10/05/2012 - Myclipp

The New York Times/ - Politics, Qui, 10 de Maio de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Civil Rights)
Justice Department Sues Arizona Sheriff
PHOENIX — The Justice Department on Thursday
sued Joe Arpaio, a prominent Arizona sheriff known for
his crackdowns aimed at rounding up illegal
immigrants, accusing him of discrimination and
retaliating against his critics. The move, in an election
year, escalated a politically charged fight over local
enforcement of federal immigration laws and the civil
rights of Latinos.In a 32-page civil rights lawsuit
against Mr. Arpaio and his Maricopa County Sheriff’s
Office, the Justice Department contended that Mr.
Arpaio’s campaign against illegal immigration —
including traffic stops and sweeps of homes and
workplaces — had resulted in a “pattern or practice of
unlawful discrimination” aimed at Latinos. Mr. Arpaio’s
focus on immigration enforcement has eroded the
relationship between law enforcement and the Latino
community here, with Latinos growing increasingly
wary of cooperating with the authorities when they are
victims or witnesses of crimes. The lawsuit also argues
that the resources devoted to the sweeps have
required the sheriff’s office to put a lower priority on
traditional local law enforcement responsibilities, like
investigating rapes and domestic violence. "The United
States is not seeking, and has never sought, monetary
damages or attorney's fees in connection with our
case," Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for
the Justice Department's civil rights division, said in a
news conference here. The goal, Mr. Perez said, is "to
fix the problems" and to "ensure that the necessary
policies, practices and oversight are in place" to
prevent them from happening again. The conduct of
the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Mr. Arpaio “is
neither constitutional nor effective law enforcement,”
the Justice Department argued in court papers. “The
defendants’ violations of the Constitution and laws of
the United States are the product of a culture of
disregard for Latinos that starts at the top and
pervades the organization.” Mr. Arpaio has waged an
increasingly bitter dispute with the Obama
administration, including questioning the president’s
birth certificate and portraying the civil rights
investigation as politicized. In a pre-emptive strike, Mr.
Arpaio’s office released on Wednesday a 17-page plan
that promises to “establish and maintain specific
bias-free law enforcement and detention” through
better training and comprehensive policies. Portraying
his agency as poorly trained and supervised, the
lawsuit contends that its roughly 900 deputies are far
more likely to stop and search Latinos than others – a
sort of “detain first, ask questions later” approach that
has led to roundups of people whose names are not
listed in warrants. It cites many examples, including a
woman of Hispanic descent who was held in custody
for four hours before she was able to prove she had
been born in the United States. Meanwhile, the roughly
1,800 officers in the county jail system have a “culture
of bias” against Latinos, whom they frequently refer to
as “wetbacks” and “stupid Mexicans,” the complaint
said. It said it was routine for department employees to
circulate e-mails displaying bias against Latinos, like a
picture of a Chihuahua in swimming gear and
captioned “A Rare Photo of a Mexican Navy Seal.” The
federal government and Arizona officials have been
feuding on many fronts about immigration
enforcement. State officials contend that the federal
government has failed to police the southwestern
border, leading to a flood of illegal immigrants who
have strained state services and created a host of
problems. The Supreme Court is weighing a federal
challenge to a 2010 Arizona law that requires state law
enforcement officials to determine the immigration
status of people they stop and suspect are not in the
United States legally. But even by Arizona’s standards,
Mr. Arpaio, a media-savvy figure who is known as
“Sheriff Joe,” has been aggressive. The Justice
Department’s investigation of his policing practices
began during the Bush administration. It eventually
stalled, and in 2010 the Obama administration filed a
lawsuit to compel the department to cooperate,
including interviewing more than 400 people and
reviewing thousands of pages of documents.In
December, the Justice Department released a highly
critical report laying out the alleged violations by Mr.
Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. The
department moved to negotiate a settlement, but Mr.
Arpaio eventually refused to acquiesce to its demand
to place a monitor in his office, saying it would give the
federal government too much power over a local law
enforcement agency.In a letter to Mr. Arpaio on
Wednesday, Justice Department officials notified him
of the impending lawsuit, saying that an agreement
"could not be resolved through voluntary means."
While most such cases end in a settlement, the bitter
standoff suggests that it may take a trial to resolve the
matter, at which the federal government would have to
submit evidence to prove its claims of intentional bias
against Latinos. The complaint sketched the outlines of
such a case, including a study in 2011 that found that
Hispanic drivers in Maricopa County were between
four and nine times as likely to be stopped as
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