Maricopa County (Phoenix) Sheriff and longtime Overlawyered mentionee Joe Arpaio did not keep close track of the military-grade gear the Pentagon gave him — in fact, his office seems to have lost some of it — and now the feds are lowering the boom: “Because of the agency’s continued failure to locate nine missing weapons issued by the Pentagon’s 1033 program, the Sheriff’s Office was terminated from the military-surplus program, effective immediately. The agency is required to return its cache of issued firearms, helicopters and other gear within 120 days.” Arizona Republic reporter Megan Cassidy quotes me regarding the interesting timing of the announcement, following closely after events in Ferguson, Mo. helped stir a nationwide furor over the 1033 program. It’s not specified (h/t Lauren Galik) whether they’ll have to give back the hot dog machine and $3,500 popcorn machine.
9 Comments
Has Ferguson been ordered to return their gear?
Bob
Interesting. Was that in the contract?
In the free market, if the contract does not tell me that the seller has the right to reacquire the goods on a whim, then I tell them where to stick it. (Actually, I just ignore them.) If I buy property, it’s mine. The seller has every right to discontinue doing business with me.
Having seen some federal contracts (military, even) and been personally involved in one (nonmilitary), I really doubt the Feds have any leg to stand on.
The Feds still own the military equipment.
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R43701.pdf (page 3)
The nonmilitary equipment — it depends.
How America 2014. A sheriff who actually enforces immigration law is held in contempt by the federal government, and to that same government, the enemy isn’t illegal invaders, it’s Joe Arpaio. HE is the one they target for ‘civil rights’ violations. HE is the one they demand gear back from. You get the feeling that the federal government doesn’t merely neglect the defense of its citizens — it’s actually hostile to, and wants to subject to danger, its own citizens. And anyone who dares oppose that becomes a target himself. Almost like, you know, something from the Soviet era. But I know, I know… that’s crazy conspiracy talk.
My perspective on Arpaio’s repeated and serious abuses of power:
http://overlawyered.com/?s=arpaio
Anonymous Attorney,
Much of what you say is true. Arpaio has tried to do some good things.
Unfortunately, one’s life and character is not viewed through the prism of one or even a couple events.
That prism went dark for me when Arpaio fostered the sham “Cold Case Posse” on the Obama birth certificate and then stood there as his “team” lied and fabricated evidence in order to say the certificate was fake.
When you have a sheriff that allows manufactured evidence in order to either sway public opinion or to garner public attention, it is time to go. You’ve lost the very credibility people want and demand from law enforcement officials.
Arpaio’s response to losing the weapons has basically been “meh.”
I wonder if he’ll feel that way if one of his guys gets shot with one of the weapons?
I was not aware of the extent of his politically-motivated prosecutions, which appear to be rank. And he surely does himself no favors with gimmicks like pink underwear for prisoners. As an immigration hawk, I wish for cleaner enforcers.
Walter’s post shows that he continues to win elections — though by smaller and smaller margins.
@gitarcarver
My guess is that you never saw the evidence with your own eyes, and you blindly assumed that Arpaio and everyone else that claimed that Obama’s published birth certificate was a forgery was lying. The birth certificate is a fake and provably so!
Anyone with half a brain can verify the forgery without a forensic document analysis laboratory by going to the White House website and downloading the officially posted birth certificate. Getting it from the White House site will allay any concerns that its source is the Tea Party, Fox News, or anyone else intent on damaging Obama. By decomposing its layers using Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat Professional, or similar program, anyone can plainly see the forgery. To decompose and preserve the layers in Adobe Acrobat Professional, simply save each one in JPG format.
A video that clearly shows the forgery is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s9StxsFllY
There are some self-proclaimed “document experts” that say that the apparent forgery is due to the document scanning software separating the layers. This is not so. These experts merely opine, without showing any example of how a scanner could separate layers as is shown on the White House published birth certificate. Obama’s posted birth certificate was made on a Mac using Adobe Illustrator.
VMS, please. If you have anything new and fresh that will get Preezy 404 tossed out on his oversized jug-ear, please share it. Otherwise, meh. We are 6 years into an 8-year term of office, and the birth certificate by now just isn’t that important anymore.
Gitarcarver bringing up the birth certificate wasn’t to make a point about Obama’s legality. He was trying to make note of when Arpaio jumped the shark.