As many of you have no doubt learned, the anti-immigrant stunt Sheriff Joe Arpaio was planning that I mentioned in a blog post yesterday, ended up being an MCSO "raid" -- if you can call it that -- on the clothing store Burlington Coat Factory at Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe.
Three were arrested in the raid on suspicion of using false ID to work at the store. Arpaio had cryptically Tweeted about the raid earlier in the day, like a reminder that he was alive. This, as Governor Jan Brewer had her photo-op in the White House with President Barack Obama.
The intent? Likely to get Arpaio's mug on the boob tube, stealing some of Brewer's shine.
The impact? The disruption of a business for a day and the jailing of three employees who were, ahem, working for a living. Wow, some real hardened criminals you got there, Joe.
Above is Dennis Gilman's coverage of the press conference Arpaio did after the fact. Can you imagine how many press conferences the Phoenix Police could have if they did one every time they arrest three people? What a joke.
Or at least it would be a joke, were not average persons hurt by this. Gilman has footage of Yuridia Rodriguez, a legal permanent resident and the wife of one of the poor schmucks hauled in.
She said her husband has been in the country for 15 years, and that they were planning to try and make him legal once she got her citizenship. Rodriguez is currently a student at a local community college. Her husband had been working at the store for three or four years, according to her.
Several news reports, including Gilman's, point out that the Hispanic employees of the store were treated like criminals as the MCSO did the raid, while white employees got a pass. Of course. Did you expect it would go down any other way?
