Video of Mary Rose Wilcox in D.C. by videographer Dennis Gilman
Telling the crowd at the big immigration rally on Sunday in Washington, D.C. that Sheriff Joe runs Maricopa County like a "police state," county Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox urged listeners to call the U.S. Department of Justice and tell Attorney General Eric Holder to "indict Arpaio."The rally for comprehensive immigration reform drew tens of thousands of people according to the New York Times, including a delegation from Phoenix including Wilcox, attorney Danny Ortega, civil rights activist Salvador Reza, and several members of Reza's Puente Movement.
"[Joe Arpaio] terrorizes our communities," Wilcox informed her audience. "He goes out in sweeps, and he tries to silence all his critics. I know because I was one of them. We spoke out against immigration policies that were repressive, and the sheriff charged me and tried to put me in jail."
Arpaio's name got a round of boos from the crowd, whom Wilcox later led in the chant of, "Indict Arpaio."
On Monday, as I advised they were going to do in a previous blog post, members of the Puente crew protested the U.S. Department of Justice in the rain, chanting, "Holder take over the MCSO," and carrying signs that read, "ICE Complicit with MCSO Crimes" and "Exercise Receivership over MCSO."
The Arizona Republic's Dan Nowicki attended the demonstration and blogged about it for his paper. You can read his account, here. Also, CBS 5 KPHO has some raw footage of the protest, which you can watch, here.
Despite the charges being dropped against Wilcox, you have to give her credit for her stones. Not many politicians are willing to demand Arpaio's indictment, even though he's currently being investigated by a federal grand jury in Phoenix, as well as by the U.S. DOJ's civil rights division.
