Why President Trump was Right to Pardon Sheriff Joe

In the midst of some truly extraordinary weather, Trump continued to do his job. Part of that was pardoning Sherriff Joe Arpaio. According to the left, President Trump tried to hide this decision (that he publicly announced on Twitter) under the bigger news of hurricane Harvey. They have wasted no time compiling a complete character assassination of Arpaio in an attempt to further obstruct literally anything that Trump does. According the liberals, Arpaio’s pardon (which probably saved him about six months in jail) was a crime against humanity. Let’s go ahead and address their top complaints and see how bad this situation really is.

The Tent City

Critics of the tent city claim it was an unconstitutional concentration camp that subjected inmates to torturous temperatures exceeding 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Ok. Let’s start with the legality of the camp. It was supported by the Arizona state government. Eventually, federal courts ruled that it needed to be shut down at which point it was. As for being a concentration camp, this was hardly a collection of political prisoners. In fact, it had roughly the same racial representation as any prison in America. It was simply an attempt to cope with dramatically overpopulated prisons, and it worked quite well.

In regards to the heat, there is no denying that Phoenix has some scorching summers. That said, the hottest temperature ever recorded by humans is 134 degrees in Death Valley in 1910. This recording predates modern methodologies, so the hottest official temperature on human record is 129 degrees. Arizona has almost matched this with a record temperature of 128 degrees in Lake Havasu City in 1994. The inmates did face hot weather, but it was the same hot weather faced by the guards and staff, and it is nothing new to residents of Arizona. Once again, the liberals have been caught in a bit of hyperbole.

Ignoring Sex Crimes

The Huffington Post has accused Sherriff Arpaio of routinely ignoring victims of sex crimes. In fact, they cited that his office failed to investigate as many as 32 individual cases. That might sound bad until you really think about it. He was sheriff for 23 years of a county with more than 4 million residents. The FBI suggests that between 2 and 5 percent of all sex crime accusations are false, and an even larger percentage of cases are impossible to investigate from a simple lack of evidence. It doesn’t mean the police doubt the testimony of the victims, but if there isn’t enough to work with, an investigation is actually impossible. So, consider that Arpaio’s department was responsible for investigating around 40,000 crimes a year. In 23 years, that’s over 900,000 investigations. They only failed to follow up on 32? That sounds downright impressive.

The Actual Crime

Now let’s get down to why an 85-year-old man was facing jail time. As sheriff, Arpaio followed a long number of changing laws. In 2007, Arizona passed laws that called for more aggressive responses to illegal immigration. Arpaio followed those orders and actually made a dent in the problem. A federal court order deemed the actions unconstitutional and ordered Arpaio to stop. The state of Arizona fought that injunction and ordered Arpaio (and others) to continue. This went back and forth for several years, and at the end of it Arpaio was charged with civil contempt of court.

In the midst of the changing rules, he favored the orders that came from Arizona, rather than federal courts, and the federal courts decided to stick it to him. So far, everything was pretty reasonable, but a federal judge decided he was unsatisfied with civil charges, so he tagged Arpaio with criminal contempt. The case was seen by a different federal judge who found Arpaio guilty without him ever being before a jury.

Read that again. An American citizen was charged and convicted of a federal crime without being brought before a jury.

This is the basis for Trump’s pardon. Arpaio could appeal the clearly unconstitutional trial, but the process would still leave him in jail. Trump has made the only moral and constitutional choice available by righting an obvious wrong in the criminal justice system.

It’s confusing, really. There are plenty of real human criminals that the left could demonize for their crusades. Instead, they continue to pick stupid, illogical fights that can’t possible net them anything. Their determination to remain outraged at everything in this country has lost its grip on reality, and they seem convicted to self-destruct.

Joe Arpaio was re-elected for 20 years because he served his community well. He was faced with countless impossible decisions, and by the end of that career he maintained an impressive record. For those keeping score, Arpaio’s Phoenix was one of the safest major metropolitan areas in the country for more than two decades.

~ American Liberty Report


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