Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
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Guadalupe's Residents Protest Against Arpaio
Guadalupe, Arizona. As if it were an anniversary celebration to
remember the sweeps his department conducted in Guadalupe a
year ago, Sheriff Joe Arpaio made an impressively ridiculous visit to
the town on March 26. The underlying message is there, subject to
any interpretation, but Arpaio’s heavy deployment of deputies
seemed to be intended to remind people that in spite of all the
controversy, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department (MCSO) is
still the law enforcement authority there. That he, as one famous
Mexican song goes, “continues being the king.”
In any case, the unnecessarily wasteful use of MCSO’s resources –a
battalion of vehicles, deputies, and plain-clothes employees–
showed either the extent of Arpaio’s despise for this small
community or the size of his fear. An unfamiliar visitor to Guadalupe
would have thought a dignitary or perhaps even President Obama
himself was in town, not an old sheriff from one of the 15 Arizona
counties.
From the standpoint of the sheriff deputies who stood there trying to
impress the crowd of protestors with intimidating postures and
bored-to-death faces, the night was a total waste. Guadalupe’s
families, along with their mischievous, activists-in-the-making
children, were not in any way or at any point a threat to the safety
of the town. Most sheriff deputies observing the crowd were facing
the sunset of the windy and dusty evening, and some were probably
annoyed about the ludicrous position they were assigned of
protecting their boss from citizens from rival points of view exercising
their freedom of expression, by yelling, screaming and gesturing at
each other.
But if Arpaio’s message to this proud community of about 5,500
people was to remind them about his April 3 and 4 of 2008 sweeps,
they were prepared to remind him as well how bravely, defiantly and
spontaneously they confronted him a year ago, giving the
septuagenarian sheriff a black eye to his arrogance. For on the
second day of his immigration sweep, he had to gutlessly move his
command center to the safety of his department’s complex, a few
miles east of Guadalupe.
The night of April 3, 2008, as the crowd of protesters that included
public officials angrily confronted him, Arpaio was boiling in anger,
challenging the former mayor of Guadalupe to end the contract they
had to receive law-enforcement services from the MCSO. Back then,
there was almost a general consensus by town officials and the
community to go ahead and “fire” Arpaio and to kick him out of town.
Guadalupe supported Maricopa sheriff’s candidate Dan Saban, and
were ready to contract with another law enforcement agency to take
care of their safety.
But even before Sheriff Arpaio was reelected for a fifth term in
November of last year, the likelihood of his department leaving
Guadalupe began to fade. Attempts to contract another police
department were unsuccessful. As the alternatives to have a new
agency providing police services to the town died away, and new
leadership in the town’s Council took over, the problem shifted from
how to get rid of Arpaio to how to convince him to stay. So a year
later after Guadalupe began to seek out either to end its contract
with the MCSO or help elect Dan Saban, Arpaio returned on March
26, invited by new Mayor Frank Montiel, for a sweet revenge with an
excessive, insulting and intimidating show of force.
For hours before Arpaio’s arrival, sheriff deputies were driving their
cars up and down Guadalupe’s main avenue, Avenida del Yaqui, as
well as going in and out of the town’s streets. The town’s council
building became a fortress that seemed to be on alert for a possible
bomb threat. Groups of deputies were pouring in to the small town in
shuttle vans, as if they were arriving to the scene of a hostage
situation. They surrounded the building on what seemed like a drill
for a terrorist attack. Why did Guadalupe authorities allow the sheriff
to deploy such a needles and abusive apparatus of force against
their peaceful citizens?
This year’s protest, unlike 2008’s, was not as intense, even though a
couple dozen of Arpaio’s groupies, who not just support him but
literally love him, showed up. Some of these supporters were
standing on the opposite side of the sidewalk across the driveway of
the parking lot, when a load of sheriff deputies arrived. These
officers, some of them elderly men who look like members of the
sheriff’s posse, were received like war heroes returning home from
Iraq with cheers and clapping from Arpaio’s fans. These deputies
dutifully rushed to the “emergency” zone to join the battalion that
surrounded the building to protect it from housewives, working men,
teenagers and children. BARRIOZONA’s multimedia coverage video of
this protest shows this moment.
Verbal confrontations among Guadalupe’s residents and Arpaio’s
followers abounded. At one point, there was even a sort of singing
match between fans and foes of Joe Arpaio. “Nananana, nananana,
hey, hey, hey, goodbye,” the patriots sang in chorus, led by an
elderly man who in the Fall of 2007’s protests outside the Pruitt’s
furniture store in East Phoenix, adapted this old song to say
“goodbye” to undocumented immigrants. On the other side of the
driveway, led by Puente Arizona’s organizer Salvador Reza, town
residents intoned a Mexican popular song, parodied for the occasion:
“We will run Arpaio out of Guadalupe, from Guadalupe we will run
this “guey” out!”
As Arpaio made his appearance before the town’s council, a youthful
relief of MEChA group members, led by ASU’s student and youth
activist Sandra Castro, attracted the youngest members who over-
shouted the opposite side with the chant “racists, go home!, racists,
go home!, racists, go home!,” that infuriated some anti-
demonstrators. After Arpaio left, and MCSO’s operative was
disassembled, the small crowd began to dissipate as the night fell
over Guadalupe.
There was not the slightest indication that this protest was going to
turn into a riot. Arpaio is frequently trying to play with people’s minds
using deceptive rhetoric that is actually lying. One needs to
remember in his early career he was trained to be a professional liar
as an undercover narcotics agent. In past protests, he has actually
given place to volatile atmospheres. This time it was Arpaio’s
payback to a town that had the courage to defy him.
Aside protests and the sheriff’s likelihood to return to do more
sweeps when he pleases, without any other alternatives at least for
now, Guadalupe residents are stuck with the MCSO and its boss Joe
Arpaio. The contract with the law enforcement agency he heads will
continue, just as the people’s struggle against him there and
elsewhere is far from being over.
remember the sweeps his department conducted in Guadalupe a
year ago, Sheriff Joe Arpaio made an impressively ridiculous visit to
the town on March 26. The underlying message is there, subject to
any interpretation, but Arpaio’s heavy deployment of deputies
seemed to be intended to remind people that in spite of all the
controversy, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department (MCSO) is
still the law enforcement authority there. That he, as one famous
Mexican song goes, “continues being the king.”
In any case, the unnecessarily wasteful use of MCSO’s resources –a
battalion of vehicles, deputies, and plain-clothes employees–
showed either the extent of Arpaio’s despise for this small
community or the size of his fear. An unfamiliar visitor to Guadalupe
would have thought a dignitary or perhaps even President Obama
himself was in town, not an old sheriff from one of the 15 Arizona
counties.
From the standpoint of the sheriff deputies who stood there trying to
impress the crowd of protestors with intimidating postures and
bored-to-death faces, the night was a total waste. Guadalupe’s
families, along with their mischievous, activists-in-the-making
children, were not in any way or at any point a threat to the safety
of the town. Most sheriff deputies observing the crowd were facing
the sunset of the windy and dusty evening, and some were probably
annoyed about the ludicrous position they were assigned of
protecting their boss from citizens from rival points of view exercising
their freedom of expression, by yelling, screaming and gesturing at
each other.
But if Arpaio’s message to this proud community of about 5,500
people was to remind them about his April 3 and 4 of 2008 sweeps,
they were prepared to remind him as well how bravely, defiantly and
spontaneously they confronted him a year ago, giving the
septuagenarian sheriff a black eye to his arrogance. For on the
second day of his immigration sweep, he had to gutlessly move his
command center to the safety of his department’s complex, a few
miles east of Guadalupe.
The night of April 3, 2008, as the crowd of protesters that included
public officials angrily confronted him, Arpaio was boiling in anger,
challenging the former mayor of Guadalupe to end the contract they
had to receive law-enforcement services from the MCSO. Back then,
there was almost a general consensus by town officials and the
community to go ahead and “fire” Arpaio and to kick him out of town.
Guadalupe supported Maricopa sheriff’s candidate Dan Saban, and
were ready to contract with another law enforcement agency to take
care of their safety.
But even before Sheriff Arpaio was reelected for a fifth term in
November of last year, the likelihood of his department leaving
Guadalupe began to fade. Attempts to contract another police
department were unsuccessful. As the alternatives to have a new
agency providing police services to the town died away, and new
leadership in the town’s Council took over, the problem shifted from
how to get rid of Arpaio to how to convince him to stay. So a year
later after Guadalupe began to seek out either to end its contract
with the MCSO or help elect Dan Saban, Arpaio returned on March
26, invited by new Mayor Frank Montiel, for a sweet revenge with an
excessive, insulting and intimidating show of force.
For hours before Arpaio’s arrival, sheriff deputies were driving their
cars up and down Guadalupe’s main avenue, Avenida del Yaqui, as
well as going in and out of the town’s streets. The town’s council
building became a fortress that seemed to be on alert for a possible
bomb threat. Groups of deputies were pouring in to the small town in
shuttle vans, as if they were arriving to the scene of a hostage
situation. They surrounded the building on what seemed like a drill
for a terrorist attack. Why did Guadalupe authorities allow the sheriff
to deploy such a needles and abusive apparatus of force against
their peaceful citizens?
This year’s protest, unlike 2008’s, was not as intense, even though a
couple dozen of Arpaio’s groupies, who not just support him but
literally love him, showed up. Some of these supporters were
standing on the opposite side of the sidewalk across the driveway of
the parking lot, when a load of sheriff deputies arrived. These
officers, some of them elderly men who look like members of the
sheriff’s posse, were received like war heroes returning home from
Iraq with cheers and clapping from Arpaio’s fans. These deputies
dutifully rushed to the “emergency” zone to join the battalion that
surrounded the building to protect it from housewives, working men,
teenagers and children. BARRIOZONA’s multimedia coverage video of
this protest shows this moment.
Verbal confrontations among Guadalupe’s residents and Arpaio’s
followers abounded. At one point, there was even a sort of singing
match between fans and foes of Joe Arpaio. “Nananana, nananana,
hey, hey, hey, goodbye,” the patriots sang in chorus, led by an
elderly man who in the Fall of 2007’s protests outside the Pruitt’s
furniture store in East Phoenix, adapted this old song to say
“goodbye” to undocumented immigrants. On the other side of the
driveway, led by Puente Arizona’s organizer Salvador Reza, town
residents intoned a Mexican popular song, parodied for the occasion:
“We will run Arpaio out of Guadalupe, from Guadalupe we will run
this “guey” out!”
As Arpaio made his appearance before the town’s council, a youthful
relief of MEChA group members, led by ASU’s student and youth
activist Sandra Castro, attracted the youngest members who over-
shouted the opposite side with the chant “racists, go home!, racists,
go home!, racists, go home!,” that infuriated some anti-
demonstrators. After Arpaio left, and MCSO’s operative was
disassembled, the small crowd began to dissipate as the night fell
over Guadalupe.
There was not the slightest indication that this protest was going to
turn into a riot. Arpaio is frequently trying to play with people’s minds
using deceptive rhetoric that is actually lying. One needs to
remember in his early career he was trained to be a professional liar
as an undercover narcotics agent. In past protests, he has actually
given place to volatile atmospheres. This time it was Arpaio’s
payback to a town that had the courage to defy him.
Aside protests and the sheriff’s likelihood to return to do more
sweeps when he pleases, without any other alternatives at least for
now, Guadalupe residents are stuck with the MCSO and its boss Joe
Arpaio. The contract with the law enforcement agency he heads will
continue, just as the people’s struggle against him there and
elsewhere is far from being over.
By Eduardo Barraza March 28, 2009
A year ago, residents and officials
prepared to get rid of the MCSO as
their law enforcement agency. This
year, Arpaio returned in full force,
and he is there to stay. View photos
Photo by Eduardo Barraza
prepared to get rid of the MCSO as
their law enforcement agency. This
year, Arpaio returned in full force,
and he is there to stay. View photos
Photo by Eduardo Barraza
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Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
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