You’ll recall that in November, I reported that MCSO deputies had admitted under oath to destroying documents requested by the plaintiffs in the big Melendres vs. Arpaio racial profiling lawsuit now in federal court. In an excerpt of a deposition made public as part of a request for sanctions against…

Yesterday, I spoke with Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which is currently investigating civil rights violations by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies. Though he would not confirm the fact that a team from the DOJ has been in town this week…

What a difference a couple of days make. Less than 72 hours ago, members of the pro-immigrant community in Phoenix were kvetching to me about the lack of follow-through on the part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. As I reported in my column this week, activists…

As I’ve been on deadline the last couple of days, I haven’t been able to comment on Nightline’s recent, two-pronged report on Sheriff Joe, the second part of which I enjoyed immensely. That segment dealt mostly with Arpaio’s abuses in the jails and made specific reference the 1996 death of…

Nightline’s piece on our corrupt top constable runs tonight — you know, the one ABC was working on when they sent Nightline talking head Martin Bashir to Phoenix to cover one of Arpaio’s anti-immigrant sweeps last month. The speculation at the time was that Arpaio had coordinated the sweep with the aim of providing…

Chicanos Por La Causa officials and their supporters held a press conference today to blast the MCSO’s recent day-long raid on CPLC’s headquarters in Phoenix. CPLC CEO Edmundo Hidalgo and attorney Danny Ortega, Board Chair of the National Council of La Raza, were joined by the leaders of organizations such…

Though I didn’t make Dennis Burke’s swearing in as the new U.S. Attorney for Arizona yesterday, I did make the after-party — a reception at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in downtown Phoenix. The reception, sponsored by Congressman Ed Pastor and Phoenix political consultant Ronnie Lopez, was attended by…

The nativists talked a big game on the United for a Sovereign America Web site, calling for a protest of two Applebee’s restaurants in Phoenix that were participating in a fundraiser for Sal Reza’s Macehualli Work Center. But other than harassing the employees and customers of the two locations, the…

Like a lot of anti-Arpaio activists in town, videographer Dennis Gilman has been helping the U.S. Department of Justice gather evidence of abuse of power and racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. He’s provided them with a massive amount of video that he and others have culled while…

After a year of debate and study amongst its 20 panel members, the University of Denver’s Strategic Issues Program released a final report today titled “Architecture for Immigration Reform,” which provides an honest assessment of America’s immigration dilemma along with detailed suggestions for guiding U.S. immigration policy.There’s much to like about the…

Phoenix human rights activist Sal Reza’s Macehualli Day Labor Center at 25th Street and Bell Road is in dire financial straits, and you can help by eating at one of two Applebee’s locations Thursday, December 10. As part of Applebee’s Dining to Donate program, the Phoenix restaurants at 2 East Camelback…

As that great Phoenix philosopher Fronzo “the Fonz” West once asked in a riddle worthy of a Buddhist koan, “How do you call the cops on the cops?” Here in Mari-Kafka County, the problem’s compounded by the fact that one of the most corrupt law enforcement agencies in the nation…

The Goldwater Institute can be reactionary on various issues, particularly when it comes to denouncing President Obama on health care reform, siding with the tea bag types or rah-rahing charter schools. Hell, it ain’t named after the late Senator Barry Goldwater for nothin’.Still, you have to give G.I. props for…

I’ve often fantasized about an anti-Joe Arpaio art show utilizing the talents of the Phoenix art community, a show that would address the ongoing repression and tyranny here in Marikafka County (as some call it) in specific, and our beloved state of Ari-bama, in general. I’ve even promoted the idea…

Because I was upstairs at the Cronkite School building this past Monday watching Sheriff Joe get blistered by the journalism profs, then sung off the stage by the Freddie Mercury impersonators, I missed all the action taking place on the ground floor. There, a peaceful revolt was in full swing, with the anti-Joe…

There’s beaucoup speculation out there about the location of MCSO detention officer Adam Stoddard, the poor, poor deputy (sniff) who’s been jailed for contempt of court by Judge Gary Donahoe following Stoddard’s refusal to apologize for his videotaped swiping of a public defender’s docs right off her desk.My colleague Sarah…

Whenever Congressman Ron Paul shuffles off this mortal coil, he’ll have no dearth of hagiographers. Indeed, he already has plenty, like the makers of the documentary For Liberty, who have produced a slavish, worshipful portrait of the man and the movement that will be screened at Tempe’s Harkins Valley Art…