Human rights group rally against Arpaio
Jeff Moses
The Puente Human Rights Activist group had the second installment of their “Arrest Arpaio not the People” campaign on Jan. 27 at the Wells Fargo building located at 100 W. Washington St in downtown Phoenix.
“We want ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) completely out of the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office we want an end to federal ICE programs that empower this arrogant and racist man, the federal program names are 287g ‘secure communities’ which really is insecure communities, and CAP which stands for criminal alien program.” said volunteer organizer Orlando Arenas.
Arenas continued to say “We also want tent city shut down, I can’t believe we have become numb to having a concentration camp here in the Valley of the Sun.”
The Wells Fargo building is where the office of controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is located, and it is also directly across the street from Cesar Chavez Plaza the chosen home of Occupy Phoenix.
“We are here (at the rally) because we are tired of our politicians being corrupted we are tired of people like Joe Arpaio having all this money to use to fool the greater general public, and we’re here to pull the vail off of someone like him, and show everyone who he really is, he’s just a big bully who doesn’t deserve the respect he gets from the (people of) the Phoenix metropolitan area” said Mike Horton of Occupy Phoenix.
“We see Joe as just a symptom of what’s going on with our political system, so as far as I’m concerned we are going to keep targeting these politicians that are being bought and paid for.” added Horton
The Arrest Arpaio campaign comes on the curtails of a recent death in “Uncle” Joe’s 4th avenue jail where Marti Atencio was tazered to death while surrounded by Phoenix Police Department officers and MCSO deputies.
“We have eight months (left) of Arpaio being in office” said Puente Organizer Carlos Garcia “We really believe that Arpaio whether he is arrested or not is going to be gone this year, but it is still important for us to high light how he is abusing our communities, and what’s going on inside his jails.”
“Our goals are for one Arrest Arpaio, we really feel he needs to face criminal charges” said Garcia “End all ICE access to him because he is performing the worst racial profiling in the country” he added “and the last is to shut tent city, the worst jail in this country.”
Furthermore an investigation by the the U.S. Justice Department found that Arpaio’s deputies commit racial profiling, and left 432 sexually related offenses go uninvestigated.
Also adding to Joe’s headache is Randy Parraz, who’s group Citizens for a Better Arizona, lead the charge against American Legislative Exchange Council member former Az senate president Russel Pearce.
Parraz is demanding that every city council in Maricopa county back a resolution to force Sheriff Joe to step down.
