Sheriff Joe Arpaio SLAMS Obama Administration. "Now It's Time to Take The Gloves Off"

 

The U.S. Department of Justice led by Attorney General Stedman Graham  Eric Holder filed suit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio today alleging that his department was refusing to cooperate with an investigation into whether it discriminated against Latinos while trying to enforce immigration laws.


Sheriff Joe not one to "take a punch," hit back at the Administration calling the DOJ back stabbers and saying that it was about time that America see this administration for what it really was "Calculating, underhanded at times and certainly not looking out for the best interests of the legal citizens residing in this country."  Along with the Sheriff's statement, his lawyer issued a statment saying that they had indeed been cooperating with the DOJ

"The Obama administration has filed three lawsuits against Arizona in the last few weeks ... one against a college district, one against the state of Arizona and now one against my office. Each lawsuit centers on something to do with alleged racial discrimination.

These actions make it abundantly clear that Arizona, including this Sheriff, IS Washington's new whipping boy. Now it's time to take the gloves off.

As for today's lawsuit against my office: These people in Washington met with my attorneys only a few days ago. And in that meeting, Washington got our cooperation; they admitted they already have thousands of pages of the requested documents; and they were given access to interview my staff and get into my jails. They smiled in our faces and then stabbed us in the back with this lawsuit. The Obama administration intended to sue us all along, no matter what we did to try to avert it.

Washington isn't playing fair and it's time Americans everywhere wake up and see this administration for what it really is. Calculating, underhanded at times and certainly not looking out for the best interests of the legal citizens residing in this country. "

 Sheriff Joe's attorney, Bob Driscoll added this written statement

"Today's lawsuit by the Department of lustice is part of a deliberate media strategy to "get tough" on Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and undermine immigration enforcement by a local Sheriff who is trying desperately to make up for this Administration's own indifference to the topic.

The DOl suit speaks loudly by what it does not say. It does not allege that Sheriff Arpaio or the MCSO have discriminated against anyone because the DOl, after 18 months of soliciting allegations against Sheriff Arpaio, has come up empty. Even the purported basis for the suit, which alleges a lack of "cooperation," is a sham.

In fact, after meeting with the DOl last week, just last Friday, on behalf of MCSO, I informed the DOl that MCSO would cooperate with all reasonable document requests and would schedule tours of MCSO facilities and interviews with senior MCSO command staff. We were awaiting a response from DOl, and this lawsuit is apparently it.

Clearly DOl is more interested filing its third lawsuit in as many weeks against Arizona defendants than in looking into the allegations that purportedly gave rise to its investigation. This lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to obscure the fact that DOl still has no case. Today's suit over documents does not change that."

Its interesting to note, while the case of the New Black Panthers who tried to intimidate voters from entering a polling place in Philadelphia was dropped,  an action against ACORN who systematically committed voter fraud across the country was never filed, and the case against the terrorists who attacked the USS Cole was put on hold, the Justice department has filed suit against a man who who was enforcing the law.

The administration wants to make an example of Sheriff Joe because he represents everything they are fighting against, protecting America's borders. Arpaio became sort of a cult figure for zealously enforcing the law especially against people who come into the US illegally. His reward came in March 2009 when he got a letter from the justice department informing that he was under investigation for "patterns" of discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures. Even before they started investigating the Sheriff the DOJ tried to take away his authority to enforce immigration laws.


This action is more than an attempt to stop Arpaio, it an attempt to silence any other Sheriff who dares to protect their citizens from harm.