Romney Chooses Reactionary Sheriff Joe Arpaio As Arizona State Honorary Chairman

In a clear slap to human rights and organizations such as Amnesty International, right wing politician Mitt Romney chose reactionary Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as his honorary Arizona state chairman for his failing presidential bid. As Romney continues to slide in the polls, he only makes further attempts to attract the political right's waning support. However, choosing someone with the terrible human rights record of Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a clear slap at basic decency and opposed to basic human dignity, even if some individuals are guilty of serious crimes. The absurd choice of Sheriff Arpaio speaks very poorly for the reasoning and judgement abilities of Romney. It should make serious voters ask whether Romney has the reasoning ability to really be president or not.

Sheriff Arpaio was known for bringing back the chain gangs to Arizona, something that harkens back to the days of slavery, and is especially racist and archaic in law enforcement these days. Sheriff Arpaio also saved $750,000 by not building a new jail wing and instead for $100,000 puts up many prisoners in the 110 degree Arizona sun in tents. The poor food, which includes moldy cold baloney sandwiches has also been condemned by many critics.

Most modern Sheriffs understand the need for drug treatment or psychiatric help for many of their prisoners. Some like Multnomah County, Oregon Sheriif Bernie Guisto accept responsibility that they are in charge of providing needed psychiatric or drug counseling help as many county drug treatment or psychiatric counseling services in the county have faced sharp cutbacks.

Sheriff Arpaio has also consistently denied that torture is practiced in his jail. However, a British television station Channel 4 presented clear medical autopsy evidence from prisoners who died while being held by Arpaio of substantial injuries enough to result in death. In one case, a blind inmate, Brian Crenshaw, was beaten so badly that his neck was broken and had a perforated intestine and later died. Yet Sheriif Arpaio lied about the incident falsely claiming that the blind prisoner fell off a bunk bed. In another case, Sheriff Arpaio lost a $8.25 million dollar lawsuit in another case in which a man high on meth, Scott Norberg, was arrested for chasing two young girls. Still suffering from the mental health problems from his meth addiction, Norberg was roughly treated during a violent outburst in captivity and suffocated with a wet towel by guards working under Sheriff Arpaio.

Romney may think that choosing a reactionary like Sheriff Arpaio is the proper way to appeal to the right wing of his party. But after the dismal human rights record of the Bush administration, Romney appears to have learned nothing about the rule of law or using jails to help rehabilitate prisoners into constructive citizens. A jail, unlike a prison, may involve many of those in custody for relatively minor crimes such as driving under the influence, or minor possession of drugs. A policy that condones torture and abuse of prisoners is counterproductive to rehabilitation and modern criminal justice procedures. It's also illegal and makes Sheriff Arpaio a criminal himself.