Invoking Bull Connor, CNN’s Rick Sanchez takes Arpaio to Task on Racial Profiling

America's Voice Blog

Posted 10/20/09 at 05:58pm

Last night, CNN’s Rick Sanchez called out Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ, for admitting to racial profiling during his “crime suppression sweeps” of Latino neighborhoods.

Watch it:

At the end of the interview, Sheriff Joe basically thumbs his nose at Federal officials who have criticized Arpaio’s sweeps (despite renewing cooperation agreements with him):

SANCHEZ: You're going to sit there and tell the feds, you don't care what they say, you're going to do it your way and you're going to do it when you want to do it?

ARPAIO: No, they don't tell me how to do my job enforcing state laws. I worked 25 years as a top Justice Department drug enforcement official. I think I know the federal law and how to operate under the federal blanket. So...

SANCHEZ: All right. Well, for the record, they're saying you don't and they're saying you're violating it.

ARPAIO: Then come on after me, if he thinks I'm violating any of -- federal laws.

Sanchez gets it right when he says that not since Bull Connor has a confrontation between a local Sheriff and the federal government come to such a standoff. So, is it 2009 or 1963, when Bull Connor's aggressive police tactics against blacks in the South sparked civil rights legislation?

Here is Arpaio’s interpretation of the law-- straight from the previous interview with Rick Sanchez shown above. Arpaio is arresting people because of "the clothes they wear, their speech":

SANCHEZ: Let me ask you a question. How do you know when you arrest someone that they're illegal?

ARPAIO: Well, first of all, Rick, we do it pursuant to our duties. When we come across someone on another crime and we find out that they are illegal, we take action. If those that have not committed a crime, we had the training -- we still do -- we turn them over to ICE. It's very simple.

SANCHEZ: But you just said you detain people who haven't committed a crime. How do you prove that they're not legal?

ARPAIO: It has to do with their conduct, what type of clothes they're wearing, their speech. They admit it. They may have phony I.D.s, a lot of variables involved.

SANCHEZ: You judge people and arrest them based on their speech and the clothes that they're wearing, sir?

ARPAIO: No, when they're in the vehicle with someone that has committed a crime, we have the right to talk to those people. When they admit they are here illegally, we take action.

SANCHEZ: But you just told me -- let's go back here. You just told me that you arrest a people and turn them over to the Feds even if they haven't committed a crime.

ARPAIO: No. They did commit a crime. They are here illegally.

SANCHEZ: But how did you know they were here illegally? And then you went on to tell me it's because of the clothes they wore.

ARPAIO: Well, you look at the federal law. The federal law specifies the speech, the clothes, the environment, the erratic behavior. It's right in the law.

The stakes are higher by the day for the Administration, which is being challenged to shut down the Bull Connor of our time. The Department of Homeland Security has resigned a more restrictive agreement with Sheriff Joe, but that clearly hasn’t stopped him from acting outside the law. The FBI is investigating Arpaio for political malfeasance and Attorney General Eric Holder is investigating Arpaio’s civil rights abuses.

Wait, how many cabinet secretaries does it take to screw in a … ?

As for CNN – we nominate Rick Sanchez as Lou Dobbs’ replacement when he gets bumped off the air.

Note: Read the full rush transcript here (because it is a rush transcript, there are small discrepancies with the video).