Richard Epstein to Attorney General Eric Holder: Investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Damon W. Root | September 10, 2009

Attorney General Eric Holder recently declared his intent to beef up the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Writing in Forbes, University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein suggests the perfect target:

The key choice is whether to investigate alleged abuses by private or public bodies. Choose the latter. Perhaps the great mistake with the 1964 Civil Rights Act was to legislate as if public and private discrimination posed equal social threats. That approach made sense when Jim Crow forced private businesses to segregate on racial lines, but today's affirmative action, when voluntary, can aid the cause of racial integration without government coercion....

So just what is left for the revitalized Civil Rights Division to do? The division should target state and local governments that, free of any competitive market pressures, pose genuine risks of unchecked discrimination. A quick read of William Finnegan's "Profile: Sheriff Joe [Arpaio]" in The New Yorker certainly counts in my book as probable cause for a DOJ investigation. Remember, on race relations the libertarian insight still holds true. Race discrimination does not survive in competitive markets. But it does flourish when public officials exercise monopoly power without external supervision.

Whole thing here. Reason on Sheriff Joe Arpaio here.

Comments

|9.10.09 @ 4:52PM|#

Why limit the Civil Rights Division to discrimination? Civil rights encompasses a hell of a lot more than that. Radley Balko alone could refer enough work to keep a building full of feds busy.

Joe M|9.10.09 @ 4:53PM|#

Man, I'd almost completely forgotten about this guy. Thanks for the reminder.

Joe M|9.10.09 @ 4:55PM|#

Right. I'd initially assumed it was Radley that had posted this entry.

|9.10.09 @ 5:02PM|#

The key choice is whether to investigate alleged abuses by private or public bodies. Choose the latter.
I expect to see a yak stand on it's hind legs and dance a jig before I see that happen.

24AheadDotCom|9.10.09 @ 5:07PM|#

Damn straight! Plus, new rulings make TheNewYorker admissible.

[sottovoce]Plus, SheriffJoe costs the Dems, the MexicanGovernment, and CorruptCompanies money, and we can't have that.[/sottovoce]

Warty|9.10.09 @ 5:17PM|#

Get a lot more sotto voce, Lonewacko. I.e., shut the fuck up.

|9.10.09 @ 5:23PM|#

Cripes, LoneWhacko, you're even more incoherent than you usually are.

The day that Sheriff Arpaio ends up in jail is going to be a very happy one.

|9.10.09 @ 5:24PM|#

I fairness to Lonewacko, I doubt the New Yorker piece was exactly fair and balanced. Frankly, if DOJ wants to investigate civil rights abuses, I think they should go after no knock drug raids long before they ever get to the guy in Arizona.

wayne|9.10.09 @ 5:51PM|#

I fairness to Lonewacko, I doubt the New Yorker piece was exactly fair and balanced. Frankly, if DOJ wants to investigate civil rights abuses, I think they should go after no knock drug raids long before they ever get to the guy in Arizona.

Agreed. They might take a look at the Louisianna cop who turned off his dash-cam then beat a hand-cuffed lady to a pulp as well.

|9.10.09 @ 5:59PM|#

You mean the Shreveport cop who just got his job back due to some evidence mishap?

tarran|9.10.09 @ 6:02PM|#

John,

You are aware that Sherrif Joe has locked up newpapermen who dared to report that he had millions of dollars of property acquired over a few decade4s of earning a $70,000 salary?

Hell, how about refusing to investigate rapes of teenage (14 - 15) year old girls so that he coul quickly close the cases in order to boost his case closure stats?

How about arresting people who asked questions in public meetings that made him uncomfortable?

Not to mention the time his men burned down a house, killed the family dog, and lost control of an armored personnel carrier that rolled down a hill until it crashed into a car?

Hell, just start reading here, and tell me with a straight face that he isn't a traitor deserving to dance the Danny Deever.

wayne|9.10.09 @ 6:02PM|#

You mean the Shreveport cop who just got his job back due to some evidence mishap?


that is the one.

|9.10.09 @ 6:35PM|#

He could start investigating NYC cops too. In my brief experience there, I encountered no shortage of civil rights violations and corrupt behavior.
He could maybe arrest Bloomberg?

24AheadDotCom|9.10.09 @ 6:35PM|#

JoeArpaio's enemies = libertarianism's friends:

24ahead.com/blog/archives/007816.html
24ahead.com/blog/archives/007693.html
24ahead.com/blog/archives/007689.html
etc.

Is the picture meant to illust|9.10.09 @ 6:50PM|#

alleged abuses by private or public bodies

?

|9.10.09 @ 7:22PM|#

Arpaio is a serious piece of shit, and taking him down might send a good message to other "toughest sheriff in America" wannabes.

Last fall I was driving through Phoenix on my way to Tucson from Vegas, and on the highway passing through Phoenix, there were a ton of Maricopa County Sheriff's cars pulling over people...from traffic. I tried to see if they were all Mexican but couldn't tell. Regardless, I was hoping to hell they didn't decide to pull me over too, because I had no idea what their justification was, because it couldn't have been speeding.

BakedPenguin|9.10.09 @ 9:22PM|#

Funny that this article should appear today. I recently applied for a job in Yuma, and was looking for a route that could get there (coming from the east) without going through Maricopa county.

It'll take a few hundred extra miles of driving, but I think it'll be worth it.

tarran|9.10.09 @ 9:36PM|#

BakedPenguin

Be careful in Yapavai County too.

I don't understand why so many citizens of Arizona scramble so desperately to lick the boots of freedom-hating big government types.

|9.10.09 @ 10:27PM|#

I live in Maricopa County and yes Joe is a joke. His "tough guy" image goes well for an electorate that expresses the desire to be tough but not suffer the consequences of that vote. by that I mean that the majority of Maricopa county is not policed by he and his crew. He's had significant conflicts with the Mayor of Phoenix, the former Police Chief of Mesa etc. He spends wildly and has never met a TV camera he didn't like.

PS I'm a registered Republican

24AheadDotCom|9.10.09 @ 10:43PM|#

I don't know why I'm bothering, but you'll find that Joe's major (and many minor) opponents are one or more of the following:
* CrookedBusinesses
* LinkedToTheMexicanGovernment
* FarLeft to VeryFarLeft

He's definitely not going to get any awards from the AZChamberOfCommerce; he's not going to get an award from the MexicanGovernment like an infamous AZ mayor did; and, he's definitely not going to be a speaker at the CPUSA convention. Criticize him all you want, just acknowledge who you're helping.

|9.10.09 @ 11:36PM|#

"was looking for a route that could get there (coming from the east) without going through Maricopa county."

Try going through Mexico.

The idea that you're afraid to drive through Maricopa County for fear of the cops is pretty funny. We do have extra strong drunk driving laws in Arizona but if you can avoid the temptation of sucking down 40 ouncers while you're driving, you should be okay unless you're driving a van stuffed full of 20 or so illegal immigrants.

I've been here 8 years and I've only got stopped once by Phoenix cops, for making an illegal turn.

Remember me|9.11.09 @ 12:48AM|#

24AheadDotCom | September 10, 2009, 10:43pm | #

I don't know why I'm bothering,


Don't bother

|9.11.09 @ 1:24AM|#

I am not a businessman, crooked or otherwise. Nor am I associated with the Mexican government. And I'm so conservative on most issues, I make guys like Sean Hannity look like New Dealers. And my opinion is that Joe Arpaio is a horse's ass, whose primary interest is in promoting the career of Joe Arpaio.

|9.11.09 @ 8:22AM|#

'''''''''''''Episiarch | September 10, 2009, 7:22pm | #
Arpaio is a serious piece of shit, and taking him down might send a good message to other "toughest sheriff in America" wannabes.

Last fall I was driving through Phoenix on my way to Tucson from Vegas, and on the highway passing through Phoenix, there were a ton of Maricopa County Sheriff's cars pulling over people...from traffic. I tried to see if they were all Mexican but couldn't tell. Regardless, I was hoping to hell they didn't decide to pull me over too, because I had no idea what their justification was, because it couldn't have been speeding.'''''''''''


Care to revise your bs story??? I look Spanish and I've lived in Phoenix for 36 years and have never once been pulled over by any of sheriff's dept. before and during Joe Arpaio as Chief.

What's the real story?? Cmon! No head lights? Texting while driving? Speeding? Expired tags? Drinking while driving? Jerking off while driving? Yes, he will pull you over for one or all these reasons, and many others.

You people have no clue who don't live here, what it's like to wake up and hear a little girl got kidnapped by an illegal, or a cop got shot and killed by an illegal, or a family wiped off the face of the earth by an illegal drunk driver. It happens too frequently and I'm SICK AND TIRED of it!

I can tell you this.. If Joe Arpaio gets jailed for some bogus federal charge it will send shock waves across the country. Keep it up, the tea parties are just a warning. Keep pushing.. Half of this nation will eventually have it's breaking point.

So, do me a favor, focus on your own back yard (state). You don't listen to the local news here, except when Pelosi, and Reed and B(a)rry Kool-Aid wants to feed you some BS political gain, like the pawns you so easily are.

Cabeza de Vaca|9.11.09 @ 9:44AM|#

"You people have no clue who don't live here, what it's like to wake up and hear a little girl got kidnapped by an illegal, or a cop got shot and killed by an illegal, or a family wiped off the face of the earth by an illegal drunk driver. It happens too frequently and I'm SICK AND TIRED of it!"

link?

|9.11.09 @ 10:06AM|#

Cabeza, before you can even start to argue for the extraordinary measures of which Sheriff Joe [spit] is so fond, you need to show a community that has a massive crime problem. Links, please?

|9.11.09 @ 10:09AM|#

"Keep it up, the tea parties are just a warning. Keep pushing.. Half of this nation will eventually have it's breaking point."

Got it. The Tea Party movement is for the sorts of authoritarian assholes that would support that piece-of-shit Sheriff. Claims that it is some sort of movement dedicated to liberty get lamer and lamer as time goes on.

|9.11.09 @ 11:31AM|#

""" I look Spanish and I've lived in Phoenix for 36 years and have never once been pulled over by any of sheriff's dept. before and during Joe Arpaio as Chief.
"""

But do you look spanish??

And how do you expect Joe to determine their immigration status if they don't pull them over somewhere?

Joe is aggressive about illegal immigration, I'm sure you will agree with that, so I'm not sure why you would not believe he uses extraordinary tactics.

Cabeza de Vaca|9.11.09 @ 1:37PM|#

R C Dean,

I'm sure Pheonix does have a crime problem, as all large city's do. I'm also sure some illegals commit crimes there. Corey makes it sound like it's only illegals that commit crimes there & they're on a rampage of destruction. It's racist hyperbole & I'm SICK & TIRED of it.

shecky|9.11.09 @ 7:10PM|#

Hmm... Someone who's lived in Phoenix for 36 years and has to qualify his post by saying he looks "Spanish" [sic] probably doesn't really look "Spanish" at all.

|9.11.09 @ 9:33PM|#

Joe Arpaio is a piece of crap. His jail spies on inmates, his cronies and the Republican Party illegally funnel money to attack his opponents, and he serves food unfit for humans. The voters in Maricopa County are also pieces of crap for voting for him year after year, and they deserve all the negative press, criminal behavior, disrespect for officers, and all the court fees and settlement money that will hopefully bankrupt their corrupt serves one day soon.