Trump has issued his first presidential pardon. Which was by the very nature of it, controversial. But by now, it must not come as a surprise. That our Commander-in-Chief does some (a lot of) controversial stuff. Most of us don’t know much about Joe Arpaio. Nor that we wanna know, still here’s a quick overview.
Joe Arpaio: An Overview
Joe Arpaio was the Sherrif of Maricopa County in the state of Arizona. Considering that fact that he has a reputation of. One of the toughest cops all over the United States. That just might him look like a normal hero-ish guy. But hold on before you pass your judgment. He was in charge of a jail for people awaiting trial. Those might not even be criminals. They are just people suspected of a crime. But the Sherrif in the town, treat them worse than slaves. He tortured them, gave them inadequate meals. Some inmates have also died in there because of the sadistic treatment.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t the reason for his arrest. He somehow got away with all that. He got it for highly discriminating against Latinos in arrests. Most of them were falsely accused or given harsh punishments for things. As minor as not giving a turning signal while turning. He was acting like a monster in form of a law protector. The jury found him guilty and called for an arrest. Totally normal stuff.
Why was he pardoned by Trump?
He was one of the early supporters of Trump during his Presidential Election Campaign. His views matched with Trump and the President liked him. And said in one of his speeches that his arrest was wrong. He was just “doing his job”. The pardoning of Joe Arpaio is a harsh slap on a judgment of fairness and equality in the United States. A racist cop got away with a lot. When finally arrested, was the President pardoned him. As of now, race motivated unfair treatment of citizens by Police is already a huge problem in the United States. And actions like these just nullify all the effort and progress. Made by movements like “Black Lives Matter”. A President shouldn’t go around to use his power to help his friends. That shatters the faith of people in the democracy.