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Phoenix, Arizona – A night that was deemed to be a “First Amendment Forum” for faculty, staff and students of the Walter
Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, turned into a scenario where practical lessons about
grassroots organizing and protesting set the tone of the event and dominated the dynamics of the night.
The forum, organized by Cronkite, could it have been just another “Meet the Press” event, but the very name and likeness
of the guest assured a night as controversial as him. Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio –synonymous of protest and approval,
abuse of power and support, and defiance and enforcement, depending on what side of the polarizing debate a person
stands on– guaranteed a full house, heated arguments and protests.
The decision of inviting Arpaio to speak about freedom of speech and freedom of the press was comparable to inviting
pathologist Jack Kevorkian to speak about the right to live. Therefore, protesting forces were set in motion,
understandably, immediately after an announcement about his appearance was made, and at the end, demonstrators
were running the show both inside and outside of the school’s building in Downtown Phoenix.
Not that Sheriff Arpaio needs such invitations to have protesters and journalists following him around. Both protesters and
reporters have been consistently following him around the county for a few years, particularly since the Fall of 2007, when
a furniture store in East Phoenix hired off-duty sheriff deputies to patrol their premises, allegedly to fence off day laborers
from their property.
Then, in the Spring of 2008, the Maricopa County Sheriff Department (MCSO) systematically began conducting “crime
suppression” operations in areas where immigration populations concentrate, a move evidently intended to arrest
undocumented immigrants.
Prior and after Monday night’s event, Sheriff Arpaio’s opponents set up a tone of disruption, a tactic that has been
employed in other events where Arpaio makes public appearances, from book presentations, to outdoor press
conferences, to daily sit-ins outside the building where his offices are located in downtown Phoenix.
Predictably, the disruption itself eventually took over during the Cronkite’s interview, aborting the highly-criticized interview
with Sheriff Arpaio by means of an obviously planned and uninterrupted singing outburst by a small group of protesters
inside Cronkite’s “First Amendment Forum” hall.
The unsurprising interruption froze the audience at first and led to an abrupt end of the interview, 15 minutes before its
planned duration, a conclusion upsetting some and pleasing others. Some students in the audience yelled at the singers
to “shut up,” as the three professors, visibly disappointed by the interference, rose up from their chairs. Sheriff Arpaio
himself walked out of the event, calling the continuous singing “ridiculous.” He left the building as he came in: using a
back door in the second floor, and flocked as usual by a contingent of bodyguards and other staff.
Even though some students were protesting by quietly holding signs against Arpaio, the first 45 minutes of the interview
were orderly and undisrupted. When two groups of students moved in to display two big hand-written banners, something
about to happen was sensed in the forum’s atmosphere, as if some people were taking assigned positions toward the
end of the event. Shortly after the two signs were displayed, the singing group began their planned action.
Arpaio’s responses and non-responses to questions asked by the panel –composed by ASU journalism professor Rick
Rodriguez, Cronkite News Service, broadcast director Susan Green, and CNS digital news director Steve Elliot– kept him
afloat, as he is used to his characteristic rhetorical arsenal and to the resource of evasiveness. To corner Arpaio, a
journalist needs more than though questions: it takes accurate and precise data.
Altogether, the event was a banquet for Arpaio’s hunger for attention. Journalists, photographers, TV cameras, professors,
students, supporters, protestors, police officers, songs, signs, chants, arguments, record attendance: all and every part of
the spectacle prepared just for “His Toughness,” Joseph M. Arpaio, the ruler of Maricopa County, positioned at the center
of an event otherwise ordinary and usual.
The fact that Arpaio’s interview was cut 15 minutes short mostly hurt the interviewers' chance to continue asking him
questions, as well as the journalism students that were there for their own learning experience. Demonstrators had the
right to protest Arpaio, but didn’t have the right to spoil the interview session for the faculty and students.
Protesters invaded the building’s lobby after they learned the sheriff had walked out, putting on a loud celebration any
unfamiliar observer would have thought was a party over Arpaio’s defeat in a reelection.
Verbal confrontations between the sheriff’s foes and friends continued outside the building for a while. Ugly words and
angry expressions in the midst of pro and con Arpaio’s signs and American flags slowly faded, as people began to go
home.
The almost octogenarian sheriff left the place perhaps feeling unscratched, and thinking that he can set up press
conferences any time he wants, anyway. Protestors will continue to follow Arpaio and so will the media, so he in no way
will lack the attention he seeks and enjoys no matter what.
Copyright © 2009 Hispanic Institute of Social Issues
Grassroots Journalism
www.barriozona.com
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Before and after the interview, sheriff's opponents set a tone of disruption. At the end, the commotion
itself took over the event.
By Eduardo Barraza
BARRIOZONA
November 30, 2009
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Draws Students, Protesters and
Supporters at Cronkite School's Interview