Sal Reza is a well-known human rights activist in Arizona. As head of the group Puente, he's been an outspoken opponent of SB 1070. Reza was a major voice in the protests Thursday, where he was arrested. After a night in jail he was released, without being charged with anything, along with dozens of other protesters.
Tonight New Times posted video of a second arrest by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies that occurred yesterday.
Puente has posted this new video of Phoenix civil rights leader Sal Reza's arrest Friday. Literally, it looks like something out of a film by Costa-Gavras. The sort of thing that happens in Third World dictatorships. That is, a political opponent being arrested by a group of paramilitary thugs in the employ of an authoritarian ruler.
Now, excuse me, but what the fuck? About a half dozen guys, all dressed in SWAT team gear, surround and handcuff an unarmed man, who seems to be getting in his car. A group of protesters stands around, but the police zero in on a man who's standing in the parking lot, doing nothing. The man, Sal Reza, is a labor leader who was released earlier yesterday because the judge found no probable cause. In the law's eyes the man is innocent, but Joe Arpaio makes his own friggin' law in Maricopa County. Arpaio has let us know that his unit will keep on doing what they've always been doing, SB 1070 or not. In a sense, what the "papers please" law did was turn the rest of the county and local sheriffs into Arpaio clones.
These guys look like pros. It's probably no coincidence that a few years ago Arpaio had Blackwater here to train his men. I was sitting in a local breakfast spot in Phoenix with a friend one morning, and there were two Blackwater guys at the counter. Both were built like TV wrestlers, with tight black T-shirts, marine-type buzz cuts, and Glocks. I thought for a second about engaging them in a discussion of Jeremy Scahill's book. Maybe for a second, if that.
The deputies in the video fit the mold – high-tech armor, well-armed, and notice guys keep their hands on guns while carrying out the arrest. Yeah, Sal looks dangerous. These guys are part of the teams that conduct Arpaio's infamous sweeps. Sometimes they have masks on as well. Picture that: you're sitting at home watching TV with the family, and suddenly your neighborhood is locked down by the Sheriff's deputies. They've usually been tipped that undocumented immigrants are living in the area, so they "sweep" through the place, asking for papers. I wrote a diary a while ago explaining why the sweeps don't work.
When Senator Carolyn Allen decided not to run for Senate again, after 16 years, she said the reason was because she couldn't live in the police state that Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, and Andrew Thomas were building. Senator Allen was one of the last remaining sane Republicans at the legislature. Not a single Democrat voted for SB 1070 in the House or Senate, but every Republican but one did, led by Senator Russell Pearce, creator and lead cheerleader for SB 1070. If he could get away with it, Pearce would probably instate his nativist, theocratic doctrine, and the scene in the video above would be commonplace. It says everything that Pearce and Glenn Beck are both disciplines of W. Cleon Skousen, a John Bircher and Mormon fundamentalist who taught that the Constitution was written by God (and is under attack from secularists).
Welcome to Maricopa County, Arizona. I don't suppose the tourism office will be putting this on their website.
UPDATE: A few commenters interpreted the first title a different way - actually a better way. I originally had "Video of Arpaio arrest," which can sound like the Sheriff being arrested. I'd like to see it that way too. So I added the "making" but that's what the comments below refer to.
UPDATE 2: Here's a Youtube of some of the events before and after Reza's arrest. Evidently he stopped, across the street, in support of other protesters who were being led away for blocking an entrance. As the attorney says at the end, when discussing the reason for arresting Reza, "We'll see what they invent."
UPDATE 3: New Times has been known to slant to the left, so for some "fair and balanced" reporting here's the local FOX channel's take on the events. (H/T Benintn)
A local human rights leader was released from jail after being arrested for standing across the street to watch a protest of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crime sweeps on Friday.
That clears it up: Standing while brown. Among the many excellent comments:
If Palin or Beck (7+ / 0-)
claimed that this arrest was evidence of Obama's socialist police state, Fox News would advocate armed revolution.
by CFAmick on Sun Aug 01, 2010 at 07:47:28 AM PDT