Last Friday’s pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio is yet another manifestation of the blatantly racist and bigoted America that President Trump supports.
This new verse in our administration’s litany of hatred and fear is novel in that it establishes a frightening precedent of legal immunity for any of Trump’s political allies.
Arpaio’s alliance with Trump began in the conspiracy-ridden crucible of the 2012 “birther” movement, during which Arpaio used taxpayer money to send a deputy to Hawaii to investigate the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
During this time, Arpaio was also defying Federal District Judge G. Murray Snow’s orders to cease the racial profiling and detainment of Latinos, which had led to traffic stop activities that targeted Latinos four to nine times as often as other non-Latino populations.
Snow’s inquiry also concluded that inmates with limited English proficiency were more likely to be discriminated against via punishments, with things like cell lockdowns or solitary confinement.
He further stated in the findings that “roughly one-fifth of the reports, almost all of which involved Latino drivers, contained information indicating that the stops were conducted in violation of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable seizures.”
Arpaio’s refusal to rectify these egregious forms of discrimination led him to be convicted for criminal contempt of court. But now with Trump’s pardon, these actions have been entirely absolved and validated.
Arpaio was also infamous for keeping the over-budget and understaffed Tent City jail open, a place Arpaio himself had compared to a concentration camp. The outdoor jail could experience temperatures ranging from 40 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and forced prisoners to watch the Food Channel as they ate the twice-daily meatless meals many referred to as ‘slob.’
Tent City closed in April of this year, but it had remained a ramshackle symbol of American xenophobia and cruelty for over two decades.
Republicans and Democrats were on common ground this past Friday in denouncing Trump’s decision, with people like Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, releasing statements expressing their dismay that the judicial decisions would not be upheld.
Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, tweeted that Trump’s decision “undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law.”
The pardon is in no way illegal—Article Two of the U.S. Constitution allows Trump to pardon anyone for breaking any federal law except in cases of impeachment, and I fear this may be the first of many times our nation sees him abuse this power.
Trump’s decision to announce the pardon as Hurricane Harvey made landfall created a controversy of its own, especially after the president defended his decision at a press conference Aug. 28, saying that “in the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a Friday evening, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they were normally.”
What could have at first been written off as thoughtless timing now appears to be a premeditated decision to hijack the strife of millions of Americans for the sole purpose of massaging his ego with some high television ratings.
His commodification of suffering and disaster demonstrates a callous disregard for Texas and clearly indicates that Trump has forgotten that his duty isn’t to his brand, political allies or spray-tanned image, but to the American people.
No matter what his actions are, the American people will always possess the ability to treat people of all races and nationalities with dignity and respect. May such a power for compassion be used often in today’s world, now more than ever.
jhoffer@indiana.edu
@jhoffer17
