The following is a statement issued by Phoenix Police Department spokesman Steve Martos, regarding the arrest of Ernest “Marty” Atencio.Martos states that Atencio was arrested for assault after displaying some very odd behavior, as you’ll read. He also notes that the PPD believes its officers did not Tase Atencio. He further…

A distraught Mike Atencio, on his way to the hospital to watch his brother Ernest “Marty” Atencio die, told me today that he and his family believe his brother was “murdered” by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s thugs in the Fourth Avenue Jail.”The sheriff’s office murdered my brother,” said Atencio, acting as…

Note: For Updates, including the name and mugshot of the victim, see below.Following on the heels of a report by the U.S. Department of Justice condemning the MCSO for engaging in “discriminatory policing” and blasting its treatment of Latinos in and out of its jails, an incident involving a prisoner…

In case Sheriff Joe Arpaio missed the gist of the fiat handed down Thursday by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ending Arpaio’s 287(g) jails agreement, John Morton, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, doubled down on the dictate.In a letter dated December 15 to County Attorney Bill Montgomery, the ICE…

Flanked by community activists and fellow elected leaders at her El Portal restaurant in central Phoenix, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox held aloft the recently-released U.S. Department of Justice report on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s racial profiling campaign against Sand Land Latinos, and praised it as a sort of Christmas…

In a grotesque mix of Freudian projection, denial, all-out hubris and crass hypocrisy, ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce has told the Arizona Capitol Times that he’s trying to “forgive” Jerry Lewis, the man who spanked him hard by 12 points in the Legislative District 18 recall election for the “dishonesty”…

The Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” comes to mind…Intriguing video by activist/videographer Dennis Gilman of the fray at the ALEC conference between demonstrators and Phoenix police. While it’s hardly the siege of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, some of the tactics of the police are certainly questionable.The scene where the…

Call it the revenge of Randy Parraz. The man who organized the end of former state Senate President Russell Pearce’s Career is returning — MacArthur-like — to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ auditorium, the place where he was falsely arrested in 2008 by Joe’s boys in beige while seeking…

It’s pile-on time for that infamous ignorer of sex-crimes cases, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and, boy, does the near-80 autocrat ever deserve the abuse.Democratic Congressmen and state legislators are calling for his scalp in the wake of his latest scandal — the MCSO’s ball-drop on more than 400 sex cimes cases,…

One unfortunate aspect of the occupation of the Salt River Project’s Tempe headquarters last week was that the activists involved were not able to pull off a similar action at the Westin Kierland Resort, where corporate interests and GOP legislators were engaged in a veritable orgy of legislative cross-pollination during…

Congressman Ed Pastor of Arizona’s 4th District has joined the ranks of Sand Land politicians calling for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s resignation over the MCSO’s mishandling of more than 400 sex crimes cases in El Mirage, many involving child victims.Today, Pastor’s office released the following statement endorsing plans by some on…

See any “screaming kids” chained to the state Capitol?  Obviously, there’s limited room in New Times’ print edition to attack all the lies, myths, falsehoods, and half-truths promulgated by Governor Jan Brewer in her ghost-written memoir Scorpions for Breakfast. So there was no way for me to catalog and rebut them…

If there were Black Hole of Calcutta for bad sheriffs, is there any doubt that Joe Arpaio would be in it? Arpaio, the biggest un-indicted criminal in Arizona, is responsible for so much malfeasance, illegal activity and human misery, that his Teflon Don persona continues to amaze, even as the nearly…

I kept waiting for her nose to start sprouting. Because when you tell whoppers like Governor Jan Brewer did at the American Legislative Exchange Council’s opening luncheon at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa Wednesday, there really should be some Pinocchio-esque “tell” for those who don’t know better.Brewer’s self-aggrandizing arrogance…

There are some messages so loud and clear that even someone as dense as Arizona’s grammatically-challenged chief executive gets the message.Less than a week after the release of a poll showing Governor Jan Brewer’s disapproval rating at 49 percent, with 32 percent of Sand Land voters willing to recall her…

Should anyone be surprised that Governor Jan Brewer will be one of the keynote speakers at the American Legislative Exchange Council’s big wingding in Scottsdale this week at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa?I’m sure not. Even before ALEC posted the announcement to its website and the governor’s office noted…

According to a new survey by North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling, Arizona Democrats might actually have a shot at beating Republican golden-boy Congressman Jeff Flake in the 2012 race to replace U.S. Senator Jon Kyl. If they nominate former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona instead of ex-Arizona Democratic Party Chair Don…

Man, this drama is getting moldier than a rerun of 21 Jump Street.  This afternoon, the Arizona Supreme Court — for the second time — handed Governor Jan Brewer a big fat loss on her attempt to remove Colleen Mathis, chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, the panel charged…

Christmas came early this year, I thought to myself, as Jerry Lewis, the man who played David to ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce’s Goliath in the Legislative District 18 recall, was sworn in this afternoon on the Senate floor by Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch.Yep, Christmas. And…