Re: [blind-democracy] Sheriff Arpaio Paved the Way for Trump

In general I agree with Salvador Reza. But when he said, "...So, I
hate to say it, but with Trump, you know, getting up there and
possibly becoming the next president, the same policies that started
here in Arizona are going to be implemented nationwide", I must remind
Mister Reza that Sheriff Arpaio represents a long history of Racial
Discrimination in this White, Western European founded nation.
In order to even come close to righting this long established wrong,
we must first learn to be honest and address our history. Even in my
own lifetime(1935-20--), I have been witness to every possible racial
insult. From Chinks to Japs to Spics to Wet Backs to all the
multitude of insulting names for Black Americans. And once our White
America was getting along in its infancy, we even began putting down
later arrivals on our White Shores. Micks and Wops and Dagos and
Block Heads were among the names I heard flying from the precious ruby
lips of my all white peers. During world war II(the Good War), my
school chums danced about singing, "If I knew you were coming I'd have
baked a Kike". This take-off of a popular song of the day
demonstrated the hatred of many upper mobile white families in this
secluded Seattle neighborhood toward Jews. We were superior beings
because of two factors. First, we said so. Second, we were White.
Sheriff Arpaio, Donald Trump and yes, even in her heart of hearts,
Hillary Clinton prove by their actions that White is Right,
especially Rich White. Lip service aside, Clinton, if elected, will
prove to Americans that she is really just another Elitist in cloth
coat clothing.
My heart aches for the multitude of Black Americans who will vote for
her, believing she will address their needs. How can they be so
confused that they cannot see the modern day slavery going on right in
front of their eyes? The prison system, especially the growing
private prison industry, has created a slave system every bit as evil
as those long ago "happy times" when America was, to quote Trump,
"beautiful".

Carl Jarvis


On 8/7/16, S. Kashdan <skashdan@scn.org> wrote:
> Sheriff Arpaio Paved the Way for Trump
>
>
>
> By Dennis J. Bernstein
>
>
>
> Consortium News, Tuesday, August 2, 2016
>
>
>
> http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/37069-sheriff-arpaio-paved-the-way-for-trump?tmpl=component&print=1
>
>
>
> Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's embrace of Maricopa County
> Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has built a national reputation for his harsh
> treatment of undocumented migrants and U.S. citizens of Mexican descent, is
>
> a clear signal of how Trump plans to treat Latinos if he becomes president.
>
>
>
> While the federal courts have taken legal steps to restrain Arpaio's most
> flagrant actions, the elected sheriff has set the tone for the right-wing
> debate on immigration and has paved the way for Trump's promise to deport
> all 12 million undocumented people from the United States and build "the
> most beautiful wall you've ever seen."
>
>
>
> For more than seven years, Salvador Reza, a Phoenix-based indigenous rights
>
> leader and long-time human rights activist with Tonatierra, has gone head to
>
> head with Arpaio and was appalled to see the sheriff on stage at the
> Republican National Convention. Dennis Bernstein spoke with Salvador Reza.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: Could [you] begin by just giving us a bit of background in
>
> terms of the kind of work you've been involved in, what your struggle has
> been over the last 10 and 20 years?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, Tonatierra is an indigenous rights organization, and we
>
> see immigration tolerance through that lens. We see that we have been here
> for thousands of years, and these are the lands where the Aztecs migrated
> from. So when we defend anybody that's being persecuted by Joe Arpaio or by
>
> this racist law, we do it from that context.
>
>
>
> We've been fighting Arpaio since 2007, when he started deporting day
> laborers massively from a furniture store. We were able to get him out of
> there, basically by almost breaking the store financially. We've been
> instrumental in putting pressure on Joe Arpaio everywhere he turns. He
> arrested me twice, once voluntarily and the second one because he wanted to
>
> teach me a lesson. And the litigation is still going on.
>
>
>
> But then [State Rep] Russell Pierce arrested me too, for opposing his racist
>
> policies in the state legislature. So, I hate to say it, but with Trump, you
>
> know, getting up there and possibly becoming the next president, the same
> policies that started here in Arizona are going to be implemented
> nationwide. With the exception that, now with Donald Trump, you don't have a
>
> sheriff that's relying on taxpayers' money. He'll be relying on corporate
> money plus tax payers' money. So that makes him more dangerous. [...] So he
>
> doesn't care whether the justice department, the judge, whatever puts
> pressure on Arpaio or what he stands for, because Donald Trump basically
> stands for Arpaio.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: That was a good way to set the scene for your multiple
> confrontations with Arpaio and the policy that he, and now Trump, represent.
>
> But let me, for a moment, ask you to give us your reaction when you heard
> both that [...] Arpaio would be a major supporter [of Trump], and then that
>
> [Arpaio] was given a platform [at the Republican National Convention]
> leading up on the day that Trump would speak. What did that mean to you?
> What went through your mind? How did that reverberate in your community?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, what it means to us, and what it means to our
> community, is that the racist policy in Arizona, at the national level, are
>
> going to be massively pushed by the Trump administration if he gets elected.
>
> The thing is that Trump is only like a mini-me of Arpaio, with the exception
>
> that this mini-me is actually more powerful than Arpaio. Cause Arpaio is
> local at a county, and Donald Trump will be at the international level and
> the national level.
>
>
>
> So what it means to us, the way we saw it, is very dangerous. What we
> predicted would happen is happening now. We didn't stop it in Arizona, we
> were able to squash it a little bit, but we were not able to stop it. And SB
>
> 1070 is the law of the land right now. Any police force, any police officer,
>
> can stop you for what they consider reasonable stop, and basically ask you
> for your documentation. And that's what is about to happen, nationwide. And
>
> to ask what it meant to us, it's a very dangerous precedent. People better
> hold on, because I don't think they're ready for what's coming.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: Can you talk... [about] the level of violence that Joe
> Arpaio perpetrated on the people of Arizona, and brown people across the
> state [...] and very specifically, because a lot of people don't understand.
>
> I know that you were put in jail a couple of times. But just remind people
> some of the brutalities. Some of them led to fatalities that Arpaio
> propagated, forced, pushed as sort of a vigilante operation. Just so we have
>
> a taste of what he's doing on the ground, why you were able to be a little
> bit successful, in the courts.
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Arpaio, the type of damage that he inflicts upon our
> community, is first of all psychological--the climate of fear. That is daily
>
> for a child. For example, when a parent leaves, [the child] doesn't know if
>
> he's going to have the parent back home that afternoon. The parent goes to
> work, he doesn't know whether he'll come back from the work place, right?
> And, more than that, the tent city is an area where at a temperature of 115
>
> to 120 degrees on the outside, getting to be 140 to 150 [degrees] under the
>
> tents. And that type of scenario...
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: So, he created a tent city to house, and essentially
> subtly torture, the community that he was arresting en masse.
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Exactly. And then he marched them for all the media to see,
> and humiliate them, and basically say, "Look, I am tough on illegal
> immigration. This is the way it is supposed to be." And even in [Trump's]
> speech [at the RNC] he said that in this nation people care more about
> illegal aliens, for the lives of "illegal aliens," than U.S. citizens. And
> there was Arpaio saying it, exactly when the judge saying he could not be
> arresting people on the grounds of their status.
>
>
>
> The thing is, the torture for the community here, and the violence against
> the community, is very bad. Like Arpaio, he has two, three people getting
> killed in his jails, that we know of. And then there's people that die, and
>
> we don't know of [...]. Every year there's 2 to 3 people that get killed in
>
> jail.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: What's an example? How do they die in the jails? Explain
>
> to us why it's suspicious.
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, sometimes it's not even suspicious, they basically beat
>
> them to death. Like this veteran that [...] had PTSD. He goes in there, he's
>
> complying. And they surround him, about ten deputies, and beat him into
> unconsciousness. And they basically left him there at the powder room [...].
>
> And then another deputy actually steps on somebody, on their neck. He puts
> him on a table, gets on top of the table, and steps on his neck.
>
>
>
> And those are the ones that we know of. The ones we don't know of, I don't
> know what it is. But the thing is, Arpaio is bad on his jails, Arpaio is bad
>
> on enforcement, Arpaio is bad on the psychological warfare against the
> community. Yet that's what Donald Trump stands for. That's a problem. Donald
>
> Trump is just like Joe Arpaio, except magnified by a lot more power.
>
>
>
> We're talking about the kinds of policies that are now being threatened by
> Donald Trump, by his close relationship with Joe Arpaio. He is now an
> advisor to Trump, an informal advisor, a supporter. [He] was featured at the
>
> convention the day leading up to Trump's statement and acceptance of the
> Republican nomination for the presidential convening.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: Now we know, Salvador, that under the Obama government,
> [Obama has] been referred to as the deporter-in-chief. Essentially, Arpaio
> has a friend, in that the prison industrial complex, the private prison
> industry has blossomed. And it exists now to torture the kinds of people
> that Joe Arpaio arrests, and sort of torture at the local level. That's part
>
> of the whole national security program that is inspired by this kind of
> policy. How do you respond to that?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, I'll just tell you that Arpaio, for 18 years, was on
> the 18th floor of the Wells Fargo building here in Phoenix, Arizona, living
>
> in corporate offices, because Wells Fargo is one of the biggest investors in
>
> the prison industrial complex. So, he basically sent people to the jails,
> and they get something like $200/day for everybody they send there. So, that
>
> tells you a little bit about that.
>
>
>
> And the difference between the two parties, to me, the Democratic party and
>
> the Republican party, it doesn't matter who gets up there, they will be
> still under the influence of the prison industrial complex. And they will
> continue this type of immigration policies, including [how] Obama deported
> 2.5 million people, that I know of, during his tenure. That's more than
> anybody else [...] and we're talking about the massive deportations in the
> '30s and massive deportations in the '40s, the massive deportations anytime.
>
> I mean he has deported more people than anybody else. Yet, he's supposed to
>
> be our friend.
>
>
>
> So, to me, the Democrats and the Republicans or any party, in reality, they
>
> will all have to basically kowtow to the prison industrial complex. So, we
> have to organize on our own, and put pressure [on] whatever party is up
> there, because maybe one will deport more than the other. But, [...] to me,
>
> 2.5 million people deported in eight years is a lot of people.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: And are you getting some of the same reports that we're
> getting, that the treatment of folks who are being arrested by the
> government, taken into custody by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],
>
> being swept up, are being brutalized at various levels and in many ways?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Oh, yeah. I mean people die all the time under custody. They
>
> are punished severely if they protest. If they try to organize in any way,
> shape, or form they basically put them in the hole. People whose only crime
>
> was to work, all of a sudden they have to deal with being thrown in the
> hole, in solitary. So, it's not nicey-nice, like they say.
>
>
>
> It's not even supposed to be imprisonment. It's supposed to be detention.
> But in reality it's a long term detention, for a lot of people stay there
> for 1.5 to 2 years waiting to resolve their case. And they don't let them
> out into the streets, even though they're no danger to anybody, because
> they're collecting money on it.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: We talked a little bit about this before, but I want to
> come back to the atmospheric pressure. Could you talk a little bit more
> about how people have really changed their lives, how they live more
> cautiously, how they live more in fear, how they perhaps act in ways that
> try and anticipate and take precautions against being arrested, being abused
>
> by these laws?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, the people that get close to organizations where they
> know their rights, more than likely they'll not get deported. More than
> likely they'll just end up, one day, in a local detention center and let go.
>
> But the people that don't know that, they end up being deported, because
> they'll sign. Once they sign, they lose all their rights. In reality, the
> way people behave [...] right now, they try to drive less. If they don't
> have to, they won't drive. They basically, something as simple as giving
> them a drivers license is something that is beyond the state of Arizona, or
>
> many other states.
>
>
>
> And what happens is that [this law enforcement creates]... they say, "Okay,
>
> I'm going to make you a criminal." And then when [immigrants] do their
> everyday stuff, and then they get criminalized, then they say, "Well, they
> got arrested because they violated the law," when they created the law so
> that they could arrest people. It's no different than apartheid in the
> Bantustan, and apartheid laws that basically were made so to keep a certain
>
> sector of cities. They wanted the labor of the African communities, the
> South African communities, but they didn't want them there.
>
>
>
> And, to me, the same thing [is happening] but at a global level, at the
> continental level. They want our labor but they don't want us. So that type
>
> of situation, to me, is inhumane, immoral and basically goes to the very
> heart of our humanity. And, unfortunately, Trump seems to have at least
> close to 50% of the population of the United States wanting him to be
> president.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: Well, he's up by a couple of points in the latest polls,
>
> that's for sure. And I guess this thing about repression also goes to the
> fact that people will be more hesitant to seek medical help when they need
> it. Or for a woman to deal with an abusive husband, or a man in the house,
> if they need the help. So this becomes a grave danger, given this kind of
> law and repression. This is what people who you work with feel like every
> day in Arizona, huh?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Yes. And you know what's really funny? Some of the local
> [police] chiefs in this area, don't think that their job is to do
> immigration work. And they basically don't like for the police officers to
> do immigration work. Yet, the law permits them to do it. And the thing is,
> you have very strong police officers' associations that basically lobbied
> for the law, and they will fight, tooth and nail, for the officers to be
> able to deport people.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: Under ICE now, deportations are considered a national
> security action. And folks, everyday folks, people who do the hardest work
> in this country, who get abused every day for it, are all of a sudden become
>
> turned into national security risks, and thus it justifies the brutality of
>
> law enforcement. How do you respond to that?
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, it's like one, they criminalize you, then they
> dehumanize you. When they dehumanize you, they can do anything they want to
>
> against you, and the population will applaud it, or a certain percentage of
>
> the population will applaud it. It's no different than what Hitler did, you
>
> know? He demonized the Jewish communities, and then pretty soon people that
>
> had Jewish workers, or were working with Jewish people, then they started
> denouncing them, and then trying to save themselves from not being
> associated with them. And that's what the laws do here. [...] If you give
> somebody a ride that's an "illegal alien" then you are aiding and abetting.
>
> Then the law says you become the criminal, even though you were giving a
> ride to a friend. That's the type of situation that's being created,
> unfortunately, nationwide, now.
>
>
>
> Dennis Bernstein: And, just finally, just so we're fair and balanced here,
>
> we're sort of dealing with the major candidates. I imagine that you have
> some real concern with Hillary Clinton besides her connection to Obama. The
>
> fact that she, as Secretary of State, supported the coup in Honduras, and
> policies, free trade policies, that have forced migration out of countries
> in Central America, and so on and so forth. I guess that's a concern as
> well, on the other side.
>
>
>
> Salvador Reza: Well, like I said, both parties to me are the same. They're
> just appendages of a capitalist system that only see profit. They don't care
>
> about human beings. To me they're the same. Now, what we have to decide is
> [...] which one of the three is the worse evil. Because [...] under this
> false democracy, that's all that's left. They leave us to... just to deal
> with who can we influence more, Hillary or Donald. And I really don't know,
>
> in reality, which one is the best, because both of them are pretty bad.
>
>
>
> The thing is, we have to make the decision whether we want [...] somebody
> that's going to be crazy enough to unleash the police forces throughout the
>
> United States, and then create a vigilante type of a movement, like we have
>
> here in Arizona. Or, do we want somebody that's going to be more middle of
> the road, trying to look liberal? Where they'll let you at least say a word
>
> or two, whether they listen to you or not, at least they give you an
> opening. So, that's what we're going to make a decision on. But to me, both
>
> parties are just the same face... two faces of the same coin.
>
>
>
> Dennis J. Bernstein is a host of "Flashpoints" on the Pacifica radio network
>
> and the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom. You can access
>
> the audio archives at www.flashpoints.net. You can get in touch with the
> author at dbernstein@igc.org.
>
>
>
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