Have you checked out the Desert Politics show on KPHX? Sheriff Joe’s Chief Deputy may be a secret fan.
Posted by: Donna
Yesterday, I caught Todd Landfried (Maricopa Democratic Party Exec. Dir.) as he interviewed Joel Robbins on KPHX (1480am). Robbins is an attorney who specializes in civil rights cases. He’s also a former College Republican, who says he votes a straight Democratic ticket these days. He represented Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban in a recent lawsuit that, strangely, garnered little publicity, considering it involved Showboatin’ Sheriff Joe.
The lawsuit stemmed from an incident in 2004, when Saban was running against Arpaio in the GOP primary. Saban alleged that Arpaio used his office to defame him by leaking information about a pending investigation to a local TV news station. On the show, Robbins laid out the whole sordid tale. Blatant conflict of interest, overzealous and inappropriate behavior by the Sheriff’s Department in conducting an investigation, and malicious character assasination of an opponent through the media.
To anyone familiar with the real Sheriff Joe, this is no surprise. The litany of scandals, allegation of corruption and abuse, lawsuits, etc, grows with each year he is in office. Unfortunately, most people are familiar with Media Darling Joe. He still enjoys tremendous popularity, due to his skillful manipulation of the media and because appearance too often trumps substance. Petty criminals being fed rotten food and paraded in pink underwear and having Lou Dobbs fawn over your County Sheriff is apparently an adequate substitute for actual safety for many, I guess. Me, I’m kind of a stickler for empirical evidence. You know, things like a measurable reduction in the crime rate and recidivism. I’d kinda like to see the 45,000 outstanding felony warrants in Maricopa County actually being served. And maybe the millions spent to maintain Champagne Joe’s lavish office, personal security details, and various expensive accoutrements dedicated to his ego-enhancement could be better spent. Like on law enforcement. Let’s not even start on the bill to Maricopa taxpayers for his lawsuits.
Listen to the podcast, it’s well worth the investment of 48 minutes of your time. Near the end, 43 minutes and 15 seconds into it to be exact, you will hear a call from a concerned citizen, “John from Phoenix”. “John” wants to know about a $3800 fine that Robbins had to pay the judge. ”John” sounded suspiciously like Dave Hendershott, Sheriff Joe’s number two man. Oh, and Robbins pretty much owned “John” in his response.
As for Dan Saban, he is challenging Arpaio again in 2008. He’s a great guy and will be a terrific sheriff. He didn’t win the lawsuit, due to the narrow parameters the jury was given in their instructions on what constitutes defamation, but some of the jurors polled said that what they learned about Arpaio caused them to rethink him and that they were supporting Saban in the upcoming election. Check out his website and support him in any way you can.
And listen to Desert Politics! Saturdays at 1pm on KPHX 1480AM.
Donna
3 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
A little off topic, but, don’t you think its more than a little mysoginistic that the MCSO uses pink underwear to shame their inmates? Like the worst thing that could happen to you is that you’re feminized.
Spell-check has left me incapable of spelling on my own. I meant misogynistic.
Robbins goes over that on the radio show. Turns out it wasn’t even a brilliant scheme on the part of Arpaio to emasculate his inmates. What happened was that in the laundry one day some kind of dye got into the machine and turned everything pink. I’m sure it had that shameful effect at the beginning but I’m told now that inmates regard it almost as a badge of honor now.
Wonder if they make the women wear pink underwear? Oh wait, they film them on the toilet. :(