Thomas Jefferson Would Never Vote for Joe Arpaio

However much I may disagree with Republicans, I respect many of them.

Now, there's no doubt that Republicans have taken a bad rap for George Bush's administration and their screw-ups. But I know many Republicans and I think that they genuinely want to see the true rights of Americans preserved, hence why they are often called "conservatives". 

But if they are in any way concerned about whether or not they are actually true to "conserving" the founding fathers’ principles, they should be aware that Joe Arpaio does not believe in the American Constitution and it is plain that were Thomas Jefferson alive today, he would vote for Dan Saban.

Here’s three reasons why:

 

#1 - No Regard For Habeas Corpus

Effectively, what this means is that even if a President or a Governor or a Sheriff decides that you are getting in the way of his/her politics, they cannot simply have you arrested without reason in an effort to shut you up.

Who says? Well, Tommy Jefferson does:

“The Habeas Corpus secures every man here, alien or citizen, against everything which is not law, whatever shape it may assume.” –Thomas Jefferson

On September 30th, 2008, Randy Parraz, an organizer for the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability, was asked to leave a County Supervisors’ meeting when spoke up about Joe Arpaio in the meeting. When he got outside, Sheriff Joe's officers descended upon him, surrounded him and arrested him  while he was on public property. They shackled his arms and legs and made him walk through a series of tunnels in Phoenix to where he was held for 10 hours and then released under the condition that he agree never to return to the auditorium of the Board of Supervisors. Read more.

#2 - Impeding the Freedom of the Press

"I am... for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the Constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. 

In September 2008, Phoenix New Times journalist Ray Stern went to a public building where Joe Arpaio's goons were photocopying public records. Interested in which records they were, Stern asked for permission to look at them and was told by deputies and later by Arpaio's chief goon, Captain Jim Miller, that he would be arrested if he tried to peek at what they were scanning for the Sheriff. Read More. 

Phoenix New Times Founders were arrested by Joe’s goons in October, 2007 for publishing damning articles about Joe Arpaio that were unquestioningly true, just not very flattering to his public image as “America’s Toughest Sheriff”. The Sheriff had got together with buddy and County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his old employer, special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik and put together subpoenas telling the Phoenix New Times to deliver to them sundry information including the IP addresses of everyone who read the Phoenix New Times from 2004-present. They wanted to know who was reading the New Times, what computers they were on, what web browser they were using and whether the were o Windows, Mac or Linux machies. The founders responded by refusing to expose their readers’ private information and were arrested for it. Andrew Thomas later dropped the charges when they realized they really did not have a case. Read More.

#3 – Cruel and Unusual Punishment

“What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites." –Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.

The country is riveted with Sheriff Joe’s pink underwear and handcuffs. His chain-gangs and Tent City. But what many of these people don’t know about is Scott Norberg, who was arrested by Sheriff Joe’s minions and placed in jail for 15 hours before he was dragged out of his cell, beaten, strapped into a restraint chair and stun-gunned until his larynx cracked and then was suffocated to death with a towel.

What does that mean to you? Well, your tax-dollars paid $8 million to the family of Norberg to settle out-of-court. Isolated incident?

There’s also Richard Post, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic who was arrested for getting mouthy with a man in a bar and demanded - while in jail overight - that he be given a catheter so that he could urinate and so found himself transferred from wheelchair to restraint chair so savagely that MCSO officers broke his neck. He is now quadriplegic.

In 2001, Charles Agster also died in a restraint chair in Arpaio’s jails. The cause of death in these cases is “positional asphyxia” – the same cause of death as crucifixion.

#4 – Racial Profiling 

On this point, I can only say this:

Regarding Arpaio’s blatant abuse of his power in his “crime suppression seeps”, the man is neglecting his duty to find and prosecute criminals with actual arrest warrants in order to persecute people on the basis of the color of their skin whilst so many stand on the sidelines and cheer him on with crude, uneducated rants that “ he is the only one doing his job!” and that “he keeps Americans safe!” To those, I cannot answer because I will be immediately discounted as part of the “Angry Left”. So, let Thomas Jefferson answer it for you:

“He who trades liberty for security deserves neither and will lose both.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

“I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

And a little wisdom from across the pond:

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” – George Bernard Shaw

In Summary 

I remain thoroughly and entirely convinced that Joe Arpaio is a consummately evil human being with nothing in his heart but ill-will to American values. He conserves nothing about the American way of life, he deserves no better treatment than any of his prisoners.

Were I Governor of this State, I would have him brought before a Federal Court and tried for crimes against humanity and deliberate abuse of his office and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. I would have his officers who were also responsible for the deaths of prisoners and wrongful imprisonment of citizens held accountable in a court of law and tried for murder in the case of Scott Norberg and others who died from barbaric and un-American cruel and unusual punishment, I don’t give a rat’s ass if they were ordered to do it

Thomas Jefferson would not vote for Joe Arpaio and neither should you.