Joe Arpaio

Why Sheriff Joe Actually Is Nervous About the Recall Effort Against Him

What Kind of Douchebag Would Join the Joe Arpaio "Shadow Army"?

In case you missed it earlier this week, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is getting his very own "shadow army."A circulating e-mail from Maricopa County Republican Committee Chairman A. J. LaFaro explains that they're going "to muster and organize a 'shadow army' of 'shadow warriors' that are willing to voluntee ... More >>

Joe Arpaio and Steven Seagal Star as Complete Asses on the Colbert Report

Please reset the "days without an Arizona-related Comedy Central news segment" counter back to zero.Thanks to Sheriff Joe Arpaio taking this weekend to exploit dead children by inviting the media and a pseudo-celebrity to a simulated school shooting, Arpaio and Steven Seagal were featured on yesterd ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Prayed Over by Latinos, and Michael Nowakowski Doubles-Down

Despite protests and calls for him to apologize, Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski defended himself on Tuesday for brokering a meeting between scores of Latino pastors and Sheriff Joe Arpaio just days before Arpaio's anti-immigrant raid on a Tempe apparel company, his 71st such operation to ... More >>

Is Joe Arpaio Responsible for MCSO's Bungled Sex-Crime Investigations?

Valley media outlets have started to take in the 10,000 page, $5,000 internal-affairs report from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on its hundreds of bungled sex crimes.Based on several accounts of the report's summary, the specific sex-crimes detectives involved weren't pegged with all the blam ... More >>

Is Steven Seagal a Certified Doofus?

If you're not a fan of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's school-patrol posse, then get a load of what Arpaio kiss-ass Steven Seagal thinks about you."Anybody who has criticized me or the sheriff for standing up to help the children, in my opinion, is an embarrassment to the human race," Seagal said this weekend ... More >>

Do You Think the Joe Arpaio Recall Effort "Should Fail"?

According to the opinion of the Arizona Republic editorial board, the Sheriff Joe Arpaio recall effort "should fail."The piss-poor argument used is, "The recall is as much of an abuse of Arizona law as anything Arpaio has done."See also:-Arizona Republic Declares Joe Arpaio Recall Effort "Should Fai ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Recall: Here's How to Sign the Petition

Since we first started getting details about the effort to recall Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, readers have asked us how they can sign the petition.Respect Arizona filled us in on a few ways to signing the petition, as the committee is attempting to gather more than 300,000 valid signatures t ... More >>

MCSO: Dysart High School Student Brought Gun to School, Threatened to Shoot Classmate

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says deputies arrested a 16-year-old Dysart High School student who brought a gun to school yesterday.According to MCSO, that kid apparently showed the gun to a 14-year-old classmate that morning at the school-bus stop, and said he was going to kill him.See also: ... More >>

Arizona Republic Declares Joe Arpaio Recall Effort "Should Fail"

At this point in time, it would be nearly impossible to convince us that there wasn't a crystal meth smoke-a-thon at the Arizona Republic's editorial board meeting on Sunday night.The Republic editorial board has declared that the Arpaio recall "should fail," adding, "The recall is as much of an abu ... More >>

Randy Parraz Lawsuit Vs. Maricopa County Over '08 Arrest Can Proceed, Judge Rules

A lawsuit filed by activist Randy Parraz against Maricopa County following his 2008 arrest outside the Board of Supervisors Auditorium can move ahead, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Parraz was arrested on September 29, 2008, after he and members of his group, Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Acco ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Posse Doing a School-Shooting Simulation, and Steven Seagal's Supervising

Folks, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's school-patrol posse is so serious about school safety that posse members will be setting up a school-shooting simulation this weekend as a test.Have we mentioned yet that actor Steven Seagal will be supervising the festivities?See also:-Joe Arpaio's School-Patrol Posse Ge ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's School-Patrol Posse Gets a Glowing Review From the NRA

While the National Rifle Association has proposed putting an armed guard inside every American school, the lobbying organization's "news" arm ran a gushing endorsement of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's school-patrol posse, which puts an armed guard in zero schools.The public-relations piece for Arpaio aired o ... More >>

Could a Recall Effort Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio Be Successful?

A political committee that's apparently going to try to recall Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio filed its registration paperwork with the county elections department yesterday.Now, all the recall effort needs is more than 300,000 signatures to trigger a recall election, and enough votes for a cand ... More >>

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Target of Recall -- It's Official -- By Same Community Leaders Who Successfully Ousted Senator Russell Pearce

A campaign to recall Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is underway, with the penning of the first of the 335,000 signatures needed for an election to take place in November. William James Fisher, a local attorney, is the chairman of Respect Arizona, a political action committee formed to oust the ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Incredibly Whiny Response to Recall Effort: "Why Do They Hate Me So Much?"

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has issued what's undoubtedly the world's whiniest response to the recently announced recall effort against him.There's a statement from his campaign manager Chad Willems, as well as an Arpaio fundraising e-mail, in which the Sheriff asks, "Why do they hate me so m ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's "Birther" Investigation Still Exists; Lead "Birther" Swears Evidence Coming Soon

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's "investigation" into President Barack Obama still exists after 16 months, which has an industry term of "long con."Believe it or not, Arpaio's birther chief still claims that there's evidence Barack Obama's birth certificate is fake, and indeed, new evidence that ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's "Birther" Investigation Still Exists; Lead "Birther" Swears Evidence Coming Soon

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's "investigation" into President Barack Obama still exists after 16 months, which has an industry term of "long con."Believe it or not, Arpaio's birther chief still claims that there's evidence Barack Obama's birth certificate is fake, and indeed, new evidence that ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Hissy-Fit of the Day: Stop Calling Other People "Sheriff Joe"

It's just about every day that Sheriff Joe Arpaio says something that's guaranteed to make you shake your head.Today's cry for attention actually took place on Friday night, as Arpaio complained that people were calling Vice President Joe Biden "Sheriff Joe."See also:-Joe Arpaio: "I Don't Use Comput ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Touts Arrest of 10-Year-Old in Guadalupe, and Posse's Non-Existent Role

A 10-year-old 5th-grader at Guadalupe's Frank Elementary learned a valuable lesson about "snitches" on Tuesday.See, the boy had enlisted help in stabbing one of his classmates for "snitching," but the classmates ended up ratting him out to the teacher, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Offi ... More >>

Who Should Investigate the Employers Who Hire Undocumented Workers?

As the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office pulled off its 70th "employer sanctions operation" -- which MCSO now refers to as a "criminal employment operation -- we pointed out yet again that no employers were arrested, or sanctioned, in the operation.It was revealed last week in a federal court filing ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Blames Obama for Not Arresting Employers Who Hire Undocumented Workers

After the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office pulled off its 70th "employer sanctions operation" (which MCSO now refers to as a "criminal employment operation"), we pointed out yet again that no employers were arrested, or sanctioned, in the operation.Arpaio now says that's probably a job for the Obama ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Says MCSO Doesn't Do "Raids," but Arpaio Touts Today's "Raid" of a Supermarket

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office does not conduct "raids," according to Sheriff Joe Arpaio.Although we've provided evidence to the contrary of Arpaio's new claim, the Sheriff's public-relations staff sent out an e-mail this afternoon, with a press release touting MCSO's 70th "employer sanctions ... More >>

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Sex-Crime Scandal After Five Years: No One Disciplined, Report Still Unfinished

More than five years after the Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio learned his agency had mishandled hundreds of sex-crime investigations, no one has been disciplined and a key report on the matter has yet to be released to the public. The investigation into what happened is fraught with negative im ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's High School "Murder/Suicide Plot" Suspect Released to Her Parents

The 16-year-old girl who had a plan that Sheriff Joe Arpaio declared "almost meets the profile of what happened in [Newtown], Connecticut" has been released from custody. Maricopa County Superior Court spokesman Vincent Funari tells New Times that a judge ordered the girl to be released on an electr ... More >>

Andy Kunasek, Maricopa County Supervisor, to be Paid $123,000 by County Because of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas

Another day, another six-digit award by Maricopa County to a victim of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. This time it's the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Andy Kunasek, who was framed for a crime he didn't commit as part of an apparent plan to usurp power ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Fugitive Nabbed by U.S. Marshals

Talk about a broken record. The U.S. Marshals Service has once more done Sheriff Joe Arpaio's job for him, this time by nabbing an escapee from Joe's jails, who basically exchanged identities with another inmate, and walked out. See also: -Joe Arpaio Won't Do His Job, So Marshal David Gonzales Does ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Denies Justice Department Allegations, but Offers Up Some Strange Claims

Lawyers for Sheriff Joe Arpaio filed a response to the Justice Department's racial-discrimination lawsuit, which mostly just denies each of the 188 allegations in the DoJ's suit.The denial also contains some very interesting claims from Arpaio, including repeated claims that the Maricopa County Sher ... More >>

Tent City Inmate on How to Stay Warm: "Hold on and Pray Nothing Bad Happens"

One of the inmates who called B.S. on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's announcement that he was taking steps to keep Tent City inmates warm is still calling B.S. after spending the weekend in below-freezing temperatures.Arpaio issued the press release last week, saying he "would like families and friends of inm ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Now Has a Plan for Keeping Tent City Inmates Warm

Despite claiming that his Tent City jail is a "concentration camp," Sheriff Joe Arpaio sure seems accommodating.Not only do we get press releases from the Sheriff's Office letting us know that Arpaio's cooling off the inmates when it's hot, but we now have a press release from MCSO letting us know t ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Tent City Heating a "Patent Lie," According to Another Inmate

According to a Tent City inmate, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's claim that his office is taking steps to keep the inmates warm in the jail is a "patent lie."If you've been paying attention today, you'll notice this is the second inmate in just a couple of hours to tell New Times that they haven't had access t ... More >>

New Times Rolls With Joe Arpaio's School-Patrol Posse; Nobody Dies

"You play golf?" we ask 69-year-old John van Steinburg, as we roll past the entrance to Anthem's country club, riding in a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office patrol car.He doesn't, but since Sheriff Joe Arpaio's PR staff let us hop in the car with Steinburg -- one of Arpaio's posse members now on arme ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Lies, Insults His Deputies, Promises School-Posses with "Automatic and Semi-Automatic" Weapons

Arpaio, howlin' at the moon in his appearance on the Thom Hartmann radio show: The fun begins about 16:18 in Hat tip to Phoenix videographer Dennis Gilman for letting me know about Sheriff Joe Arpaio's appearance Thursday on the uber-lefty Thom Hartmann show, where he howled at the moon, boasted ab ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Releases List of Posse-Patrolled Schools, Talks Publicity Stunts

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio today released a list of schools that are going to be patrolled by armed, volunteer members of his posse -- two days after those patrols started.Arpaio repeated a claim that the "only difference" between a sworn deputy and a posse member is that the posse members a ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Releases List of Posse-Patrolled Schools, Talks Publicity Stunts

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio today released a list of schools that are going to be patrolled by armed, volunteer members of his posse -- two days after those patrols started.Arpaio repeated a claim that the "only difference" between a sworn deputy and a posse member is that the posse members a ... More >>

Would You Want One of Joe Arpaio's Armed Posse-People at Your Child's School?

Starting this week, members of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's posse will be armed and patrolling the area of some Valley schools.In response to the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school massacre, Arpaio's dispatching his volunteer deputies to schools on unincorporated county land, although MCSO won't yet tel ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's School-Patrolling Posse Not POST Certified; I.E., They Ain't Cops

Kudos to Sheriff Joe Arpaio for successfully monopolizing the paranoia surrounding the mass killings in Sandy Hook by sending his army of Depends-wearin', gun-totin' grumpy geezers out to patrol the perimeters of some schools in the Valley. See also: -Would You Want One of Joe Arpaio's Armed Posse- ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Posse: The COPS Episode (Kind of)

As Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio plans to dispatch volunteer members of his "posse" to go fiddle-fart around public schools with guns, our colleague Stephen Lemons points out that the posse members sure aren't cops.However, as is usually the case when the day's news-of-the-dumb comes from Arizo ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Plans to Make Publicity Stunt Out of Swearing-In Ceremony, Promises "Hollywood Celebrities"

This may be incredibly hard to believe, but Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has planned a publicity stunt.Yes, the man who dresses inmates in pink underwear, has provided those inmates with an Elvis impersonator, has allowed female inmates to throw panties in the jail, holds inmate coloring conte ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Posse People Starting Armed School Patrols; Which Schools Yet Unknown

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's program to put armed members of his posse on patrol of Valley schools started today, according to one of Arpaio's spokesmen.In response to the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school massacre, Arpaio's dispatching his volunteer deputies to schools on unincorporated county land, a ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Upset That a "Coyote" Brought Her 3-Year-Old Along for Smuggling Trip

Here's yet another way to end up in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's press releases: bring along your 3-year-old daughter while you're getting paid to smuggle people into the United States.Better yet, MCSO says the 3-year-old girl was "seated between two unknown males and not properly restrained by a sea ... More >>

Arizona's Top Ten News Stories of 2012

All in all, 2012 hasn't been that bad of a year. Some good stuff transpired, and some of it happened because New Times' scribes made it happen. Usually to some very deserving recipients. The great H.L. Mencken said it long ago, and it still holds true today: "Journalism is to politician as dog is t ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Top Ten Reasons for Wanting to Be a Neo-Confederate

Sheriff Joe Arpaio thinks it's an honor to be called KKK, remember? So why is anyone surprised that in 2011 he accepted the Sons of Confederate Veterans' J. Edgar Hoover Law and Order Award, apparently for all that hard work he did in ignoring hundreds of sex crimes cases around the county. See a ... More >>

Morning Poll: Sheriff Arpaio Plans to Put Armed Posse Members in Schools

Totally upstaged by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio went ahead late Thursday with an announcement for his own anti-Newtown idea: armed posse members at schools. The posse will "safeguard schools from violent predators," Arpaio claims. He's not asking for perm ... More >>

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Accepted Award From Confederate Group With "History of White Supremacy," Salon Says

Besides the announcement of plans to deploy armed posse members at schools, another Sheriff Joe Arpaio story making the rounds concerns his acceptance last year of an award by a confederate group. Salon, an online magazine with a national presence, published an article yesterday about the mini awar ... More >>

Valley Fever's 12 Most Popular Arizona News Stories of 2012

It seems like every year there's one local story that defines the news more than others. Last year, it was the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson (which we got a horrific reminder of with the recent mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary). This year, as far as actual readership g ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Orders a Christmas Tree for Tent City; "Holiday" Music Will Play 12 Hours a Day

Question: What is the only place on earth that has provided an Elvis impersonator, ice cream and cake, women throwing panties, coloring contests, a large Christmas tree, and an old man who likes to dress men in pink underwear?Answer: The jails of self-proclaimed tough-guy Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In fact ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Issues Press Release to Point Out People From Other Countries Work at MCSO

After a review of MCSO's hiring practices, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has issued a press release to assure the public that not everyone working for the Sheriff's Office is a white-skinned American.See also:-Joe Arpaio's Office Commits Worst Racial Profiling in U.S. History, Concludes DOJ-Joe Arpaio Looks Li ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Lawyers Fail to Get Sheriff Off the Hook in Justice Department Lawsuit

Lawyers for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have failed in their attempt to get the Justice Department's racial-discrimination lawsuit tossed.Chief U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver made a ruling this week on the June motion to throw out the suit against Arpaio, the Sheriff's Office, and the coun ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Dinner in San Francisco Crashed by "Queer Nuns"

Our comrades in the Bay Area, S.F. Weekly, found Sheriff Joe Arpaio at a restaurant in San Francisco's Union Square last night, (unintentionally) having dinner with folks who call themselves an "order of queer nuns."See also:-Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Crash Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Dinner ... More >>