• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • 5 DOUBLE-U’S
    • MASTHEAD
    • DISTRIBUTION
    • ADVERTISE
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

CURRENT STREET EDITION

DIG 23.02 – 1/28/21

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS: ‘I WILL MANAGE THIS PROCESS’

Written by BAYNARD WOODS Posted September 5, 2017 Filed Under: COLUMNS, News, NEWS+OPINIONS

 

Politics as crime in the age of Trump

 

Donald Trump’s pardon of former Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff and top-notch torturer Joe Arpaio was, in many ways, the quintessential Trumpian act, the tarry, shit-smelling extract of the president’s politics.

 

In the same Phoenix campaign rally—yes, it was actually paid for by Trump’s 2020 campaign—where Trump spent 15 minutes attacking the press and Antifa and defending “our heritage” embodied in Confederate statues, he all but promised that Arpaio would be pardoned, but didn’t actually do it.

 

Instead, he waited until Hurricane Harvey was bearing down on Houston to pardon America’s most famous Torquemada impersonator, because he thought the ratings would be better.

 

But even more than all of this, Arpaio’s career is an encapsulation of what matters most to Trump: sheer, brute force masquerading as law. Politics as crime or crime as politics.

 

***

 

The stories that the Phoenix New Times, a member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia like DigBoston, ran about Arpaio over the course of two decades constitute a crash course in American fascism.

 

Not only did Arpaio openly call his tent city jail a “concentration camp,” but the rate of suicide in his jail is double or even quadruple that of most other jails. Many of these deaths were never even investigated. Jailers denied people medical coverage and strapped them to a torture chair if they raised any hell about it. They closed the only vents bringing fresh air to hot cells, causing at least one death. Arpaio failed to investigate reports of sexual assault.

 

When the New Times reported on Arpaio’s real estate interests and included his address, he tried to bring charges against the reporters (who were also the founders of the paper). Later, his men arrested the reporters at their homes in the middle of the night for revealing grand jury proceedings—a misdemeanor.

 

While Arpaio seems to be generally sadistic, he prides himself on being especially cruel to people with brown skin, who he racially profiled—and held in their own segregated part of his “concentration camp.” This unconstitutional racial profiling is the source of the crime that Trump pardoned.

 

In 2008, George W. Bush’s administration began an investigation into Arpaio’s racial profiling. In 2011, the Department of Justice ruled that he had in fact been engaged in the systematic profiling of Latinos in Arizona.

 

The case in which Arpaio was charged with criminal contempt of court stems from even before the DOJ investigation, when a 2007 traffic stop became a class-action suit. A 2011 court order commanded the Maricopa County sheriff’s office to stop detaining people on suspicion that they had immigrated illegally, i.e. because they had brown skin.

 

“I’m still going to do what I’m doing,” Arpaio said in defiance. “I’m still going to arrest illegal aliens coming into this country.”

 

He also tried to destroy hard drives that were supposed to be handed over as part of the investigation, and hired a private investigator to spy on the judge and his wife.

 

Meanwhile, Arpaio did use taxpayer money to send a deputy to Hawaii to investigate Barack Obama’s birth certificate, so…

 

***

 

Reading the stories highlighted by the New Times’ now-viral Twitter thread, laying out 20 years of Arpaio’s criminal politics, I was reminded of Ron Rosenbaum’s wonderful and tragic portrait of the Munich Post, which covered Hitler from before the Beer Hall Putsch to until he took power—and then killed most of the writers and editors of the paper. Like the New Times, the paper mixed hard-hitting investigative pieces with satire and humor intended to taunt, and ideally thwart, the soon-to-be Führer.

 

“There were other opponents to Hitler, but they were the ones who were constantly investigating him and discovering things that were really not well known about Hitler’s rise—how much he depended on his death squads to murder his political opponents, for instance,” Rosenbaum told me back in February, when the Los Angeles Review of Books published a piece that revisited the chapter on the Munich Post in his 1998 book “Explaining Hitler.”

 

According to Rosenbaum, the Post’s essential insight into Hitler was that he was a political criminal. While later historians have credited Hitler’s rise on his power as a public speaker, the Munich Post showed that murder, extortion, and blackmail played an even larger role.

 

While others were laughing off Hitler in the same way we laughed off Trump or the so-called alt-right, the Post tried to open the public’s eyes. They uncovered Nazi party documents in 1931 that contain the first mention of the “final solution” to the “Jewish problem.”

 

So when Sheriff Joe “jokes” that his tent city is a “concentration camp,” we should take note. When he raids the homes of journalists who question his shady business dealings, we should take note and we should be on guard. When the president pardons him, this is a signal. And the reporters at the Phoenix New Times show us what it means.

 

When Trump pardoned Arpaio, he was sending a signal that he, like the Arizonan torturer, has contempt for the court and rule of law. It was also a promise, not only of more brutality, but perhaps that he would pardon those probed by special counsel Robert Mueller, should charges arise.

 

***

 

Political criminality explains Trump’s fevered admiration of Vladimir Putin, who is the master criminal politician. (Read Masha Gessen’s “The Man Without a Face” if you want to be chilled to the bone.)

 

The emails from Felix Sater—a convicted criminal and informant with longtime ties to Trump and his organization—promising Trump’s lawyer that Putin would help get the Donald elected are only the most recent example of the Trump/Putin nexus of political crime. “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it,” Sater wrote to Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen. “I will get all of Putins [sic] team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”

 

Sater, who did time for stabbing a man in the face with the stem of a broken margarita glass, seems to connect the kleptocracies of Trump and Putin, who many estimate is the fucking richest man in the world, with criminally gained money hidden around the world—the other reason Trump loves him.

 

And the alleged blackmail of the “pee tapes” is precisely the kind of rumor that the Munich Post found essential to the workings of the Nazi party before they gained power.

 

If we don’t heed these warnings, we know what is coming.

BAYNARD WOODS
More from author
  • BAYNARD WOODS
    https://digboston.com/author/baynard-woods/
    MUCH LOVE AND GRIM SOLIDARITY: BAYNARD WOODS TAKES STOCK IN THE LAST DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS COLUMN
  • BAYNARD WOODS
    https://digboston.com/author/baynard-woods/
    TRUMP’S ABSURD THEATER OF CRUELTY
  • BAYNARD WOODS
    https://digboston.com/author/baynard-woods/
    TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN AND THE POLITICS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC RENAISSANCE
  • BAYNARD WOODS
    https://digboston.com/author/baynard-woods/
    DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS: 500 DAYS IN HELL

Filed Under: COLUMNS, News, NEWS+OPINIONS Tagged With: authoritarianism, Donald Trump, FBI, James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County, media, pardon, sater, White House

WHAT’S NEW

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THE CITY AND STATE TO FINALLY SUPPORT MINORITY BUSINESS?

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THE CITY AND STATE TO FINALLY SUPPORT MINORITY BUSINESS?

HOMEWORK FOR BEACON HILL’S COVID EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

HOMEWORK FOR BEACON HILL’S COVID EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

A FIREFIGHTER ELECTION

A FIREFIGHTER ELECTION

LEGISLATION AIMS TO HELP UNDOCUMENTED ATTAIN DRIVERS' LICENSES

LEGISLATION AIMS TO HELP UNDOCUMENTED ATTAIN DRIVERS’ LICENSES

INBOX: JANEY ANNOUNCES MEMBERS OF MAYORAL SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM

INBOX: JANEY ANNOUNCES MEMBERS OF MAYORAL SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM

[UPDATE: WE GOT IT!] WHERE IS THE CONTRACT FOR MASSACHUSETTS’ VACCINE APPOINTMENT SOFTWARE?

[UPDATE: WE GOT IT!] WHERE IS THE CONTRACT FOR MASSACHUSETTS’ VACCINE APPOINTMENT SOFTWARE?

Primary Sidebar

HEMPIRE FREEDOM PACK 25% OFF

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • SPECIAL FEATURE ON THE MASS STATE POLICE: TROOPER WILSON’S WAR by CHRIS FARAONE
  • DOES THE FORMER BPD COMMISSIONER EVEN LIVE IN BOSTON? by ZACK HUFFMAN
  • [UPDATE: WE GOT IT!] WHERE IS THE CONTRACT FOR MASSACHUSETTS’ VACCINE APPOINTMENT SOFTWARE? by POLINA WHITEHOUSE
  • BOSTON LATIN ACADEMY GRADS FIGHT FOR REPRESENTATION IN ALUMNI GROUP by CHRIS FARAONE
  • MASS KEEPS TRYING TO BUILD A NEW WOMEN’S PRISON OUTSIDE OF PUBLIC VIEW by DAN ATKINSON

READ CURRENT MEMBER EDITION

DIG Member 1.9 – 11/26/20

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG 23.02 – 1/28/21

Footer

digbos

Bill sponsors, #Framingham mayor, and MA district Bill sponsors, #Framingham mayor, and MA district attorney will explain the Work & Family Mobility Act at a press conference. https://digboston.com/driving-families-forward-coalition-aims-to-help-undocumented-attain-drivers-licenses/ #politics #undocumented #immigration #driving #license #Massachusetts
Today at 4pm, cast your votes! #digboston Today at 4pm, cast your votes! #digboston
At a virtual summit, leaders sought to educate and At a virtual summit, leaders sought to educate and engage on the need for change. https://digboston.com/officials-advocates-speak-to-immigration-reform-and-economic-recovery/ #immigration #reform #economy #politics #Massachusetts
When it comes to special packaging and limited edi When it comes to special packaging and limited editions, Jack’s Abby and subsidiary Springdale out in Framingham are top players. https://digboston.com/video-unboxing-springdale-beers-limited-edition-neipa-music-box-set/ #beer #fun
Industrial Arts Brewing in NY’s Hudson Valley is Industrial Arts Brewing in NY’s Hudson Valley is well worth the look out of state ... https://digboston.com/video-pocket-wrench-by-industrial-arts-brewing-is-a-super-satisfying-session/ #beer #fun
Some who are civilly committed for #addiction in M Some who are civilly committed for #addiction in Mass face abusive #prison conditions. Still, some families say it’s better than the alternative https://digboston.com/the-commitments-addiction-treatment-behind-bars-in-massachusetts/ #treatment #Massachusetts
“Then this thing happened. I decided to pivot. I “Then this thing happened. I decided to pivot. It was probably my best shot at attracting some national attention to #Nebraska.” https://digboston.com/interview-with-rural-rebellion-author-ross-benes/ #interview #book #politics #USA #MAGA
Mark your calendars! Mark your calendars!
“There’s a history of #music being made that w “There’s a history of #music being made that way going back to the mid-’70s.” https://buff.ly/3d5Yfyu #interview #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“Together we got through the economic crisis aft “Together we got through the economic crisis after 9/11 and the financial crash of 2008. With a little luck and perseverance, we will find a way to survive this crisis too.” https://buff.ly/3tQOVnV #interview #vintage #smallbusiness #Cambridge #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Submissions

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]