Nickel Bag Joe and Candy Andy

I live in Maricopa County, the third largest county by population in the nation. Basically, it encompasses the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is now the fifth largest city in the nation, with a metro area of probably close to five million people. It is by and large a conservative strongpoint, with a long history of Conservative leaders with names like Goldwater, Rhenquist and McCain.

It should be a place which celebrates diversity and cultural significance. Instead, it is more and more becoming a police state ruled by two despicable, petty tyrants. Nickel Bag Joe is the alternative media's nickname for County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in the country", notorious for his Tent City jails, where convicted DUI offenders do their ten days in custody in large canvas tents, broiling in the 115 degree heat while they feast on green bologna sandwiches. They're criminals, right? We shouldn't care about them, right? That's what Nickel Bag Joe is always telling us.

Joe's latest crusade is a self-declared war on illegal immigrants. He has conducted sweeps of Hispanic neighborhoods, arresting illegals and citizens alike, while sorting out the mess later. His storm troopers recently raided the Mesa City Hall building on a fool's errand to arrest so-called illegal immigrants seeking refuge in the building. The reality was there were two illegal immigrants as part of the overnight work crew cleaning the building, but that didn't stop Joe from putting a force together of over 40 sheriff's deputies, who stormed the building during business hours, and detained both employees and citizens alike for no reason whatsoever.

Joe's buddy is Candy Andy, otherwise known as County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Thomas is an ultra-right wing Conservative, who has supported Arapaio to the point of attacking the judiciary. Thomas has declared war on the judges of Maricopa County Superior Court, and is notorious for refusing to show any discretion on cases whatsoever and prosecuting innocent people. Recently, a young black driver was hit by another car, driven by a 19 year-old rich white girl from Scottsdale, who had been drinking all day and was nearly three times over the legal limit. There was no question that she caused the accident, and one of her passengers was killed. The black driver fled the scene, admittedly a major mistake on his part, and he found himself charged with negligent homicide, although he was completely sober, had not caused the accident, and was the driver who had been hit by the other vehicle. The rich white girl? She was only charged with a DUI in municipal court. The media exploded over the case, but Nickel Bag Joe stuck by his deputies' "investigation", and Candy Andy prosecuted the case to the hilt. After two weeks in trial, the black driver was acquitted of all charges except for leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor. He spent a year in jail waiting for his case to come to trial, feasting on Joe's green bologna.

Phoenix has a very brave alternative newspaper, the Phoenix New Times. They did a series of articles on Joe and Andy, very critical and very well-researched. They brought up questions about Joe's million-dollar home, supposedly purchased on his county salary. They questioned land deals, and speculative real estate transactions. What they got for their efforts was a subpoena from Andy and Joe, demanding financial records of the paper, of the paper's founder and chief editor, and get this, email addresses of every one who has ever logged onto the paper's website. That's right, any person who dared to read the New Times online would now be on a list shared by Joe and Andy. Are you kidding me? Is this still America?

The two head honchos at the New Times were outraged by the subpoena and published it online. The result of that was their arrests during the middle of the night, by about a dozen sheriff's deputies each. It must have been the first time in American history that two journalists were arrested in the dead of night by a raiding squad of a dozen deputies and taken to jail for a misdemeanor. It was all over the media the next day, even making the national media, and by the end of the day, Candy Andy called a press conference, blaming the "error" on one of his lackeys, and stated that the charges would be dismissed, and the journalists released.

The real horror of the Joe and Andy show lies in what happens inside Joe's jails. Scores of people have been seriously injured, and even killed, inside the jails. Security and protection are a joke, and the taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill for the numerous wrongful death and abuse lawsuits filed by enraged citizens. I understand that people who drive drunk are a menace and need to serve their time, but do they do deserve to be killed or seriously beaten? One horror story I have read told about a mentally handicapped young man, falsely accused of aggravated assault, who was beaten and eventually killed by other inmates, all under the watchful eyes of Joe's henchmen. After the horrifying murder, the County Attorney's Office admitted that the young man was innocent, the initial crime was committed by another person, and the young man should never have been arrested in the first place. I'll bet his parents felt real good hearing that.

The frightening thing is that Arpaio and Thomas are seemingly untouchable. They do what they want, when they want, and no one has the stones to stop them. We keep waiting for the federal government to step in and stop this horrifying abuse of power, but it never happens. And, of course, the conservative yahoo voters of this county recently re-elected these two monsters. It's simply unbelieveable.

Welcome to Phoenix.