As Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues to take it on the chin for various acts of mismanagement and corruption within his department -- which now includes Mexican drug cartels infiltrating the MCSO -- the man who wants his job has some suggestions for the aging sheriff.
Click here for the details of how a one-time member of Arpaio's anti-human-smuggling task force is himself an alleged human smuggler.
For starters, Scottsdale Lieutenant Mike Stauffer -- who has already declared his candidacy to unseat Arpaio -- wouldn't allow the several MCSO officers Arpaio is currently investigating for their suspected ties to Mexican drug cartels to remain on duty.
"In this latest incident, Sheriff Arpaio admitted that he has known
about the human and illicit drug smuggling of these employees for at
least one year, but failed to do anything about it until recently,"
Stauffer says. "In addition, the sheriff casually admitted that there
are a number of other employees under suspicion for these same offenses
that are still on the job. The highest standards of American law
enforcement ethics require employees under this kind of suspicion to be
placed on leave immediately."
Stauffer says that the arrest of two detention officers and one
Immigration and Customs Enforcement-trained deputy is just the latest
mishap in a career of mismanagement and corruption.
"It should be clear by now, Sheriff Arpaio's negligence and extreme
mismanagement of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has yielded yet
another scandal," Stauffer says. "While the sheriff has repeatedly told
us that he is in charge and he alone is keeping crime at bay, his
corrupt leadership has emboldened and encouraged criminal activity at
all levels of MCSO."
In announcing the officers' ties to the cartels, Arpaio patted himself
on the back for not trying to sweep the incident under the rug.
"We came up with the information, and we clean up our own house," America's self-proclaimed "toughest" sheriff grumbled at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
"This sheriff, when something comes to his attention, he doesn't sit back, he takes action," he continued.
Like us, Stauffer disagrees with the sheriff's assessment of his own housekeeping.
"It is clear that Sheriff Arpaio has no intention to clean up the
corrupt environment that he has fostered," he says. "We should no longer
allow Sheriff Arpaio to conduct his cover-ups and blame games and hold
him accountable."
Click here to visit Stauffer's campaign website.