Joe Arpaio and the Phenomenon of the 'Toughest Sheriff in America'
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JOE ARPAIO AND THE PHENOMENON OF THE 'TOUGHEST SHERIFF IN AMERICA' _____________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History Sam Houston State University _____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts _____________ by Nicholas D. Rizzi December, 2016 JOE ARPAIO AND THE PHENOMENON OF THE 'TOUGHEST SHERIFF IN AMERICA' by Nicholas D. Rizzi ______________ APPROVED: George Diaz, PhD Thesis Director Nancy Baker, PhD Committee Member Wesley Phelps, PhD Committee Member Jeff Littlejohn, PhD Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences ABSTRACT Rizzi, Nicholas D., Joe Arpaio and the phenomenon of the 'Toughest Sheriff in America'. Master of Arts (History), December, 2016, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas. Since first winning election as the Sheriff of Maricopa County in 1992, Joe Arpaio has cultivated an image as the ‘toughest sheriff in America.’ While Sheriff Arpaio has often been the subject of headlines and contemporary journalism, other than a handful of scholarly studies focused upon incarceration methods within Maricopa County, scant historical study has been devoted to Arpaio. The study will examine issues of race, ethnicity, conflict, and cooperation in the borderlands from the seventeenth into the twentieth centuries. Furthermore, the thesis will examine the mystique of law enforcement in the West, before finally exploring the confluence of all these factors that ultimately facilitated the rise, notoriety, and resiliency of Joe Arpaio as the Sheriff of Maricopa County. The research is taken from a combination of primary and secondary sources. The first two chapters rely heavily upon assorted secondary scholarly studies related to law enforcement in the West, race, ethnicity, and intermittent periods of conflict and cooperation in the borderlands. The final two chapters use primary sources ranging from the Arizona Republic, the Phoenix New Times, Arpaio’s two autobiographies, and other periodicals to polling data culled from the Behavior Research Center to examine the tenure of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Although Sheriff Arpaio’s incarceration methods and fixation to undocumented immigration has made him the center of contentious political debates since 1992, the thesis will mostly eschew those disputes. Rather, the thesis will seek to study Arpaio as a iii historical figure. In total, the thesis will argue factors unique to the borderlands, namely persistent questions of race, the rise of the Sunbelt, conservative politics, contemporary concerns over crime and undocumented immigration buttressed the influence and notoriety of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. KEY WORDS: Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), borderlands, Undocumented immigration, Race and ethnicity, Phoenix, Arizona, Sunbelt iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I express my sincere thanks to Dr. George T. Díaz for agreeing to work on the project. His patient guidance helped me grow as a student, thinker, and writer. His efforts proved invaluable throughout the process. I would also like to thank Dr. Nancy Baker and Dr. Wesley Phelps for serving on my thesis committee and offering important advice and support. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I THE SHERIFF IN THE WEST: HISTORY AND MYTH .................................... 9 II COOPERATION, CONFLICT, AND EVOLUTION IN THE ARIZONA BORDERLANDS: RACE AND ETHNICITY FROM THE SPANISH ERA TO THE RISE OF THE SUNBELT ........................................................................... 29 III THE RISE OF SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO .............................................................. 54 IV CONSERVATIVE POLITICS, FEAR, RACE AND THE POPULARITY OF JOE ARPAIO ........................................................................................................ 88 V INTO THE SUNSET? ........................................................................................ 124 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 131 VITA ............................................................................................................................... 136 vi 1 INTRODUCTION JOE ARPAIO: THE PHENOMENON OF ‘THE TOUGHEST SHERIFF IN AMERICA’ Joe Arpaio first became the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona in 1992. Over the next twenty-four years, including five reelections, Arpaio became more simply known as ‘Sheriff Joe.’1 He has gained notice for his ‘get-tough’ on crime and jail policies such as housing inmates in tents in 115 degree temperatures, the reconstitution of citizen posses, and most-strikingly, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s (MCSO) aggressive efforts in combating undocumented immigration. The nation’s renewed and contentious debates over race, ethnicity, and immigration pushed Arpaio to the front pages of many notable newspapers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. Seen as a hero by some, and reviled by others, Arpaio became a consequential public figure. Although some scholarly work has been conducted concerning the incarceration policies of the MCSO, little has been devoted to Sheriff Arpaio as a person of historical significance in Maricopa County, Arizona, and the country as a whole. A study of Arpaio must first be rooted through understanding of the office of sheriff itself. According to Larry D. Ball’s study Desert Lawmen: The High Sheriffs of New Mexico and Arizona 1846-1912, the office of sheriff originated in ninth-century Anglo-Saxon England as a representative of the Crown in local government.2 As the 1 Michael Kiefer, "Sheriff Joe Arpaio Has Always Done It His Own Way," Arizona Republic, September 11, 2015. 2 Larry D. Ball, Desert lawmen the high sheriffs of New Mexico and Arizona, 1846-1912. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992), 1. 2 United States expanded its borders westward throughout the eighteen and nineteenth centuries, the sheriff was responsible for a plethora of duties. Beyond law enforcement and ensuring public safety, sheriffs were also responsible for tax collection, management of county jails, the formation of juries, and other related judicial tasks. Ball argues that historical sheriffs were important public and bureaucratic officials in the New Mexico and Arizona Territories. In contrast to the Hollywood myth, gunplay and violence represented a departure from the norm and sheriffs generally attempted to simply bring order and governance to loosely incorporated territories. A second book, Arizona Sheriffs: Badges and Bad Men by Jane Eppinga focuses upon the stories of notable sheriffs. The book ranges from an exploration of the Pleasant Valley War in 1880s Gila County to the “Tucson Four” of the early 1990s. But, only a minimal portion of the text is devoted to Joe Arpaio, the latest embodiment of the sheriff ideal. Eppinga notes that while actions of assorted Arizona sheriffs have not been flawless, many should be credited for effective law enforcement and adaptability in the face of a changing society and its laws.3 The book provides helpful context for the popularly-held notions of an ideal, tough sheriff staring down all threats to the community. Most importantly, the chapter will examine the historical myths and realities of the ‘Wild West’ Lawman. In particular, this thesis will explore the myths that buttressed the legendary status of the Earp brothers and other notable western lawmen. Two books, No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society by Richard Maxwell Brown and Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life by Andrew C. Isenberg provides the bulk of the 3 Jane Eppinga, Arizona Sheriffs: Badges and Bad Men (Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2006, 7). 3 interpretative framework for the chapter 1, “The Sheriff in the West: History and Myth.” Brown’s work discusses the imposition of larger authority in the U.S. West and the important symbolic place held by county sheriffs.4 Isenberg’s book argues the legendary lawman’s status was largely fictional—created by Earp himself.5 In a manner similar to predecessors like Earp, Sheriff Joe has proven himself a wily and astute politician, one skillfully able to create an image as the ‘Toughest Sheriff in America.’ In order to best understand this image, the historical study must compare myth and reality of law enforcement in Arizona and the larger historical American West. “Cooperation, conflict, and evolution in the Arizona Borderlands: race and ethnicity from the Spanish era to the rise of the sunbelt” examines issues of race and ethnicity in the borderlands. The chapter considers the complexities of conflict and cooperation in the Southwest borderlands. Assorted texts have explored episodes of conflict in the region-- Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History by Karl Jacoby, Borderline Americans by Katherine Benton Cohen, and Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans by Benjamin Heber Johnson each explore outbursts of violence in the region.6