To the editor,
We have been asked to believe the fiction that Joe Arpaio — whom Maricopa County, Arizona, voters recently voted out of office as their sheriff — deserved pardon by the president of the United States because he was convicted for nothing more than “doing his job.” The facts are quite different from this fiction.
Arpaio was found guilty of illegal racial profiling of Latinx and subjecting prisoners to completely inhumane treatment. After being ordered by the court to stop his illegal practices, he continued and so was found guilty of contempt of court.
Consider whether these tactics are simply “doing the job” of a county sheriff. Arpaio routinely kept prisoners in tents in the desert where summer temperatures reach 115 to 120 and winters are frigid. It was common for them to have no water. In summer, many fainted or suffered heat stroke. In winter, they were not allowed to wear any protective clothing to keep them from frostbite. Showers were scalding hot year-round. The only food for those in full detention was peanut butter or baloney and bread. There was also something known as “slob,” an unknown substance that looked something like stew but tasted like cardboard.
A few years ago, a group of my ministerial colleagues went to Arizona to protest against Sheriff Arpaio’s inhumane and illegal behavior and to give support to those detained in his Tent City. This gathering of ministers was hosted by the Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, then a parish minister in Phoenix and this summer elected president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Another colleague who attended the Arizona gathering, the Rev. Jude Geiger, blogged about his experience there. He pointed out that even if your political opinions lead you to seek some form of immigration reform that would result in fewer immigrants and more protection for American job holders, “the U.S. cannot support the inhumane treatment of fellow people on our own soil. … I urge you to take a look at the atrocities being committed in Arizona.” The Rev. Geiger heard read the names of 122 detainees who had died in U.S. detention centers during the previous year. These were people who had not gone to trial, much less been convicted of any crime.
The pardon of Joe Arpaio should shock the conscience of every one of us. And we should take notice of what slope we are being nudged to slip down.
Rev. Barbara Child, Brown County
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