Posted on 06/20/2009 11:14:11 AM PDT by SandRat
PHOENIX — The Rev. Al Sharpton on Friday called for opponents of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has aggressively cracked down on illegal immigration, to videotape alleged racial profiling by the sheriff’s office.
The civil rights leader said the videos will help the U.S. Department of Justice in an investigation of alleged civil rights abuses by Arpaio’s office.
“We’re gonna start some freedom rides around this county, to show how people of a certain skin color are treated different than other people,” Sharpton told a crowd of several hundred people at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix.
Sharpton spoke with Arpaio later Friday in a meeting that the sheriff called cordial.
Arpaio said Sharpton did not mention his freedom rides plan, but asked about racial profiling. “I tried to educate him that we don’t do it,” Arpaio said.
Sharpton had planned a press conference after the meeting but was whisked away as dozens of Arpaio supporters rushed toward him. About 50 protesters for both sides were outside the sheriff’s office in downtown Phoenix, separated by a police line. The meeting joined two figures known for outsized egos and media antics, but Sharpton had said it would have a serious message. In April, Sharpton called for Arpaio to resign or be removed from office.
“I will not fly all the way across country to engage in the personality of Sheriff Joe,” Sharpton said. “But I will fly anywhere to protect the rights of Citizen Jose and Citizen Jamal.”
Critics have said sheriff’s deputies conducted racial profiling last spring during immigration and crime sweeps in some Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix. The sweeps had led Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to ask for a federal investigation of Arpaio for possible civil rights violations.
“You cannot have law enforcement that is based on skin color rather than proper deeds,” Sharpton said. “If I break the law, arrest me. But don’t make me a suspect because of the color of my skin, or because of my language.”
Arpaio has said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes.
The sheriff has taken a hard line against illegal immigration and strongly enforces Arizona’s employer-sanctions law, which punishes businesses that knowingly hire illegal workers. He worked with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas to use the state’s human-smuggling law to charge illegal immigrants for conspiring to smuggle themselves into the state.
Arpaio has clashed with other local law enforcement officials who said the sheriff was damaging a delicate relationship between the police and the Hispanic community. Arpaio said he told Sharpton that he would continue his immigration enforcement despite criticism and the civil rights investigation, adding that Sharpton “may have learned that maybe with this sheriff my people aren’t as bad as he may read in the newspapers or as some politicians tell him.”
Brandy Baron, a 53-year-old Arpaio supporter, said she’s glad Arpaio agreed to meet with a harsh critic and called Sharpton “a loser who needs to mind his own business.”
Arpaio protester Sheila Ryan, 68, said she hopes Sharpton’s visit will put a bigger national spotlight on Arpaio’s immigration sweeps. “It takes a big name like that to bring attention to the issue in a significant way,” she said.
Will Tawana Brawley participate in the “freedom rides”?
Aw, shutup Al, you filthy animal. Al, you lack credibilty from the past racist stunts you pulled.
How many blonde haired blue eyed Nordic looking individuals are sneaking across the Mexican border....
SHUT UP, AL!!!! Just shut up!
Why does this idiot even get his name printed?
It's about time someone showed an interest in the widespread racial discrimination against whites and the preferential treatment given to non-whites.
White and Black Americans are fed up with illegal immigration and the loss of our freedom and country to the policies customed made for illegals!
“How many blonde haired blue eyed Nordic looking individuals are sneaking across the Mexican border”?
About the same number rushing the beaches of Florida. Lots of Cubans, Haitians, Mexicans, Guats, Hondurans but not too many
Nordics.
Where in Florida ya at?
Sharpton deserves a pink suit and bologna sandwiches. He’s already full of...baloney.
Rev. Al needs to take is racist BS back to whereever the hell he comes from.
Hey Al, dontcha just hate guys that actually do they're jobs?
Kinda rubs ya the wrong way huh Al?
"..Freddie's Fashion Mart
In 1995, a black Pentecostal Church, the United House of Prayer, which owned a retail property on 125th Street, asked Fred Harari, a Jewish tenant who operated Freddie's Fashion Mart, to evict his longtime subtenant, a black-owned record store called The Record Shack. Sharpton led a protest in Harlem against the planned eviction of The Record Shack.[46][47][48] Sharpton told the protesters, "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business."[49]
On December 8, 1995, Roland J. Smith Jr., one of the protesters, entered Harari's store with a gun and flammable liquid, shot several customers and set the store on fire. The gunman fatally shot himself, and seven store employees died of smoke inhalation..."
This is who Sharpton is, Race pimping scum. He is smoother now but essentially the same.
It seems Al baby is a little cautious about attacking Sheriff Joe, as well he should be.
Al knows he’ll come out second best, Sheriff Joe won’t back down or be intimidated.
slight delay. Still collecting enough feces with which to cover her pulchritude.
Oh Ya’, another thing, Rev. Al just eggzackly where is your church located?
I’m just sayin’, fer the love of Pete
Per a family member who has pretty close access to Arpaio, Joe is worried about this Al Sharpton thing. Thinks it might gain traction.
Because he's a Democrat race-agitator and his targets are almost always conservatives.
The MSM prefers to cover such match-ups. But only from one side...
I would ROTFLMAO if Sharpton went out there, broke the Law and Arpaio arrested him...and made the race baiter wear those pink pajamas.
An internet picture of that would be worth folding money!!
Why isn’t Sharpton in prison?
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