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A Guide to Joe Arpaio, the Longtime Sheriff Who Escaped Strife - The New York Times

posted onAugust 27, 2017
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Article snippet: Joe Arpaio liked to call himself “America’s toughest sheriff.” During his six terms as sheriff, he led his team of deputies in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, on a crusade against illegal immigration, turning himself into a nationally known figure — and a political lightning rod. It culminated in a lost election last year and conviction for criminal contempt in July. Mr. Arpaio has been in the headlines for decades, and he grabbed another Friday when President Trump pardoned him — to the sound of outraged Democrats (and muted Republicans). Here is a guide to The New York Times’s coverage of Mr. Arpaio’s career. The Times first mentioned Mr. Arpaio in 1994, two years after he became sheriff of Maricopa County. The article was about coffee. It said the sheriff, having already banned cigarettes and sex magazines in prison, was nixing coffee, too, in order to cut costs — and to make sure inmates could not use the hot drink as a weapon. The Times’s next article about Mr. Arpaio, in 1995, said he stayed awake at night thinking of ways to make headlines, and had already become one of the most popular figures in Arizona. He would be re-elected five times. During Mr. Arpaio’s tenure, inmates were sometimes forced to stay in outdoor tents under the hot sun, wear pink underwear or work on chain gangs. (The sheriff is widely believed to have started the nation’s first female chain gang in 1996.) His deputies have been accused of racist abuse, needless intimidation a... Link to the full article to read more

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