Chaparral: No Borders or Prison Walls

This is a recent post from one of my favorite valley bloggers on immigration - I was just going to put part of it here and make you retrieve the rest, but it breaks the flow, so read the whole thing here or there - in any event, check out her blog. I subscribe. Here's the lead-in:

Chaparral respects no borders

Based in Maricopa County, I mostly analyze the news and the activism and organizing around immigration. Often discussing Sheriff Joe Arpaio, legislators like Russell Pearce, the police in general, as well as federal players, I touch on racism, abuse, and other injustices. I have a heavy emphasis on truly having solidarity with migrants and pushing for the movement to not lose sight of this focus.

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Here's the post for 11/23/09:
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What Happens When Arpaio Serves the Warrants

Because Sheriff Arpaio has been targeting migrants who are just driving, waiting for work, or working, activists have reacted by pointing out that the sheriff has not been serving 40,000 open warrants. Now the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department is serving warrants... in Guadalupe.

As an example of the focus on warrants, a press release from no specific organization but about "Leaders from the civil rights and Latino communities" came out in March 2008 saying,

The people are entitled to have a true lawman for Sheriff, someone who goes after real criminals, not gardeners, cooks, nannies and pregnant mothers. America’s “toughest sheriff” must stop making mothers and fathers disappear in the middle of the night, callously leaving vulnerable, terrorized children at home alone. He can turn a new leaf and start protecting the public by serving the county’s 70,000 arrest warrants that he has allowed to remain outstanding.

If you went to a protest against Arpaio in 2008 or early 2009, you likely would've seen a reference to the warrants on some signs. Often they would be referenced by groups such as the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability. While the warrants have been discussed very little since the Senate hearing on the issue, you will occasionally still hear the warrants brought up.

What I don't understand is the assumption that these warrants are justified- that all the people who have warrants out for their arrest, or perhaps all the people with felony warrants, are hardened criminals who all deserve to go to Tent City. Do you really believe this? Do you think the criminal "justice" system is infallible? Are not undocumented migrants being further criminalized for political/racist/economic reasons? Isn't that fundamental to the criminal "justice" system? There is much evidence that the police are used to keep people in check and to maintain the social hierarchy. In many ways, the police actually perpetuate the crimes of those who do not have access to many of the opportunities that more privilege people have. And as I write in Chaparral: No Borders or Prison Walls:

Many examples exist of ways in which crime-fighting is not, in fact, intended to end the activities which are considered crimes. The government has no interest in ending crime unless it is targeted towards the government itself, the rich or their property. One could list a number of crimes committed by people who get away with it everyday, and a number of acts that should be crimes because they hurt people, other beings, and/or the planet, yet they are not crimes because it is not in the interest of the government to control those actions. Crimes against people who are seen as less valuable are not important to enforce unless it benefits the system in another way... Crimes committed by government, government agents, businesses, are treated differently, with the perpetrators facing much less harsh punishment than their civilian counter-parts face, if any. Often crimes are enabled by involvement with the government such as the drug trafficking done with government vehicles and physical and sexual abuse by police, border patrol, and prison officials, yet the criminals in these cases are treated as a few bad apples.

And why does it not occur to folks that many of those warrants might be for gardeners, cooks, nannies and pregnant mothers who might disappear at night leaving their children terrorized?

And if you agree with nothing else I've said so far about the problems with the rule of law, please realize that you are basically saying that if the sheriff was serving all those warrants, then he would be doing a good job- Tent City, pink underwear, chain gangs, green baloney and all.

Indeed, I have brought up that Arpaio has in fact not been doing as efficient of a job at arresting migrants- other police departments have- yet they don't have this warrants issue hanging over their heads. In fact, they are mostly ignored and in some cases even seen as allies (phoenix pd officers are invited to activist meetings, ex-mesa police chief gascon was celebrated for standing up against arpaio) yet, as i've written in the past, If Phx and Mesa PD are arresting more immigrants, why is focus on Arpaio?

I would say that the myth of the infallibility of law and order is not questioned, for the most part, for to do so would make you vulnerable to attacks by the other side, accusing you of wanting chaos, or whatever else they associate with opposing arrests of so-called criminals. Too many immigrants' advocates are not willing to be outspoken about the racist nature of "criminal justice" and law enforcement, the border, and immigration law in general. The result, therefore, is that law enforcement that can appear reasonable alongside arpaio's media circuses are not to be questioned, but instead even applauded, even if their actual effect is worse than how arpaio's efforts appear.

This past week, the sheriff's department has been bringing a camera crew to stops all over Guadalupe to serve warrants. Guadalupe is a very small town next to Tempe, with a very high number of brown skinned people- mostly Yaquis and Mexican migrants. Arpaio has done a few sweeps there. It is one of a few places in the County that doesn't have it's own police department and pays the MCSO to handle problems. Instead, they've caused many problems. You can read all about it in Guadalupe made it clear that Joe Arpaio’s attacking anyone with brown skin, Joe Arpaio Returns to Guadalupe, with an Army of Deputies to Watch His Back, The MCSO Retaliates Against a Guadalupe Activist.

In fact, this might be retaliation for the copwatching going on in Guadalupe. Whatever the reason, people are being harassed and terrorized by Arpaio serving these warrants. Those who have demanded that the warrants be served are not to be blamed for those warrants being served in Guadalupe (or anywhere) necessarily, but it is necessary to keep all these things in perspective.

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Posted By chaparral to Chaparral respects no borders at 11/23/2009 11:36:00 AM

MCSO retaliates against local activist? Shocking!

 The MCSO Retaliates Against a Guadalupe Activist

Phoenix New Times

By Stephen Lemons

Published on October 27, 2009 at 5:40pm

LOCAL HEROES

Ever since the MCSO's contract for police services with the town of Guadalupe was renewed earlier this year, a small band of residents of the square-mile town has sought to monitor the interaction of sheriff's deputies with Guadalupanos.

A month and a half ago, these half-dozen or so men and women acquired video cameras, underwent training given by the Phoenix organization Copwatch, and dubbed themselves the Citizens Camera Crew. Their mission: change the dynamic between Sheriff Joe Arpaio's boys in beige and the people who live in the half-Yaqui, half-Mexican-American burg of 5,500.

That relationship has been one of an occupying force toward the occupied. In other words, mutual contempt and suspicion. The re-signing of the contract made former Mayor Frankie Montiel so unpopular that he was demoted from mayor to councilman by his fellow council members.

The new mayor, Yolanda Solarez, is no Rebecca Jimenez — the courageous ex-mayor who defied Arpaio in early 2008, when the sheriff invaded the town for one of his anti-immigrant sweeps. But Solarez lacks Montiel's baggage. Also, new Vice Mayor Lupita Avelar has been a steadfast critic of the MCSO's continued presence in her community.

As for Guad's CCC, its acquisition of video cameras has ticked off beat deputies to no end. If there's one thing cops hate, it's being videotaped in the course of their duties. (Think Rodney King.) Thus, the CCC's members, who include Guadalupe activists Andrew Sanchez and William Robles, have become the targets for intimidation and outright retaliation.

Robles — who was named Best Guadalupe Activist in last month's New Times Best of Phoenix issue for his tireless efforts to combat violence and protest the sheriff inside and outside his town — has gotten the worst of it. Likely because he's been dogging sheriff's deputies with his camera 24/7 (an activity that's constitutionally protected, I might add).

Not long after Robles began committing MCSO patrols to tape, he was stopped late at night by two deputies in a marked car. Robles was walking home along the canal from Carl's Jr. The deputies asked to see his identification.

"I told them, 'I know my rights,'" Robles says. "'But this time,' I said, 'I will let you see it.'"

The deputies claimed they were asking for the IDs of everyone walking along the canal. Once they saw Robles' identification, they asked him if he worked for New Times and mentioned they had seen him covered in the paper recently.

"They just kept asking me over and over again, like three times, if I worked with New Times," Robles says. "I kept telling them no, that what I do, I do for Guadalupe."

Robles told the deputies he was going to call another CCC member, so that the stop could be recorded. (He didn't have his camera with him at the time.) The deputies, who gave their names as Whelan, serial number 1789, and Saladen, serial number 1174, decided that was a good time to bail.

The incident repeated itself on October 22, when Robles was approached in an unmarked car by two deputies, who identified themselves as Kaplan, serial number 1506, and Bar, serial number 1188 (at least it sounded like Bar on the videotape). This time, Robles had his camera and documented the pair as they queried him about his past, implying he may have been involved in criminal activity.

The suggestion was so ludicrous that even the deputies' boss, Lieutenant Ed Shepherd, who has worked Guadalupe for decades and knows who Robles is, found it absurd.

"He certainly seems to be a harmless sort of guy," Shepherd told me when I called him about the incidents. "If he wants to follow us around, that's okay with me."

Shepherd had heard about Robles' video camera, and he told me that the deputies believed New Times had given Robles his equipment. I informed him that we had not, that Robles doesn't work for New Times, even though he's not shy about letting Valley journalists know what's going down in Guadalupe.

The lieutenant advised me that he had already instructed his deputies to leave Robles alone.

"[Deputy] Loren Gaytan told me he had a video camera," said Shepherd of the MCSO's community liaison. "I said, 'So what? It's a free country. Let him take any videos he wants.'"

If Shepherd's attitude trickled down to his men, it did so in an odd way. On the evening of Saturday, October 24, Robles was taping deputies as they closed down a late-night party, a Saturday-night ritual because Guadalupe has an ordinance ordering all parties ended by midnight.

Present was Deputy Gaytan, who shined a flashlight in Robles' face. Gaytan covered his mug with a digital camera he was carrying. And he, sneakily, began to make Robles out as a snitch, speaking loud enough that the other Guadalupanos present could hear.

"I appreciate you helping us out here, William," Gaytan told Robles, as the latter captured it all on video.

"I ain't helping you out," Robles shot back.

"You're not helping us out?" Gaytan replied. "Why aren't you helping us out?"

Gaytan went on to imply that Robles was videotaping on the MCSO's behalf, even though Robles countered the implications. The mere suggestion that someone is a narc can be dangerous — possibly deadly — in Guadalupe, as well as in other places. Yet Gaytan persisted...

Go to The Phoenix New Times for the rest...