County To Hear Complaints About Sheriff

The head of an immigrants' rights group planned to question the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Wednesday about Sheriff Joe Arpaio's response to a protest demonstration last weekend. Arpaio said he didn't care.

Salvador Reza of So Mos America said the protesters outside Pruitt's Furniture store on East Thomas Road in Phoenix were met by ``a whole military display." They were marching to show their displeasure that the store's owner had asked the sheriff to crack down on day laborers who gather in the area.

``How is it that the county board of supervisors is allowing the money spent to be dictated by one individual -- which is Pruitt, Roger Sensing (the owner) -- claiming that he feels threatened because of day laborers when you have never seen the laborers on the sidewalk?" Reza asked.

Reza said the sheriff is incompetent and getting too old for the job.

He said he planned to show the supervisors ``a video clip that there were just a few demonstrators and yet, we felt we were, like, under siege, you know." He said sheriff's deputies outnumbered protesters, about two-to-one.

Arpaio said he wasn't worried about anything Reza might tell the supervisors.

He said the board appropriates money for the sheriff's office, but, ``The supervisors give us a lump sum. I decide what to do with it, I decide how to enforce the laws. The sheriff does, not the board of supervisors."

The sheriff said, ``I don't know why he's talking to the Board of Supervisors. The last I heard I'm the elected sheriff. The board of Supervisors does not tell me how to run my operation. He (Reza) had better take a civics lesson.

``I serve four-million people directly. I don't report to anybody like police chiefs, city managers, that type of situation, " Arpaio said.

Meanwhile, the sheriff's office said Tuesday that it has arrested 16 illegal immigrants within two blocks of Pruitt's in the past week.

Arpaio said the arrests were made during routine traffic stops by his illegal immigrants task force.

``We arrested six in that area last week, now we've arrested 10 more pursuant to our duties, on traffic violations. We determined they were illegal, we have the authority, the training and we locked them up," he said.