WOOOOO!!! RETIRING JOE ARPAIO'S PROFILE!
On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of former Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the man who has embodied a bigoted, corrupt, and aberrant image of "justice" for Maricopa County for decades. During his lengthy tenure, Arpaio oversaw a prolific amount of inmate deaths in Arizona’s prisons, looked the other way and not investigated hundreds of rapes and child molestations in the town of El Mirage, buddied up to xenophobic militia groups and illegal immigrant patrols (travelling down to the border and far outside his jurisdiction to do so) and has been investigated by the Department of Justice and been discovered to have pervasive racism throughout his department. The self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” prides himself on cruelty, bigotry, and ignorance, trying to overcome the $140 million in lawsuits (you read that right, $140 MILLION) that have been filed against him, including for letting actor Steven Seagal drive a SWAT tank into a residence on a reality TV show and killing the homeowners’ puppy, through publicity stunts to appease his more racist constituents, like an “investigation” into President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. His persona of being "tough on crime" is more important to him than actually serving and protecting the populace he is elected to, and he has vindictively battled against any political figure who has even dared to suggest that more oversight or transparency into his department is needed (he won't disclose what taxpayer dollars are actually spent on in the MCSO). Arpaio was found guilty of racial profiling after the Department of Justice investigation into his department, had deputies testify that he ordered them to defy the orders of federal judges and continue racist policies, and after being found guilty, was caught during the appeal process hiring private investigators to shadow the judge’s wife and try to find something he might be able to blackmail him with. He admitted doing this under oath, but Sheriff Joe had the audacity to try and declare that now the judge was “biased” and should be taken off the case a month later. Shortly after Donald Trump made his announcement for president and said that Mexicans coming across the U.S. border were “criminals and rapists”, Joe Arpaio came to his defense, and said that criticism of Trump amounted to “violating his First Amendment rights”… which isn't how freedom of speech works, Sheriff, but hey, what can you expect from a man who once arrested the publishers of the Phoenix New Times for writing stories about corruption in his department that he didn’t like? Now, some people might have wondered why CSGOPOTD has focused on a county sheriff on a yearly basis. Well, let's put it this way... not only has Arpaio been a bane on civil rights, and embraced racial profiling as standard policy during his tenure... he's been hailed a conservative hero for it, primarily because his target is often non-whites. Is he influential in Arizona politics? Absolutely, every GOP candidate in the state seeks his endorsement to claim they're "Tough on immigration". And it's not just Arizona. This dithering xenophobic methuselah endorsed Donald Trump for president and was granted a speaking slot at the 2016 Republican National Convention while it was still being considered whether or not Sheriff Arpaio would face criminal charges for contempt of court. His remarks were delivered only a day after a federal judge stripped Arpaio of having oversight over his own Internal Affairs Department. Furthermore, when people talk about Republicans who “keep bringing back the specter of racism”, Joe Arpaio has waved it like a battle flag for all of his 88 years on this earth. He’s the proof that it never really went away. Somehow, nobody ever batted an eye about the fact that he's a county sheriff who can amass an election war chest of $11.3 MILLION dollars. Stop and think about that... being an octogenarian, openly racist, criminal, overtly fascist, taxpayer-paying lawsuit-magnet was not enough to have stopped Republicans from donating $11.3 million in money to his re-election in 2016. There was at least, good news that Democrats managed to have retired Phoenix police officer Paul Penzone elected as County Sheriff, looking to end a quarter-century of racial bigotry from law enforcement in Arizona’s most populous county. The news would get even better… On July 31st, 2017, Joe Arpaio was found guilty upon appeal. He was scheduled to be sentenced on October 5th, 2017, and while his sentence could have carried up to a six-month jail sentence, the most common belief was that he would get house arrest for his crimes, because… well, cops don’t do well in prison if they’re sent there. There’s no way an 85 year old man who spent decades tormenting his own constituents would manage to avoid harassment from fellow inmates, right? Well, long story short, Donald Trump is an ***hole. After a poorly-attended rally in Phoenix, Arizona, where roughly 4,000 people came to see him speak, and 10,000 protesters showed up… Donald Trump followed up his heinous response to Charlottesville that White Nationalists interpreted as his blessing by talking about a pardon for a man who ignored the Constitutional rights of minorities for 24 years. His rabid supporters applauded, and that was enough for Trump to give a pardon to Arpaio as Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, because you have to prioritize helping out fellow racist fascists over saving people from flooding the likes of which the nation has never seen. And he did it before Arpaio was EVER SENTENCED. Now, this was while Donald Trump was feuding with Arizona’s U.S. Senators. Not just John McCain, but in particular, Jeff Flake, who he promised in 2016 he would sponsor a primary challenger against. Most thought Trump was going to back former Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward, a former CSGOPOTD who once hosted a town hall on Chemtrails and pals around with people who talk about black helicopters doing all sorts of government conspiracies to the good people… but in January of 2018, Joe Arpaio announced he was running for U.S. Senate at the age of 86. The “specter of racism” will never leave Arizona as long as Joe Arpaio can soil its politics, as he seems insistent upon. Arpaio mercifully finished third in the GOP Primary for his seat in that race, getting just shy of 19% of the vote. And… we were hoping that 2020 would be the first year on this date that we wouldn’t have to talk about Joe Arpaio, and Arizona might have removed a bigoted stain upon the tapestry of its long, sordid, state history for the last time… BUT NO, NOT YET. Joe Arpaio decided he would run for Maricopa County Sheriff again at the age of 88… yes EIGHTY-EIGHT, in an attempt to avenge his 2016 loss to Paul Penzone. He remained as racist as ever, because when he was asked what he might do court Hispanic voters back to his side, he responded that he would “go where the good Mexican restaurants are.” Alas, Joe Arpaio’s comeback failed in a big way, and he narrowly lost to his own former subordinate, Jerry Sheridan, in the GOP Primary for sheriff. There’s nothing good we’ll ever be able to say about this man until he’s dead in the ground, and at least serving as good fertilizer. As it seems unlikely he will win his office back now that he’s approaching the age of 89 in the year of our lord 2021, we will set aside his profile at this time, however, to cover another wacky Republican today instead. (Current crazy/stupid scoreboard, is now 1020-50, since this was established in July 2014.