Biases up front. I’m no fan of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The publicity-seeking, the grandstanding — that’s never a good look for a lawman. And the following might result in the revocation of my Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Platinum Card, but I did not approve of his treatment of prisoners. The tent cities. The pink underwear. The piping in of classical and patriotic music.
I am all in favor of locking up constitutionally convicted bad guys, most especially violent bad guys. But once we got someone, it is our responsibility to be as humane as possible. I’m not talking feather pillows and saunas. But there’s nothing wrong with televisions, decent food and air conditioning.
Even those who seek a measure of vengeance must admit that not everyone in prison is deserving of vengeance. Arpaio intentionally humiliating, aggravating and discomforting prisoners was arbitrary and gratuitous. It serves no purpose treat every prisoner like the worst prisoner.
Nevertheless, the Left’s hysterical overreaction to Sheriff Joe made him a much more sympathetic figure than he might have been otherwise. To many, despite, Arpaio’s defiance of all the right people (leftists, Democrats, the media) made him a heroic figure.
And in the end, even after voters turned Sheriff Joe into former-Sheriff Joe, it was all the right people who overreached, who sought their own form of vengeance, who abused their own power. Guilty of nothing more than enforcing the law, the 85 year-old was convicted (by a judge) of contempt of court and faced the possibility of 6 months in prison. To call this a travesty of justice is beyond understatement. Therefore…
President Trump’s decision to grant Arpaio a “full and unconditional pardon” was awesome, and not only an appropriate use of his constitutional powers, it was a courageous decision, one that righted yet another example of the judicial tyranny that so plagues our nation. Here are three reasons why…
1. Sheriff Joe Is Guilty Only of Upholding the Law
The only time I get nervous about this American experiment of ours is when unelected thugs attempt to usurp the power of the people. I am talking about our robed masters, those we call judges. Some judges are elected, most are not, too many are appointed for life; and this promise that you will never lose your job breeds political hacks like Tribbles.
The sworn duty of a judge is to interpret the law as written by a legislature elected by We The People. Still, too many judges create laws out of whole cloth, and almost every time they are Leftists.
Then there is the flipside, when a robed thug aids and abets a politician breaking the law, which is what Barry Obama was serially guilty of when it comes to many things, but most especially immigration law. In order to flood Red States with illegal Democrats, Barry flagrantly violated the law and too many lawless judges gave him air cover.
Those arguing against Trump’s pardon rest much of their case on the fact that Arpaio violated a judge’s direct order. So what? That judge’s order illegally legalized illegal immigration. Naturally, with the help of a corrupt media, this contempt charge has been window dressed with all the right buzzwords like “racial profiling,” but if Arpaio’s guilty of that, charge him with that.
Sheriff Joe swore to uphold the law, not to uphold illegal orders given by a lawless president and his robed minions.
2. Sheriff Joe Was Denied a Jury Trial
The American justice system is by far the best in the world and works better than most any other branch of our inept government. This is primarily due to the fact that it is not professionals, elites, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers or judges who ultimately decide guilt or innocence. You and I make that decision. And for the most part, we get it right. We’re not perfect. But we are as perfect as anyone could hope for.
You see, in those jury rooms, we don’t worry about our careers or getting re-elected or our standing at The Club or what cable news will say. We worry only about living with the awesome responsibility of deciding a person’s fate. Of course mistakes are made. But imagine how much worse our system would be in the hands of *shudder* Professional Jurors.
Sheriff Joe was not convicted by a jury of his peers. He was convicted by a judge. A single judge! In the United States of America, Arpaio requested and was denied his right to a jury trial. I don’t care that Arizona allows this when the maximum sentence is six months or less. The idea that a single judge can decide any persons’ innocence or guilt is un-American. I also wonder if Arpaio’s potential sentence wasn’t intentionally crafted to avoid a jury trial.
No, from A to Z, this whole thing stinks.
3. All The Right People Are Furious Over Trump’s Pardon
Once again something Trump did exposed the craven underbelly of the American Establishment, the same Establishment that hardly batted an eye after Barry pardoned an outright traitor (Bradley/Chelsea Manning), a full-blown terrorist (Oscar Lopez-Rivera), and countless drug dealers. But pardoning a lawman guilty of enforcing the law — and worse, guilty of repeatedly sticking his finger in their eye — has made The Beautiful People apoplectic.
Not that we needed more evidence that our political and media elite, that the Morning Joe crowd are self-righteous corruptocrats beyond all hope of redemption, but another log on that five-alarm fire never hurts.
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