Joe Arpaio’s Gulags on Lockdown for Candlelight Vigil

Yep, you read the headline right. Because a group of interfaith leaders and activists plan a candlelight vigil near Tent City on Saturday, June 23, starting at 8 p.m., “America’s toughest most cowardly sheriff” will be placing his vast incarceration complex on lockdown for the day, preventing inmates from receiving…

Joe Arpaio Hides as Randy Parraz and CBAers Pizza Party It Up

Randy Parraz and his merry band of activists from Citizens for a Better Arizona celebrated their success at Wednesday’s Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting with a pizza party…at Sheriff Joe’s place.By Joe’s place, I mean Arpaio’s executive suite of offices on the 19th Floor of the Wells Fargo Building…

Joe Arpaio Denied Birther Donations, Randy Parraz Blasts Andy Kunasek

Parraz skewers Kunasek like an Easter lambAll I’ve got to say is, “Wow.” Check out this YouTube video from Santiago James Chavez of Citizens for a Better Arizona’s Randy Parraz going mano-a-mano today with Maricopa County Supervisor Andrew Kunasek. This, over a proposal to accept donations to pay for Sheriff…

Ken Bennett Courts Ridicule with More Birther Nonsense

The fun begins around 6:55 inWhat in tarnation is wrong with Ken Bennett? Before he drank the birther Kool-Aid, then publicly spat it up, Arizona’s Secretary of State was regarded as a moderate Republican with a lick of common sense.But a month after the flap over Bennett’s asking the state of Hawaii to…

SB 1070 Decision: Why Local Talking Heads Don’t Know Squat

Anyone, and I mean anyone, who tells you with certainty the precise day that the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its opinion on Arizona’s breathing-while-brown statute Senate Bill 1070, is full of something that rhymes with the word “twit.”I wish I had a dime for every journo, TV talking head…

Joe Arpaio and MCSO Did Not Arrest a 6-Year-Old

Despite what you may have heard — and how Joe Arpaio-ish it sounds — Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies did not arrest a 6-year-old on Friday.MCSO spokesman Chris Hegstrom tells New Times deputies arrested 16 people during a human-smuggling operation, but the 6-year-old found in the van wasn’t one of them.”We’re…

Obama Blocks DREAMers’ Deportations, Outflanks GOP

Republicans are stumbling all over themselves to denounce President Barack Obama’s executive action today to block the deportation of students who would benefit from the proposed DREAM Act. And in doing so, they’re bumbling right into the trap the White House has laid for them. Obama’s move, initially announced with…

Russell Pearce To Bash Mexicans at Mexican Restaurant

Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., just about all of the anti-Mexican bigots in Arizona politics are scheduled to be in the same place: at the Macayo’s Mexican Kitchen on Central Avenue in Phoenix, raising money for disgraced, recalled ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce.So beware a run on white…

Joe Arpaio’s Latest Dead Latino: Raymond Farinas (w/Update)

Channel 3’s report on Farinas’ death Given Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s track record when it comes to dead inmates, it’s difficult not to anticipate foul play in the death of Raymond Farinas, the latest Latino to die in MCSO custody. Particularly when Arpaio-victim Marty Atencio’s family just filed notices of claim…

Joe Arpaio Lawyers: Discriminating Against Spanish-Speakers Doesn’t Violate Civil Rights

Lawyers for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio responded to the Justice Department’s lawsuit alleging racial discrimination by the Sheriff’s Office by, not surprisingly, asking that the suit be tossed.You would expect that answering allegations of the worst racial-profiling tactics in the country’s history would require an interesting response, and Arpaio’s legal team…