Posted by
Steve on Friday, December 09, 2011 11:19:48 AM
Yesterday my Senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain put out a letter that put my Sheriff (Joe Arpaio) on notice that he better get his act together on some 400 acts of sexual assault in western Maricopa County. Both Jon Kyl and John McCain are Republicans. Joe Arpaio is a Republican. For them to put out a letter like this is earth moving kind of stuff.
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department is a very large Department. The county covers a very large area. Maricopa County is larger than some northeastern states. There was a problem with the second in command about six months ago. The problem existed for some time, but everything hit the fan about six months ago. The second in command was fired from his position as were a few other high ranking officers in the department. The department has been recovering from that problem for the past few months. The true extent of the problem has not been made public, but I am sure it was more extensive than the public has been allowed to know.
These sexual assaults cover the last four years. It particularly covers the town of El Mirage where the Sheriff’s Department contracts for police protection. The sexual assaults also cover the general area around El Mirage.
According to Sheriff Arpaio, the problem has been identified and they are working on bringing all the cases up to date. My guess is that people were removed from positions in order to make the cases move forward. That is a guess. It is not based on any evidence. It is based purely on my knowledge of people and how a Sheriff’s Department works. In other words, it is an educated guess.
In a department as large as Maricopa County it is impossible for any single person to have a handle on everything that is going on in the department. The Department I was on was about 1/5 the size of Maricopa County and we could not keep track of everything going on in our department. For any person to know everything going on in that department would require superhuman effort and a spy system that would make the KGB blush. Since that is not possible in Sheriff Joe’s department, I am sure that he had absolutely no idea this problem existed.
Of course, Sheriff Joe is the top person in the department and responsible for all that goes on there. He has taken responsibility and has made corrective actions. The problem is that Sheriff Joe is so good at his job, he has enemies. His enemies will jump on any problem, no matter how small and pump it up to earth shattering importance. I am not saying these sexual assaults were small; I am just making the point that to Sheriff Joe’s enemies he can do no good.
What should happen in this case is give the department some time to solve the problem. If after a suitable time period, nothing happens, then jump on Sheriff Joe. If after a suitable time progress has been made, leave things as they are.
Sheriff Joe is about 70 years old. He is probably only good for one more election before he will have to retire. For his enemies to push the envelope, they would not gain much ground. They will still not elect the Democrat of their desires. A Republican will be elected Sheriff of Maricopa County for as long as the Republicans maintain their huge majority in voters in the county. That new Republican sheriff will then feel the wrath of the current Sheriff Joe haters. The Sheriff Joe haters will never really win. They may get Sheriff Joe out of office, but that will happen in due time anyway. The person that replaces Sheriff Joe will be much like him politically and philosophically. That will not be something the Sheriff Joe haters want to hear.
With this sexual assault problem, I think people are jumping on Sheriff Joe too soon. Give him and his department some time to investigate the cases. We just found out about them a couple of weeks ago. It takes time to complete investigations, particularly so many. I think that Jon Kyl and John McCain are just covering themselves in case anything bad happens.