Unlawful Arrest And Detention Lawsuit

The Public Record posted an article by William Fisher entitled “Sheriff Arpaio Slapped With Another Civil Rights Lawsuit” at http://pubrecord.org/nation/3835/sheriff-arapaio-slapped-another-civil/ .  In the August 21, 2009 news story, Fisher reports that the American Civil Liberties Union (”ACLU”) and the ACLU of Arizona filed suit against Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, and several of his deputies for the alleged illegal arrest and detention of a U. S. citizen and a legal resident.  According to the article, Sheriff Arpaio describes himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” and is being investigated by the Department of Justice (”DOJ”) for civil rights violations.  As stated in the article, the ACLU lawsuit contends that Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (”MCSO”) deputies racially profiled the father and son as they drove their pickup truck on a busy public road and illegally arrested and detained them, violating the U. S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law and prohibition on unreasonable seizures.  An ACLU attorney is quoted in the article as saying “This country was founded on the freedom of individuals to go about their business without fear of being unlawfully stopped, picked up, or interrogated by the government.”  More specifically, the ACLU contends that the father was driving to work when, without provocation, an MCSO vehicle cut in front of him, forcing him to stop abruptly, and MCSO deputies then ordered the father and son out of their vehicle, frisked them and handcuffed them.  According to Fisher’s article, civil libertarians say the latest lawsuit is emblematic of anti-immigrant sentiment in the U. S. - arguably most intense in states that border Mexico - and of mixed signals coming from the Department of Homeland Security, whose Immigration and Enforcement unit has federal responsibility for enforcing immigration regulations.  In addition, the article states that Arpaio has a long history of conflict with other law enforcement and judicial authorities and this newest lawsuit is adding another lawsuit to thousands already pending against him.  In this regard, Fisher reports that from 2004 through November 2007, Arpaio was the target of 2,150 lawsuits in U. S. District and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts - 50 times as many prison-conditions lawsuits as the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined.