US to sue sheriff for racial profiling

The US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday its intent to sue the office of Sheriff Joe Arpaio on racial profiling allegations, which he has denied, accusing the federal government of “miscommunication.”

“If they sue, we’ll go to court. And then we’ll find out the real story,” Said Arpaio in a press conference on Wednesday. “There’s lots of miscommunication emanating from Washington.”

The Justice Department released a report last December charging Arpaio’s office of racially profiling Latinos, enforcing immigration regulations based on racially-charged citizen complaints as well as punishing Hispanic prison inmates for speaking Spanish in Arizona’s most populous county.

The Arizona county official has also been accused by the US Justice Department of other civil rights allegations, including the promotion of a “culture of disregard for basic constitutional rights.”

The sheriff’s office is reportedly faced with criticism over some 400 sex-crime probes, including dozens of alleged child molestations, which had not been properly or at all investigated over a three-year period ending in 2007.

Apart from the civil rights investigation, a federal grand jury has also been probing Sheriff Arpaio’s office on criminal abuse-of-power charges since December 2009. The grand jury is also looking into the investigative work by the sheriff’s so-called anti-public corruption squad.

A self-proclaimed ‘toughest sheriff in America,’ Arpaio has reportedly been a national political fixture, building his reputation on jailing suspects in tents and forcing them to put on pink underwear, presenting himself to voters as harshly tough on crime and pushing the limits of how far local police can go in fighting illegal immigration.

MFB/MA

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