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.
Copyright © 2009 Hispanic Institute of Social Issues
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.
Copyright © 2009 Hispanic Institute of Social Issues
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.
Arpaio returned in full force, and he is there to stay.
By Eduardo Barraza
BARRIOZONA
March 28, 2009
BARRIOZONA
March 28, 2009
Guadalupe's Residents Protest Against Sheriff
Arpaio as Town Officials Act to Keep Him
Arpaio as Town Officials Act to Keep Him
| BARRIOZONA |
Permission to reprint or copy this article or photo, other than personal use, must be obtained from BARRIOZONA,
Call 480-983-1445 or e-mail admin@barriozona.com with your request
Call 480-983-1445 or e-mail admin@barriozona.com with your request
| Grassroots Journalism www.barriozona.com |
