*Press Release RE Arpaio's Most Recent Abuse*** The human rights crisis in Maricopa County, Arizona is reaching Apartheid-like proportions. "Approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched into a separate area of Tent City," reads the first paragraph of Sheriff Arpaio's news release<http://www.mcso.org/include/pr_pdf/Illegal%20Aliens%20Moved%20to%20Their%20Own%20Tent%20City.pdf>. He continues, "This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape… But this is a fence they won't want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock – literally." He concludes announcing the "illegal alien" inmate march at 1:30 p.m. and telling the media when and where to come to watch the spectacle.
A few years ago, Sheriff Arpaio paraded common prisoners in Pink Underwear to degrade them and belittle them with chains around their ankles, waist and wrists while they cleaned the streets of Phoenix. This humiliation took place while most elected officials and public institutions whose job is to protect civil and human rights looked the other way. The human rights abuses of Maricopa County will multiply nationally if the 287g agreements (collaboration between local police and immigration agents) expand and if the Federal Government continues to fail to meet its obligation to20pass and implement immigration reform with path to citizenship and political equality. If the 287 (g) agreement certifications expand, they will open the door for local police to replicate Arpaio's immoral and illegal law-enforcement practices without any supervision or oversight. Shockingly, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently issued a directive to expedite<http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1232576802004.shtm> more agreements despite having just come from Phoenix, where Mayor Phil Gordon has requested the FBI to investigate<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTnCqEwUpwA> Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop his abuses. NDLON calls for community organizations, faith-based institutions, and all Americans to denounce and condemn the violation of human and civil rights in AZ. In the absence of government accountability, we must act as independent monitoring bodies in order to stop such a grotesque Human Rights degradation. In the near term, please join=2 0us in calls to Wells Fargo bank asking for the eviction of Joe Arpaio from its corporate offices in Phoenix. More information available here <http://puenteaz.org/>. The new Administration promised to respect human rights and one of first acts was to order dismantling GITMO, the Guantanamo Cuba prison famous for human right abuses. Maricopa County provides an opportunity to stop human rights degradation at home. We are hopeful that the Obama Administration will act and Sheriff Arpaio's spectacles will be investigated and stopped by the US Department of Justice before these malpractices and abuses replicate in other states. -- Shaun 773.828.4336 917.755.7409 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Internet group address: http://groups.google.com/group/ChicagoMayDay To send e-mail: [email protected] To unsuscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
