Controversial Sheriff Sued Over Racial Profiling and Discrimination
By: Gerri L. Elder
Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Most people either love him or hate him;there seems to be no middle ground with this controversial character from Maricopa County, Arizona. On July 16, a few more individuals and a Latin American group made it clear where they stand.
Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Maricopa County have been sued by five individuals and Somos America, a Latino community-based coalition. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that they or their members were victims of racial profiling in Maricopa County and that they were unlawfully stopped and mistreated by law enforcement because they are Hispanic.
The class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Arizona on July 16 builds on a complaint originally filed last December. According to a press release, the amended complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and lead counsel Steptoe & Johnson LLP.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that Sheriff Arpaio's policies and practices and those of the county are discriminatory and violate the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Arizona Constitution.
The plaintiffs say that Arpaio stands behind his policy of racial profiling and fully believes that the way a person looks is reason enough for law enforcement to stop and question them about their immigration status. It is no secret that Arpaio has directed his deputies to target people that they believe may be immigrants during "crime suppression sweeps" in Hispanic neighborhoods and in areas where immigrants work as day laborers.
According to the ACLU, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has created a culture of fear in the county through racial profiling. Hispanic people in Maricopa County are worried that any time they leave their homes, they may be stopped and detained by armed officers and end up in jail rather than returning home; and with Arpaio's policies and track record, they have good reason to be worried.
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is a U.S. citizen who was stopped and detained in front of his family's auto repair shop when deputies heard him listening to a Spanish-language radio station.
Local officials and Maricopa residents have complained that Arpaio's conduct and policies go too far and are well beyond the legal authority of the sheriff's department. Many residents believe that Arpaio's desire to enforce federal immigration laws has prevented his office from pursuing serious criminal matters in the county.
Despite all the criticism and the filing of the discrimination and racial profiling lawsuit, Arpaio and his deputies continue to pretend that they are federal immigration officials. In fact, the lawsuit may have added fuel to the fire and caused Arpaio to step up his attempts to enforce federal immigration laws, and therefore increased the racial profiling in Maricopa County. Since the federal government has thus far failed to step in and get Arpaio under control, the ACLU hopes that a court order will.