According to an article in the Fort Bend Herald, former Houston Texans fullback Jameel Cook’s attorney wonders whether the athlete’s arrest last week on a marijuana charge is cooked up and whether Mr. Cook has been victimized by racial profiling.  See, Munsch, Don, “Attorney Says Sheriff Is Profiling,” Fort Bend Herald, http://www.fbherald.com/articles/2008/08/27/news/doc48b46c45cf493645815950.txt , 8/26/08.  Cook was pulled over by a Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputy who saw that Cook’s Mercedes-Benz had no front license plate or registration sticker.  Id.  The deputy found the marijuana, but his attorney contends that the marijuana did not belong to Cook.  Id.  It is also alleged that Cook did not have a valid Texas driver’s license, did not have proof of liability insurance and had a suspended Florida driver’s license.  Id.   The Fort Bend County Sheriff reportedly said that the suggestion of racial profiling is “bull” and that his officer’s do not engage in racial profiling, but when asked about the yearly motorist stop and arrest statistics his office forwards to the commissioners court, the Sheriff said he does not pay much attention to that data because those statistics are “meaningless” and can be bent to fit someone’s interpretation.  Id. 

Racial profiling of motorists is improper and is not supposed to occur.  The allegation of racial profiling is meaningful.  Indeed, efforts have been undertaken to stop the occurrence of racial profiling by requiring law enforcement to keep, for example, traffic stop and arrest data so that the records can be reviewed and analyzed.  Ignoring the data can prevent law enforcement from using a tool to address racial profiling and better prepare and train law enforcement officers to avoid racial profiling as a basis for traffic stops.

Motorists in Beaumont, Dallas, Houston or elsewhere who believe their traffic stop or arrest was the result of racial profiling may make a written complaint to the responsible police department or sheriff’s office in order to document the event and provide the officer’s employer an opportunity to investigate whether the stop occurred as a result of racial profiling.  To learn more about what one can do if one believes he or she has been stopped because of racial profiling, an attorney may be contacted or one can visit, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) website.  

Accoding to Libby Quaid of the Associated Press, a quarter of a million schoolchildren got paddled, swats or licks last year — and blacks, American Indians and kids with disabilities got a disproportionate share of the punishment, according to a study by a human rights group. Even little kids can be paddled. Heather Porter, who lives in Crockett, Texas, was startled to hear her little boy, then 3, say he’d been spanked at school. Porter was never told, despite a policy at the public preschool that parents be notified.  “We were pretty ticked off, to say the least. The reason he got paddled was because he was untying his shoes and playing with the air conditioner thermostat,” Porter said. “He was being a 3-year-old.”

For the study, which was being released today, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union used Education Department data to show that, while paddling has been declining, racial disparity persists. Researchers also interviewed students, parents and school personnel in Texas and Mississippi, states that account for 40 percent of the 223,190 kids who were paddled at least once in the 2006-2007 school year.

Porter could have filled out a form telling the school not to paddle her son, if only she had realized he might be paddled.  Yet many parents find that such forms are ignored, the study said.  Widespread paddling can make it unlikely that forms will be checked. A teacher interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Tiffany Bartlett, said that when she taught in the Mississippi Delta, the policy was to lock the classroom doors when the bell rang, leaving stragglers to be paddled by an administrator patrolling the hallways. Bartlett now is a school teacher in Austin, Texas.  And even if schools make a mistake, they are unlikely to face lawsuits. In places where corporal punishment is allowed, teachers and principals generally have legal immunity from assault laws, the study said.  “One of the things we’ve seen over and over again is that parents have difficulty getting redress, if a child is paddled and severely injured, or paddled in violation of parents’ wishes,” said Alice Farmer, the study’s author.

A majority of states have outlawed it, but corporal punishment remains widespread across the South. Behind Texas and Mississippi were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Florida and Missouri.  African American students are more than twice as likely to be paddled. The disparity persists even in places with large black populations, the study found. Similarly, Native Americans were more than twice as likely to be paddled, the study found.

The study also found:

—In states where paddling is most common, black girls were paddled more than twice as often as white girls.

—Boys are three times as likely to be paddled as girls.

—Special education kids were more likely to be paddled.

More than 100 countries worldwide have banned paddling in schools, including all of Europe, Farmer said. “International human rights law puts a pretty strong prohibition on corporal punishment,” she said.  In rural Drew, Miss., Nickolaus Luckett still remembers the paddlings he got in fifth and seventh grades. One happened when he called a teacher by her first name, the other when a classmate said, wrongly, that he threw a spitball.

“I didn’t get any bruises, but they still hurt, and from that point on, I told myself and my parents I wasn’t going to take any more paddlings,” said Luckett, who is about to be a sophomore at the University of Mississippi. 

It’s not an easy choice. In many schools, kids can avoid a paddling if they accept suspension or detention, or for younger kids, if they skip recess. But often, a child opts for the short-term sting of the paddle. And sometimes teachers don’t have the option of after-school detention, because there are no buses to take kids home later. During the three years Evan Couzo taught in the Mississippi Delta, he refused to paddle kids, offering detention instead. But others — teachers, parents, even kids — were accustomed to paddling. “Just about everyone at the beginning of the year said, ‘If he or she gives you any trouble, you can paddle them. You can send them home, and I’ll paddle them. Or you can have me come out to the school, and we can both paddle them.’ “It’s really just a part of the culture of the school environment there,” Couzo said.

There is scant research on whether paddling is effective in the classroom. But many studies have shown it doesn’t work at home, said Elizabeth Gershoff, a University of Michigan assistant professor of social work.

“The use of corporal punishment is associated almost overwhelmingly with negative effects, and that it increases children’s problem behavior over time,” Gershoff said. Children may learn to solve problems using aggression, and a sense of resentment might make them act out more, Gershoff said.

The practice is banned in 29 states, most recently in Delaware and Pennsylvania. While some education groups haven’t taken a position on the issue, the national PTA believes paddling should be banned everywhere.

“We teach our children that violence is wrong, yet corporal punishment teaches children that violence is a way to solve problems,” said Jan Harp Domene, the group’s president. “It perpetuates a cycle of child abuse. It teaches children to hit someone smaller and weaker when angry.”

Houston Chronicle, August 20, 2008 (written by Libby Quaid of the Associated Press).

In Broward County, Florida, a manager at a Davie apartment complex turned away African-American applicants, then tried to use the lack of black tenants to appeal to whites, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department. The lawsuit accuses C.F. Enterprises LLC and on-site apartment manager Don Murroni of discriminating against black people trying to rent at College Square Apartments in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Evidence was gathered through the department’s Operation Home Sweet Home initiative, where individuals pose as renters to identify possible discriminatory practices.  Susannah Bryan (South Florida Sun-Sentinel).

Murroni could not be reached for comment despite a call to the apartment complex at 6600 SW 39th St.  Craig Forman, Baco Raton-based president of D.F. Enterprises, could not be reached for comment depsite two calls.

The complaint alleges the defendants discouraged African-Americans from applying and offered to waive the application fee and other costs for white applicants only. The lawsuit, filed in Fort Lauderdale federal court, seeks an injunction against further discrimination, money damages for victims and civil penalties to be paid to the United States.  Marsha Ellison, Fort Lauderdale president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she hopes the lawsuit sends a message to other apartment managers who might try the same thing.

“It’s disappointing. However, it’s not surprising,” Ellison said of the allegations. “We would love to shut the doors of the NAACP, but this stuff goes on every single day, so we still exist.” On Wednesday, Mayor Tom Truex said the claims, if true, are no reflection on the town.

“The town of Davie has no tolerance for people who are discriminating based on race,” Truex said. “That kind of conduct has no place in Davie.”

The black population of Davie has stayed relatively stable since 2000, with about 3,400 residents who make up about 4 percent of the town’s population, census data show. In Broward County, the black population increased to 461,000 in 2007, or about 26 percent of the population. Davie has a long history of racial strife. Susannah Bryan(South Florida Sun-Sentinel).

On May 5, 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced, in a press release, that the EEOC settled a racial harassment lawsuit involving hangman’s nooses, KKK graffiti and racial slurs at a construction site in Pennsylvania.  See,  EEOC Press Release,  http://www.eeoc,gov/press/5-5-08.html , 5/5/08.  The EEOC said that the racial harassment included a life size noose made of heavy rope hung from a beam, the regular use of the “N-word,” racially offensive comments made to black individuals, including “I think everyone should own one,” as well as racist graffiti such as “coon,” and “I love the Ku Klux Klan.”  Id.  The EEOC’s Philadelphia District Director, who oversaw the investigation that preceded the lawsuit, said “It should be obvious to construction companies that employees in this industry have the same legal protections against discrimination as those who work in an office setting.”  Id.  A trial attorney responsible for handling the lawsuit for the EEOC added as follows: “The class members had the courage to come forward and complain, first to supervisors, who did not take action, and then to the EEOC, which did.”  Id.

Whether construction company race discrimination occurs in Beaumont, Dallas, Houston or elsewhere, victims of construction site racial harassment and race discrimination are protected by federal law and can report race discrimination in the construction industry to the EEOC and consult an attorney to investigate whether a race discrimination lawsuit in Beaumont, Dallas, Houston or elsewhere may ultimately be appropriate under the facts and circumstances of the potential construction site race discrimination case.

The Houston Police Department has found no wrongdoing in some 1,700 incidents in which its police officers intentionally fired a Taser, and during the last four years only five officers have been disciplined for misusing their Tasers, although not one of those incidents involved the actual shocking of a suspect, according to the Houston Chronicle.  See, Khanna, Roma, “Few In HPD Disciplined Over Tasers: Out of 69 Investigations Only 5 Allegations Sustained,” Houston Chronicle, 8/17/08, p. A1.  As reported by the Houston Chronicle, HPD reprimanded officers for threatening people with their stun guns, repeatedly discharging them while off duty and brandishing the weapon in a dispute in an elementary school carpool line.  Id.  In one complaint an officer shocked his own stepson.  Id.  In another incident, an officer shocked a 59-year-old woman in a dispute over laundry.  Id.  The article states that the use of Tasers, sold as an alternative to the deadly force of firearms, has been controversial in Houston since HPD first purchased hundreds of Tasers in 2004 after which time the weapons quickly triggered public criticism with findings that officers often used them on unarmed people who committed no crime and that the vast majority were black.  Id.

With respect to the incident involving a Houston police officer shocking his own stepson, the boy’s grandmother was quoted by the Houston Chronicle as follows: “If that is how they deal with family problems, how are they dealing with the public?”  Id.  In addition, “I can’t believe that this is how they want officers to use their Taser … At home, on their kids?”  Id.

In an unrelated domestic related incident, the Tampa Tribune reported on July 8, 2008 that a sheriff’s deputy used a Taser on his wife and held a service revolver to her head before being arrested and held for mental evaluation.  See, Poltilove, Josh, “Deputy Accused Of Taser Attack On Wife,” Tampa (Fl) Tribune, http://www.freerepublic.com , 7/8/08.

Reporting further findings, the Houston Chronicle “found that the majority of Taser incidents escalated from common police calls including traffic stops, nuisance calls and reports of suspicious people.”  Id.

Gratuitous violence, unnecessary deployments and misuse of electroshock weapons is a concern since the weapons are not toys and may cause serious personal injury or wrongful death.

Tasers emit charges causing electromuscular disruption, incapacitating a person temporarily.  See, George, Cindy, ” Family Sues Over Taser Use,” Houston Chronicle, 8/11/08, p. B2.  However, Amnesty International contends that more than 300 people subdued by police Tasers in the United States have died since 2001, and, as reported by the Houston Chronicle, a recent interim report from the Justice Department said many safety aspects of the stun guns remain unknown and that “secondary or indirect effects” may result in death.  Id.  In this regard, the Justice Department recommended that police officers avoid mulitple shocks.  Id.  Others are not as unclear about the health effects of Tasers, including two heart specialists with the University of British Columbia who told an inquiry into the use of Tasers in May, 2008 that a jolt from the weapons can “almost certainly” cause heart problems and possibly even sudden cardiac arrest.  See, The Canadian Press, “Tasers Can Cause Cardiac Arrest: Heart Specialists,” May 21, 2008, http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080521/taser_doctor_080521/20

According to Dr. Mehdi Razavi, a Texas Heart Institute Electrophysiologist, a Taser shock stimulates muscle fibers, creating “a near state of paralysis” and potentially creating cardiac rhythm disturbances that might be lethal in people with blocked arteries or stressed hearts.  See, George, Cindy, ” Family Sues Over Taser Use,” Houston Chronicle, 8/11/08, p. B2.  Moreover, HealthDay News recently posted an article at ModernMedicine.com in which it referenced a paper in the August Journal of Emergency Nursing urging emergency room preparedness to handle taser injuries in light of law enforcement officers’ growing use of Tasers and accumulating amounts of deaths from the electroshock devices.  See, “Taser Injuries Require Preparation In ERs,” HealthDay News, http://www.modernmedicine.com , 7/28/08.

Recently, two Houston area residents filed a federal lawsuit accusing Harris County, the Harris County Sheriff and nine Harris County Deputies of contributing to the wrongful death of a Houston man by shocking him with a stun gun and allegedly taking their time getting him to a hospital.  See, George, cindy, “Family Sues Over Taser Use,” Houston Chronicle, 8/11/08, p. B2.  Further, on August 13, 2008, the Chicago Tribune posted an article stating that a Louisiana grand jury indicted a white police officer on charges of manslaughter and official malfeasance for repeatedly Taser shocking a handcuffed black suspect, resulting in the man’s death due to cardiac arrest.  See, Witt, Howard, “Former Cop Indicted In Taser Death In Louisiana,”  http://www.chicagotribune.com , 8/13/08. On June 7, 2008, Bloomberg.com reported that Taser International, Inc., the nation’s largest stun gun manufacturer, lost a $6.2 million jury verdict over the death of a California man who died after police shot him multiple times with the weapon.  See, Fisk, Margaret, “Taser Loses 1st Product-Liability Suit: Jury Awards $6 Million,” http://www.bloomberg.com , 6/7/08.  A day before the Bloomberg.com article, a posting at HighBoldtage.com reported that Birmingham, Alabama police were investigating the in custody death of a Birmingham man who dies after being shot with a Taser.  See, “Birmingham Man Dies In Police Custody,” http://www.highboldtage.com , 6/6/08.

Tha lawsuit against Harris County joins other active civil cases against Houston area law enforcement agencies by people stunned with Tasers, “including Houston Texans lineman Fred Weary.”  See, George, Cindy, “Family Sues Over Taser Use,” Houston Chronicle, 8/11/08, p. B2.  In the racially explosive case of the Louisiana Taser related death, attorneys filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court, accusing city officials of civil rights violations.  See, Witt, Howard, “Former Cop Indicted In Taser Death In Louisiana,” http://www.chicagotribune.com , 8/13/08. 

Victims of Taser misuse, police brutality and excessive force by police in Houston or elsewhere may make complaints to the internal affairs division of the responsible employer in order to document a complaint and trigger an investigation.  In addition, vctims of police misconduct, including stun gun misuse, may consult an attorney to determine whether a civil rights, personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit may be appropriate under the facts and circumstances of the potential case.

On August 13, 2008, the Chicago Tribune posted an article stating that a Louisiana grand jury indicted a white police officer on charges of manslaughter and official malfeasance for repeatedly taser shocking a handcuffed black suspect, resulting in the man’s death due to cardiac arrest.  Witt, Howard, “Former Cop Indicted In Taser Death In Louisiana,” Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-taser_for_webaug14,0,1893768.story , 8/13/08.  While the police officer’s attorney reportedly said that his client was following police procedure during the arrest, the District Attorney was quoted as saying that “[i]t is our intention to show at trial that [the officer] caused the death of Baron Pikes by Tasing him multiple times, unnecessarily and in violation of Louisiana law, and by failing to get him medical attention when it was apparent he needed it.”  Id.  The article described this as a racially explosive case, reporting that witnesses said Baron Pikes pleaded with the police officer to stop tasering him, but within 39 minutes after he was first subdued, Baron Pikes was dead.  Id.

As reported in the article, Dr. Randolph Williams, a coroner, and Dr. Michael Baden, a nationally prominent forensic pathologist who reviewed the case, said that the incident “could be considered to be torture.”  Id.  While city police claimed that Baron Pikes told them during his arrest that he was high on PCP, as well as crack cocaine, and suffered from asthma, Dr. Williams found no evidence of the drugs or any sign of asthma and ruled the death a homicide, noting that Baron Pikes was unconscious when the last two Taser shocks were admininstered - after Baron Pikes had been loaded into a squad car and delivered to the police station.  Id.

Prior to the indictment, attorneys for the mother of Pikes’ 4-year-old son filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the police officer, city officials and Taser International, Inc., accusing the city officials of civil rights violations in the death of Baron Pikes.  Id.

Whether police brutality and excessive force by the police occurs in Louisiana, Houston, Dallas or elsewhere, police mistreatment victims have civil rights and can consult an attorney to see how to protect and assert their rights.

Whether racial profiling occurs in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio or elsewhere, it is intolerable in a civilized society and victims of racial profiling can consult an attorney and also make written complaints, documenting the occurrence and placing law enforcement and responsible employers on notice of racial harassment.  In addition, victims of racial profiling may contact the American Civil Liberties Union or visit the ACLU website at http://www.aclu.org to voice their complaints and seek information about their rights and what steps they can take to document and expose the misconduct.

In this regard, an August 6, 2008 ACLU press release about the ACLU’s “Report on Racial Profiling in Louisiana” discusses the results of a year-long study on racial profiling in Louisiana that looked at data from local law enforcement agencies and information gathered from victims of racial profiling in Louisiana.  See, ACLU Press Release, “ACLU Releases Report On Racial Profiling In Louisiana,” http://www.aclu.org , 8/6/08.  According to the ACLU’s Racial Justice Fellow, Liza Grote, the ACLU’s studies “show that in many cases these stories are true, and that people of color are not treated equally by law enforcement.”  Id.

The ACLU’s report tells victim stories and analyzes arrest and population data from law enforcement agencies in certain Louisiana parishes, concluding that people of color are arrested at a rate higher than their representation in the population.  Id.  “The most extreme example of racial profiling was found in the towns of Bunkie, where people of color are 3.8 times more likely to be arrested than white people, and Mansfield, where people of color are 2.9 times more likely to be arrested than whites.”  Id.

“Racial profiling is wrong and is ineffective policing,” said Marjorie Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Louisiana.  Id.  The press release also quoted the ACLU’s King Downing, who said: “Unfortunately, the report’s data from some of Louisiana’s law enforcement agencies mirrors data from police departments across the country that have been found to commit blatant racial profiling.”  Id.

The report goes on to lay out specific steps law enforcement and community members may take to vigorously move toward ending racial profiling in Louisiana.  Id.  One way includes agreeing to collect racial data on all traffic stops that can be accomplished by the Louisiana legislature mandating all law enforcement agencies to collect racial data on all traffic stops regardless of whether the law enforcement agency has a written policy against racial profiling.  Id.  Citizens and racial profiling witnesses can also help end racial profiling discrimination and harassment by documenting and reporting incidents of racial injustice.

See, http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/36358prs20080806,html?s_src=RSS

Racial profiling by law enforcement and others is not limited exclusively to blacks and can, for example, impact people who are Muslim, Arab, Asian and Hispanic.  In February, 2008, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released a challenge pertaining to racial profiling and illegal detentions of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian men, citing attorneys calling for officials to be held accountable for deprivation of constitutional rights as a result of round-ups that prompted a class action lawsuit filed in 2002.  See, CCR Release, Jen Nessel, http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/newsprint.cgi?file=/news2008/0214-16.htm , 2/14/08.  In addition, Arizona law enforcement has seen recent lawsuits pertaining to Hispanics alleging violations of their civil rights as a result of alleged racial profiling. 

Consequently, racial profiling victims can include not only African-American citizens but also people who are Hispanic, Muslim, Arab and Asian.  Victims of racial profiling may contact an attorney regardless of whether the alleged racial profiling occurred in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio or elsewhere in the United States in order to talk about the incident and determine if the incident may give rise to a claim for damages in Houston, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio or elsewhere.  Just as significant, an important step toward ending mistreatment of people based on color can, when possible, begin with documenting and reporting racial harassment to law enforcement and any other responsible employers, including, but not limited to, companies or businesses who participate in or ignore occurrences of consumer racial profiling in the marketplace.

A spokesman for the FBI’s Pittsburgh office stated that the agency is opening an investigation into the death of 37 year old Andre Thomas who was shot with a taser by a Swissvale police officer after he was allegedly found acting irrationally on a city avenue.  See, http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/17096325/detail.html , “FBI Looking Into Monroeville Man’s Police Tasering, Death,” 8/6/08.  Thomas’ father retained an attorney to learn more about his son’s death, and two witnesses allegedly told a news station that they think excessive force was used after the deceased was hit with the taser.  Id.  Further, a news station obtained information that the officer who used the taser had been the subject of citizen complaints in the past, and, according to an investigator hired by the family, a half dozen witnesses are telling nearly the same story of police mistreatment.  Id.

In another case, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported August 5th that jury selection by attorneys has begun in the excessive force lawsuit of a man suing five police officers after being shot with a taser.  See, Gutieerez, Scott, “Jury Selection Set In Taser Arrest Case,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com , 8/5/08.  In that taser related lawsuit, the plaintiff claims that an officer tackled him from behind and, according to his attorney, medical records allegedly show that the plaintiff had 12 burn marks likely from Taser jolts, a herniated disc, bruised ribs and a shoulder injury.  Id.  On the other hand, the police contend that the plaintiff was drunk and tried to grab an officer after being warned repeatedly to repay a vendor from whom he allegedly took a $5 set of beads.  Id. The plaintiff’s attorney stated that “[o]ur contention is that this was an overreaction and completely over the top … They didn’t need to be tasing him like this.”  Id.

Whether police misconduct or police brutality occurs in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or elsewhere, victims of excessive force or police mistreatment may file complaints with the departments for whom the police officers work in order to provide the employer with written notice of what happened and to request an investigation.  In addition, victims of police mistreatment can contact an attorney to determine whether a police misconduct lawsuit may be appropriate in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or elswhere.

In an article posted at nola.com, The Times-Picayune reporter Jennifer Evans writes about the struggle to rebuild New Orleans after Katrina, quoting Charles Steele Jr., president and chief executive officer of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), as saying that “What we’ve discovered in New Orleans is that it’s one of the most racist communities in this country.”  See, Evans, Jennifer, “Hatrina Exposed Racial Tensions, SCLC Says,” The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/katrina_exposed_racial_tension.html , 7/30/08. According to Mr. Steele, rampant racial discrimination and few economic opportunities create a volatile environment in New Orleans.  Id.  The SCLC, founded in New Orleans by Martin Luther King Jr., was conducting its 50th annual convention in which grass roots community activists, business leaders and scholars from around the world discussed race relations and topics of economic and health disparities facing minorities.  Id.

Excessive force, unreasonable searches, unreasonable detentions and racial profiling of Hispanics or Latinos by the police or law enforcement can violate our laws, including the United States Consitution, and Hispanic or Latino victims of police misconduct - whether it occurs in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas or elsewhere - can contact an attorney to discuss whether a lawsuit in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas or elsewhere is appropriate under the facts and circumstances of the potential case.

In this regard, the washingtonpost.com recently posted an editorial discussing Maricopa County, Arizona’s Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who, according to the editorial, is “determined to make life miserable for illegal immigrants” but “isn’t too particular about how he and his men identify illegal immigrants, or whether they also harass legal immigrants …. or, for that matter, American citizens who happen to be hispanic.”  See, Editorials, “The Reign of ‘Sheriff Joe’: In Arizona, the Perils Of Driving While Brown,” The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com , 7/28/08.  The editorial references a federal lawsuit filed against Maricopa County and Sheriff Arpaio, stating that the lawsuit lays out a pattern of alleged racial profiling by the sheriff’s office, “which by all appearances systematically seizes the flimsiest of pretexts … to check the papers of people of Hispanic descent.”  Id. ”By equating race with immigration status, the sheriff’s office has made moving around Maricopa County risky and at times terrifying for many Latinos, immigrant and native alike,” according to the editorial.  Id. 

The editorial describes what the Sheriff calls “crime suppression sweeps” as blatantly unconstitutional and says that the sweeps have been denounced by Hispanic groups, which consider them racist, as well as the Mayor of Phoenix, who asked the Justice Department to investigate, and by the Governor, who withdrew state funding from the Sheriff’s office.  Id.  

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/27/AR2008072701367.ht