Arizona Republican Jerry Sheridan, the former Maricopa County sheriff's office chief deputy challenging incumbent sheriff Paul Penzone this November, would really, really appreciate it if folks would just quit bringing up his ex-boss of six years, lawless racist Joe Arpaio. “Since Sheridan, 62, announced his candidacy for sheriff in 2019, distancing himself from his former boss has been a constant campaign theme,” Arizona Republic reports. How about “nah,” Jerry? Does that work for you?
That the former chief deputy wants to separate himself from Arpaio when it’s politically convenient is as ridiculous as Arpaio crying about people (rightfully) calling him a racist. Whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, Sheridan was Arpaio’s right-hand man through some of the worst moments of his reign of terror in Maricopa County. In fact, as Arizona Republic reports, he got in a big heap of trouble for it too.
”Sheridan, like Arpaio, was found by a federal judge to be in civil contempt of court for disobeying a 2011 preliminary order to stop holding people based solely on suspected immigration violations. Sheridan was not criminally charged like Arpaio,” the report said. “But independent investigators stated in a 2019 report related to the racial-profiling case that they would have recommended Sheridan be fired if he hadn't retired after Arpaio lost his 2016 reelection campaign.”
And like Arpaio, Sheridan appears unapologetic about his own lawlessness while working for “America’s toughest sheriff,” basically claiming in the report that it was U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow’s ruling that’s made them look bad, not the lawlessness itself. In fact, Sheridan is just downright defiant about the whole damn thing: “In October 2013, Sheridan referred to Snow's court ruling that deputies had racially profiled Hispanics as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘crap’ in comments that were recorded, according to court documents,” the report said.
But Sheridan really, really wants you to look the other way when it comes to all of that, because he claims he has some plans for Maricopa County, including a “focus on drug and sex trafficking crimes,” Arizona Republic reports. Except when Sheridan’s boss was still in power, the Maricopa County sheriff’s office was so singularly obsessed with its racist campaign rounding up Latinos and immigrants that hundreds—hundreds—of alleged sex crimes, many involving children, went under-investigated or not investigated at all.
“If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims,” Arpaio commented according to a New York Times report in 2011. “If,” he really said. Fuck you, Joe—and you too, Jerry. "Sheridan would be a throwback to the Arpaio era," Community Advisory Board member Raul Piña told Arizona Republic. "Arpaio was a colleague and mentor to Sheridan. He cannot distance himself from Arpaio or the policies and practices of that era—same difference."
That’s not to say families in Maricopa County are no longer struggling with anti-immigrant policies even with both Arpaio and Sheridon gone. Advocates are still pressuring Penzone to end the county’s collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which most recently resulted in the senseless and cruel detention of a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who was attending a Phoenix protest against the police murder of George Floyd. But pushing someone like Penzone to do the right thing is certainly more hopeful than pushing someone who served as Joe Arpaio’s shadow.
"[I] have a difficult time trying to convince people, 'Hey, I'm not Joe (Arpaio)," Sheridan told Arizona Republic. But he spent six years showing Maricopa County that’s exactly who he was.