First, there is this video showing that Arpaio's men used a Taser on a Latino military veteran who later died in their custody.
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The timeline said Atencio was brought to the jail at about 1 a.m. by Phoenix police, who had arrested him earlier on suspicion of assault.
The Phoenix officers began to have problems with him at 1:11 a.m., but the real trouble began at 2:34 a.m., near the end of the booking process. The sheriff’s timeline said that’s when a “physical altercation” with Phoenix police officers ensued.
An excerpt of video, broadcast by Phoenix TV station KPNX and embedded below, shows Atencio talking to officers, then folding his arms and backing up against a wall. Officers then grabbed him and began to wrestle him to the ground. At least 10 officers combined from both agencies can be seen in the room.
Two minutes into the struggle, according to the sheriff’s timeline, a Maricopa County detention officer used a Taser on Atencio “in order to gain compliance.” Arpaio’s office did not release the name of the officer.
Atencio was apparently subdued by the electric shock, but the sheriff’s office said he was still conscious and making comments about killing himself after that.
Because of the comments, the sheriff’s office said Atencio was searched, stripped and put into a “safe cell” at 2:41 a.m. The agency said he continued to talk as officers and medical staff left the cell.
The video, however, shows that Atencio remained on the floor in the same position they left him for the next 11 minutes.
When medical staff checked on Atencio again at 2:52 a.m., they found he was unresponsive and began using CPR and other methods to try to keep him alive. He was later taken to St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix in critical condition.
Fresh on the heels of that video is a judge's decision that any Latino stopped by Arpaio's thugs after January 1, 2007, can sue as part of a class action lawsuit.
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U.S. District G. Murray Snow ruled today that any Hispanic stopped by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies since January 1, 2007 -- or will be stopped in the future -- can sue the Sheriff's Office in a class-action lawsuit. The ruling in the Melendres racial-profiling case also enjoins the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office from stopping people based on a suspicion that they might be violating one aspect of the state's human-smuggling law, or any other law.
__________________ In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie...
PHOENIX — A judge overseeing a lawsuit that alleges racial profiling in Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s immigration patrols issued punishments against the agency on Friday for its acknowledged destruction of records in the case.
The punishments issued by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow came in the form of “adverse inferences” against Arpaio’s office that the judge may consider when deciding the case’s facts.
The judge, for instance, may assume that among the destroyed documents were citizen complaints — some of which were racially charged and didn’t allege actual criminal activity — that requested immigration patrols in spots where the sheriff’s office later conducted patrols.
Shredding documents now? Shades of Oliver North? This clown has become a cartoon of everything that is wrong with the right wing and the Tea Party.
__________________ In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie...
Can't have a Sheriff, highest law enforcement in a county, not acquiescing to Washington rule.
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What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. ... The origin of myths is explained in this way.
Can we please talk again about the time that Joe Arpaio spent massive amounts of money and resources conducting that sting where he lured a guy to Maricopa County with promises of having miniature horses urinate on some shirts so that he could wear them back home in Pennsylvania?
Can we just talk about that forever?
Can we send Joe Arpaio to jail and make him wear those shirts himself, or would he like that too much?
Can we commission a massive oil painting depicting the event? And then make high resolution scans of it freely available under a creative commons license, so that people can get it printed on billboards and sheet cakes, and eventually, Joe Arpaio's tombstone?
Everytime I see a post in this or the Giuliani thread I think, “Is he dead yet?”
Both seem like they’ve have a foot in the grave for awhile now, yet continue as if animated by evil magic.