(Please see my update on this story, here.) Someone should consider putting Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s chief deputy, David Hendershott, on a suicide watch. The damning, 63-page memo from Deputy Chief Frank Munnell, first reported on by Joe Dana of Channel 12 News, reads like an indictment of Hendershott and his henchmen, MCSO Director Larry…
According to records provided to special counsel Jeffrey Messing by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s political guru Chad Willems of Summit Consulting Group, Arpaio’s re-election campaign committee spent more than $500,000 in media buys for TV ads and mailers that ultimately benefited Arpaio’s candidate for Maricopa County Attorney, Bill Montgomery. As I…
Looks like Sheriff Joe is ripping off an idea from none other than Arpaio supporter and committed neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. In a press release published today by the MCSO, Arpaio says he intends to commission a volunteer vigilante force to hunt illegal aliens. The release states, “The Sheriff will soon implement his plan…
Score one for the white hats. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s re-election campaign was fined $153,978 Tuesday for financing a mailer advocating the defeat of his arch-nemesis, interim County Attorney Rick Romley. That mailer was to the benefit of Arpaio’s bought-and-paid-for toady Bill Montgomery, the guy who takes over from Romley in November. As you…
If you ask me, journalism needs more Chris Kings I think I’ve discovered the New England version of our own fightin’ Irishman and rogue videographer Dennis Gilman. Either that, or Gilman is the Sand Land version of Chris King, a lawyer/activist who apparently stays hot on the heels of New England…
What’s one to make of the recent back and forth between Maricopa County and sheriff’s office lawyers regarding allegations of spying by the MCSO?The claims came to light in a recent item by Arizona Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett for the Rep’s “Political Insider” blog. The post details a September 10…
I recently obtained paperwork related to the MCSO’s July 30 arrest of Phoenix civil rights leader Salvador Reza. The file is chock full of absurd, asinine attempts by the sheriff’s office to deflect criticism for this outrageous, thuggish collar. One involves Fox 10 News reporter Miriam Garcia. The MCSO report suggests that Garcia relayed crucial information…
It’s been proven over and over again: Governor Jan Brewer’s hysteria and the hysteria of her nativist allies over alleged illegal-alien-perpetrated crime in Arizona is founded on anecdotal evidence, some of it glaringly inaccurate, such as Brewer’s infamous claim that headless bodies have been found in the Arizona desert. That’s a…
It’s Friday. It’s late in the workday. And I’m feeling a little punchy. So I figure it’s the best time to introduce you to the genius that is Minute Man Pete. Minute Man Pete is a proud, Arizona sandbilly who lives in a trailer in Tombstone with his trusty canine “Pedofile.” He…
George Adams’ documentary Panic Nation, which begins a week-long run at Phoenix’s Cinema Latino today, is really two films: one an overview of the United States’ schizophrenic mindset when it comes to Mexican immigration; the other, a detailed examination of Oklahoma’s version of SB 1070 — HB 1804 — which…
Jason Shelton lights one up. Too bad it ain’t a doobie They’re baaaaaack. Yep, like a rash of bed bugs you thought the exterminator had smoked out, the “troofers,” those nutty guys and gals who believe 9/11 was an “inside job” by the Bush administration will be active once again…
All the sturm und drang of the past few days over a Florida pastor’s plans to burn a pile of Qurans on September 11 may have paid off. The AP is now reporting that Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville’s Dove World Outreach Center has canceled the holy book bonfire, claiming that he’s reached a…
Amazing, just amazing how our septuagenarian (soon to be octogenarian) sheriff plays the media — both national and local — like a two-bit plastic ocarina.Well, usually, his handlers do it for him. In this case, it was Chad Willems of Summit Consulting Group, the sleaze who cooked up the anti-Rick Romley ads…
Interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley’s office today announced the arrest and indictment of the man it calls “the worst graffiti vandal in Phoenix,” 27-year-old Joel Delgado, who tagged under the handle “Jugs” or “Jugz.” Actually, I’ve seen worse graffiti, based on some of the photos the C.A. has provided to…
I wonder if Russell Pearce would endorse this Tee?Even though federal Judge Susan R. Bolton enjoined the most dangerous provisions of Arizona’s “breathing-while-brown law” (a.k.a., SB 1070) on July 28, that doesn’t mean Arizona cops are not going to stop you just because you look Latino. Hell, they do that…
A warden, a deputy warden, and a regional director have all been suspended several days without pay as a result of an inmate being kept in an outdoor cage overnight at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Tucson. According to a Department of Corrections investigation of the incident, inmate Elisio…
The Arizona Democratic Party has joined the legions of geeks parodying director Danny Boyle’s 2002 post-apocalyptic horror flick 28 Days Later with this YouTube video envisioning the aftermath of Governor Jan Brewer’s reign.The analogy works pretty well, as Brewer’s recent Clean Elections Debate performance was definitely zombie-like. I suppose the…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office did not review a 3,000 page internal Arizona Department of Corrections investigation into the 2009 cage death of Perryville Prison inmate Marcia Powell.The County Attorney’s office last week declined to prosecute anyone involved in Powell’s heat-related death. The ADC had asked for charges of negligent…
Props to the campaign of governor-wannabe and current Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. This latest YouTube video from the Goddard camp body-slams Governor Jan “We Have Did” Brewer on her bogus statements about headless bodies in the Arizona desert. Looks like Goddard’s ready to go into cage fighter mode. (I know,”Terry?”…
Recently, someone e-mailed me asking if the aged, stone-faced action hero Steven Seagal, who stars in Robert Rodriguez’s Mexican-immigration revenge flick Machete as a badass drug lord, was one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “special deputies.” You know, like Lou Ferrigno, Ted Nugent, and other lesser lights.I told the e-mailer I…
Dennis Gilman’s simple suggestion for a Goddard attack adNo use belaboring a point: Governor Jan Brewer’s a colossal idiot. How did this hillbilly queen become governor? Oh, that’s right, she lucked into the job once ex-Gov. Janet Napolitano skipped Sand Land to become the Obama administration’s official border hawk and…
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today reversed the 2008 conviction of No More Deaths activist Dan Millis for placing gallon jugs of drinking water on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona.Millis was cited for “littering” in February of 2008 by U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers after he…
