Al Sharpton Takes On Arizona Sheriff
The Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday called for opponents of an Arizona sheriff who has aggressively cracked down on illegal immigration to videotape alleged racial profiling by the sheriff’s office.
The civil rights leader said the videos will help the U.S. Department of Justice in an investigation of alleged civil rights abuses by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office. Sharpton was scheduled to meet with Arpaio later in the day.
“We’re gonna start some freedom rides around this county, to show how people of a certain skin color are treated different than other people,” Sharpton told a crowd of several hundred people at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix.
The meeting Friday joins two figures known for outsized egos and media antics, but Sharpton said it had a serious message. In April, Sharpton called for Arpaio to resign or be removed from office.
“I will not fly all the way across country to engage in the personality of Sheriff Joe,” Sharpton said. “But I will fly anywhere to protect the rights of Citizen Jose and Citizen Jamal.”
Critics said sheriff’s deputies have racially profiled people during immigration and crime sweeps in some Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix.
“You cannot have law enforcement that is based on skin color rather than proper deeds,” Sharpton said. “If I break the law, arrest me. But don’t make me a suspect because of the color of my skin, or because of my language.”
Arpaio had said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.
The sheriff has taken a hard line against illegal immigration and strongly enforces Arizona’s employer-sanctions law, which punishes businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. He worked with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas to use the state’s human-smuggling law to charge illegal immigrants for conspiring to smuggle themselves into the state.
The sheriff has publicly clashed with other local law enforcement who said Arpaio was damaging a delicate relationship between the police and the Hispanic community.
Famous Gay African-Americans
Comments
8
% %
I work for the Office of Community Orientated Policing Services, and I see first hand the crime statistics and Joe Arpaio is truly a visionary. In Arpaio’s county crime has gone down because he deals with the illegals head on. He stops them BEFORE they do their dirt then run back over the border with no restitution. They even did interviews with his inmates in Arpaio’s “Camps” and they spoke of how they never wanted to be back in there. So Arpaio IS reforming these criminals and doing his job. Arpaio’s motto is when his inmates complain that it’s ‘TOO Hot”; “Well the soldiers in Iraq didn’t do anything wrong and they deal with the heat, so you can too!” I am of mixed descent and I look Hispanic and you know what profile me all day if I’m not doing anything wrong and I have a state ID what do I got to worry about? It’s refreshing that Arpaios’ passion to fight this domestic war head on by letting it be known we will NOT tolerate illegals!
This is a good blog foreal.
yea i live in az too and i dont like the sheriff he acts all hard and big and bad on tv to make people fear him maybe Al will make a worthy oppenent for him
Well i live in AZ and its crazy. I am from South Carolina and they treat the Hispanic population the way the police treat us blacks in SC. In South Carolina if you drove a nice car with nice rims your a drug dealer and they are quick to pull you over. Here that doesnt matter. If you look Hispanic, your considered illegal and they are all over you. I am African American but I favor a lot of Hispanics here so I cant win or lose. I support some of what the sheriff does because majority of crimes here in Arizona are caused by illegals. Then on the other hand I know what these Hispanics feel by being profiled. Maybe there is another way of going about this then his unannounced crime sweeps, but then when a innocent person is killed by an illegal, we are all shouting justice?
Silly negroes..Rev Al has been on the frontlines standing up for us for decades, and there are fools hating on him…I guess people think things are great now that we have a Black Prez…well these racists are stepping their game up now, and the only one who is going to be brave enough to stand up in thr face of thst is Rev Al…
keep doin your thing al that wrong with some of us now we give up to funkin quick an bash each other keep talkin f**k these white folks cause things that dont sound good all the tyme u will see n the future come to light
he has nothing better to do now he can no longer make money playing the race card when it comes to blacks i noticed since obamas been elected the news channels dont bother putting him are jesse on thank god.
I think AL, is going to far now these are the people who has this country in the situation it in now working for cheap labor and living in a apartment with 20 people like in New Jersey. Iam on the Sheriff side this time.