While Texas braces for a major disaster, El Presidente pardons an unmitigated asshole.
---
As documented by federal investigators, Latinos living in Maricopa County during Arpaio's reign as sheriff from 1993 to 2016 suffered abuse and discrimination. They were four- to nine-times more likely to be pulled over in traffic stops, often for no good reason. One legal U.S. resident stopped in 2008 for not using his turn signal was jailed for 13 days before the case was dismissed.
The sheriff, who was finally voted out of office last year, was famous for housing inmates in a sweltering tent city. Spanish-speaking inmates picked up on immigration sweeps served harsh time in Arpaio's jails. Detention officers cursed at them in Spanish.
The federal investigators found that a "wall of distrust" between a harassed Latino community and the sheriff's department hampered police investigations. Hundreds of sexual assault and **09** molestation cases went unsolved where many of the victims appeared to be Latino.
Despite all this, Trump said of Arpaio: “He has protected people from crimes and saved lives. He doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”
In fact, just the opposite is true. Latinos taken into custody were abused, and hundreds of crimes, many against children, were unsolved. This is the kind of person worthy of a pardon?
"Joe Arpaio didn't deserve a pardon" - USA Today, 8/25/17
---
The specific charge that Arpaio was due to be sentenced for was contempt of court for violating a 2011 court order from U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow to stop detaining people on the mere suspicion that they were in the country illegally. Two years later, Snow concluded that Arpaio's deputies were using race as a factor in their policing, and ordered a sweeping review of their policies. Arpaio defied those orders for almost a year and a half. According to trial testimony, 171 people were illegally detained by Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies.
While it is indeed within the power of the president to issue pardons, this one completely dispensed with Justice Dept. guidelines: The conviction wasn't five years old, Arpaio showed ZERO remorse, and he hadn't even asked for the pardon. Also, there's a standard process for issuing a pardon, which usually requires seven layers of review and an FBI background check.
"This is just the most in-your-face gesture imaginable for the pardon power," said Mark Rozell, dean of the public policy school at George Mason University and a pardon scholar. "We're going to pardon someone who hasn’t admitted that what he's done is a crime, and has shown no remorse."
Trump also bypassed 2,270 other pending applications for pardons, most of which have been waiting for years.