982. The comment is dated July 6 at 954pm. If this is true as written, his own investigations division (he was an assistant chief/commander in Phoenix remember) was just as guilty of the same things he is accusing Sherriff Joe of. Also if true, why did you not speak up then?
Peace officers have ALWAYS HAD the right to ask about immigration status when a person was being lawfully detained or under arrest, if reasonable suspicion indicated the person might not be a citizen of our country. SB-1070 hasn't done anything for law enforcement in Arizona, actually. It's simply smoke and mirrors by Mister Pearce, the disgraced former state senator.
Catholic hospital supports Arpaio with Attempted Murder, kidnapping and torture. Federal lawsuit at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/99111809/Catholics-4-Sheriff-Joe-Arpaio-and-Murder
According to court papers, Mercy Gilbert Hospital attempted to murder a plaintiff in the civil rights lawsuit pending in federal court, United States of America v. Maricopa County (Arpaio), et al.. Catholic Health West (now Dignity Health) via Mercy Gilbert Hospital, according to court papers, kidnapped, tortured and attempted to murder Scott Huminski, a plaintiff in the Justice Department lawsuit against Arpaio. Arpaio's parents immigrated from Italy and the sheriff and his family are Catholics that have garnered support from the Catholic church and allegedly from Catholic hospitals. A federal lawsuit has been filed requesting 30 Million in damages from Dignity Health and Gilbert Mercy Hospital. Huminski recounted that immediately before the murder attempt, staff at Mercy Gilbert Hospital called him a spic greaser taco bender loving expletive.
Watched the hot dog eating contest on television today. Dont know which makes me sicker, the winner or Lt. Joe Knott being promoted to commander. Lt. Knott has been telling us he is getting promoted cause his wife is Chief Gracia's secretary. Lt. Knott says Chief Garcia told Kathy Knott Lt. Knott will be promoted when Commander Demlong leaves next month. Chief Garcia needs to come down to Homicide and talk with us before making this decision. Better yet Chief Garcia should do a case management audit of Homicide to see how bad things are. We would like to see Lt. Knott leave but bring in someone with character and personality to replace him. Lt. Knott is just a bad person. I hope Chief Gracia is reading this. http://www.protopage.com/green-coffee-bean-max http://www.protopage.com/buy-raspberryketone http://www.protopage.com/buy-african-mango-extract http://www.protopage.com/buy-electronic-cigarettes-online http://www.protopage.com/bigger-breasts
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Immigration enforcement is like the war on drugs. its an endless supply of suspects, victims, and money thrown at those in the justice system. arpaio doesn't want it to end because its easy money. just chase around people that you label as illegals aliens. why do police work when you can choose your battles. arpaio chose hunting status offenders rather than capturing real criminals.
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I find it very sad that some people think just because a person has been in jail, he or she is no longer a human being with Constitutional rights. Furthermore, I think that people who defend cops who refuse to investigate crimes against children are probably perverts themselves.
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There are definitely some people who don't get what the big deal is about this big pig, but trust me, EVERYBODY gets mistreated in MCSO jails, and none of it's right. It must be a horrible place to work - they put one detention officer in charge of 120 people so there is constant screaming at and harassment of inmates, not allowing them to sleep, Of course, every day people are not fed enough food, which is sometimes rancid and moldy and there is denial of medical treatment and medications and so on. It's particularly hard on women and disabled people, though, and it serves no purpose that I can see. I hope enough people file ADA complaints with the Justice Dept, so maybe they can investigate some more.
"If you cross the border illegally then you commit a crime...our cops will check everyone no matter what the color of your skin is!" ...and what, exactly is it, that a cop can look for that says to him "yeah, that person over there, they are in the country illegally"? The answer is, d-bag: NOTHING. So instead, if you want to make sure, you'll end up having cops asking everyone for their "papers, please" ALL THE TIME. At one time, we as a country (all of us - well, except for d-bags like you, probably) used to be horrified that this same kind of behaviour was going on in East Germany and Russia. Apparently, that is the kind of country and system you want to live in. That isn't the America I grew up in - that isn't the America I believe in. But apparently, you and many other authoritarian anti-American thugs want to turn things into such a hell hole. Is that what you really want? Because that is where things will ultimately end up. Futhermore, it is likely under such a regime the boot will stomp on your's and your family's heads just as much as everybody else's: You are NOT a special snowflake, my dear.
"You ever think that maybe that his jails are not just killing someone with brown skin?" They have covered this - does the name "Scott Norberg" ring any bells, you idiot?
"His actions really do not affect our daily lives considering that if you dont break the law you won't get busted." Tell that to the editors of this newspaper, or the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors...
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Do you honestly think that progressive policies that build liberty and equality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism) equate with "get drunk and screw"? Seriously? Do you also think our U.S. Constitution is just a piece of "liberal crap" as well, since the Preamble pretty much espouses the principles of liberty and equality? Do you even believe in liberty and equality? Or are you just another Animal Farm reject?
Well, at least everybody now knows about your dark closet fantasies; it's alright, just be careful and don't injure yourself too much.
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Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis)[1] is a political ideology or worldview founded on ideas of liberty and equality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism). Socialism is an economic system characterised by social ownership and/or control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist). In other words, what you railing against is the concept of people "sharing and caring" - sharing with their fellow people, and caring for their fellow people. Instead, what you support is "Fuck you, I've got mine". Nice worldview their, Skippy.
You know, text-speak consists of a tad more than substituting "u" for "you" - singling out one word for simplification does nothing more than make you look ignorant.
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