He’s been shown the way to the door.

Will he exit?

Ever since the Department of Justice released the results of its investigation into Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s alleged racial profiling practices last month, Sheriff Joe has been faced with a barrage of prominent community leaders and politicians calling for his resignation, and rightfully so.  As this ABC article pointed out: 

“MCSO (Maricopa County Sheriffs Organization) engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing,” Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, wrote in a letter to Bill Montgomery, the county attorney for Maricopa County. “Specifically, we find that MCSO, through the actions of its deputies, supervisory staff, and command staff engages in racial profiling of Latinos; unlawfully stops, detains and arrests Latinos; and unlawfully retaliates against individuals who complain about or criticize MCSO’s policies.” 

According to The Arizona Republic: 

In their complaint against Arpaio released Dec. 15, Attorney General Eric Holder and his point man, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, made clear that their case includes strong evidence that Arpaio's department has discriminated willfully against Latinos. They contend he has racially profiled Latinos in a haphazard pursuit of illegal immigrants, and further, they claim they can prove it. 

Specifically, Perez stated in his letter addressed to Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery that, according to a statistical study commissioned by the Justice Department, "Latino drivers are four to nine times more likely to be stopped than similarly situated non-Latino drivers." 

The data, said Perez, are damning:

"We had a leading expert on measuring racial profiling through statistical analysis examine (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office) traffic stops....

Overall, the expert concluded that this case involves the most egregious racial profiling in the United States that he has ever personally seen in the course of his work, observed in litigation, or reviewed in professional literature."

Pressure has been mounting for Sheriff Arpaio to step down for quite some time.  Last month’s DOJ report has only added fuel to the fire.  Last Thursday over twenty leaders from Arizona’s Black community stood on the steps of the U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix and demanded Arpaio’s resignation.  Included with this group were members of the National Urban League, the NAACP and sitting Phoenix Councilman Michael Johnson.

The group also included one of the sheriff’s former supporters, Reverend Oscar Tillman, President of the Phoenix NAACP.  Tillman decided to join the group after the death of Iraq war veteran, Ernesto Atencio, following an altercation with Arpaio’s officers at a county detention facility.  As reported in The Arizona Republic: 

Tillman said he considered Arpaio a friend and agreed to serve on an advisory council Arpaio started to form following the release of the Justice Department report.  But Tillman said the death of Eugene Atencio made him reconsider his support for Arpaio... 

“If the sheriff had been serious, he would have stayed here and dealt with this,” Tillman said, noting Arpaio’s departure from the Valley to support Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry by campaigning in Iowa. 

Recently, Phoenix videographer, Dennis Gilman, released a video of the brutal attack that took place against Atencio while in the sheriff’s custody.  Atencio was pounced on and tasered by a dozen officers.  The sheriff’s office subsequently stated that Atencio was resisting arrest.  Please view the video below and judge for yourself if the officers’ actions were justified (note: no audio): 

The most damning allegations, however, relate to the sheriff department’s mishandling of (or ignoring) hundreds of sex-crime cases during a three year period.  According to this local Latino publication there were    

In El Mirage alone, where Arpaio’s office was providing contract police services, officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations – with victims as young as 2 years old – where the sheriff’s office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases. 

Many of the victims, said a retired El Mirage police official who reviewed the files, were children of illegal immigrants. 

The evidence against Arpaio’s office in this matter has been strong enough to attract the attention of the two Republican senators from Arizona, John McCain and Jon Kyl.  In a joint statement, McCain and Kyl said, “Victims of abuse not only deserve the respect of law enforcement, but their rights must also be protected throughout the criminal process.”  

On top of all of this, there is an ongoing legal investigation into the sheriff’s alleged abuse of power.  As noted in this CNN article, “Arpaio's critics say he has a long history of launching bogus criminal investigations against political opponents and anyone else who gets in his way.” 

Throughout all of these investigations, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has remained defiant, stating that this is merely a political witch hunt orchestrated by the Democrats.  In a number of press conferences and published op-eds, Arpaio has stated that he is just “enforcing the laws” in his county.  

Based on his record of botched sex-crime investigations and the mishandling of other law enforcement issues, it appears that Sheriff Joe is only "enforcing the laws" that he feels fit into his xenophobic agenda.