Joe Arpaio's Deputy Thinks Most Day-Laborers Are Undocumented

By Uriel J. Garcia Thu., Jul. 19 2012 at 10:42 PM

Stephen Lemons

Tom Liddy, spinning DiPietro's bigoted assumptions...

In the law-enforcement experience of Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputy Louis DiPietro, most day laborers are undocumented, and usually are from Mexico or Central America.

That was the deputy's testimony in the American Civil Liberties Union's big Melendres v. Arpaio racial profiling case, which kicked off today at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse.

"From you're experience most day laborers are undocumented?" ACLU lawyer Andre Segura asked DiPietro.

The deputy simply answered, "Yes."

Seems pretty cut and dry, evidence of the prejudiced policing at issue in the trial. But not to Tom Liddy, a lawyer with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and part of the legal team defending Sheriff Joe in the five year-old case.

"He did not say that," insisted Liddy outside the federal courthouse after the day's proceedings. "He most certainly did not."

Spinning like dervish in a thunderstorm, Liddy offered an alternative interpretation of DiPietro's monosyllabic response.

"[DiPietro] said in his experience, obviously as a law enforcement officer, when he came in contact with day laborers in those operations...[they] were undocumented migrants," Liddy stated. "[But] he most certainly did not say that he had an assumption that all day-laborers are illegals."

DiPietro's racial assumptions are important. In September 2007, the MCSO's infamous Human Smuggling Unit was conducting an operation in Cave Creek near a church parking lot where day laborers were accustomed to gather looking for work.

Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, a plaintiff in the case, was at the parking lot and needed a ride to Scottsdale, according to the complaint.

A friend arranged a ride with a white male in a pick-up truck.

The HSU observed Melendres, 53, get in the vehicle with three other men. Almost immediately, DiPietro was ordered by the unit to follow the truck and look for probable cause to stop it.

Tags:

ACLU, MCAO, MCSO, Melendres v. Arpaio, racial profiling, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Tom Liddy

add1dda

What percentage of day laborers are illegal human beings? 99.9? And if Melendres is neither an illegal human being not a day laborer, how does that disprove Deputy DiPietro’s justified belief that most day laborers are illegal human beings?

A retired foreign Hispanic school teacher who happened to be in the country legally, on a tourist visa, just happened to go to a day laborer pick-up spot, just to hitch a ride. And then he hooks up with the ACLU? What are the odds of that, a billion to one? Can you say, criminal conspiracy?

Nicholas Stix

ptcgaz

so, could some of the Hispanic men that try and get day laborer jobs have valid visas which would make them thus legal citizens? Hmm.

wherewasi

1 Like

@ptcgaz Well, it would not make them legal citizens, but it would make them legally eligible to be seeking employment, assuming you're talking about work visas.

And if people think that the work visa program should end because it allows non-citizens to work in the United States, they should go out and do a google search on "shortage of immigrant farm workers" and see what kind of impact the lack of these individuals is having on consumer prices and, in particular, smaller agriculture business that are seeing their crops rot in the fields or on the trees due to lack of laborers. US Citizens find farm work beneath them and won't do it.

ptcgaz

@wherewasi yeah that's what I meant. Because after all if they have work visas they are here legally no matter what the racist bastards say. As for the farms and stuff, I don't know about that section of our economy much to be honest, except to know that when you go to McDonald's most of the food comes from companies that use illegals for meat processing etc...

MaskedMagician1967

2 Like

Now, if the plaintiffs can get hold of all the bigoted e-mails sent by disgraced, corrupt, narcissistic and mentally sick Pearce, in passing BS1070, a Nuremberg-era law designed to terrorize Latinos, then it's a win-win case for Mr. Melendres.

What really should happen is the Justice Department needs to team up with the plaintiffs in this case. The DOJ is essentially asking a federal court for the same thing: An end to the MCSO shurf and the MCSO's racial-profiling ways.

Then afterwards, a nice federal criminal indictment should be handed up... And it's an easy re-election for President Obama....

TommyCollins

3 Like

Mr Liddy seems to have taken lessons on spinning from the MCSO Super Goon, himself. It appears the manure is hitting the proverbial fan and, unfortunately, we the taxpayers are about to have to absorb it, as usual. That said, Judge Snow is no dummy and he's not intimidated by, or fearful of, the likes of the MCSO shurf and his merry band of misfits.

MaskedMagician1967

1 Like

@TommyCollins

The MCSO Super Goon Tommy? Are you referring to the Flaccid Failure?

LD25

2 Like

I wonder what the number of stops of vehicles with cracked windshields for non Latinos by the MSCO would be. Assuming the logic is that only Latinos drive with defective cars.

Then if only Latinos make the reporting stats and not the others, then why is someone only keeping a tallly of Latino stops?

fairymagic13

2 Like

@LD25 I got stopped by MCSO in my band van going to a gig in Cave Creek - I'm white and my other band members were black. My band members were obviously intoxicated and I had also had a couple beers. My band members were, unkindly, making rude comments to the officer thinking it was funny (beer comics) - it was not!!! Anywhoo. They let me go without a citation because a landscaping truck passed by and OFF they went. They weren't looking for criminals OR undocumented

immigrants they were looking for brown-skinned Hispanic people to pull over in the hopes that those people would be undocumented

ptcgaz

2 Like

@fairymagic13 YCSO does this a lot too. Although I am not sure if they were looking for people with warrants, without insurance, or suspended licenses or something else, because when they pull me over, they give me a warning about a brake light or something like that.. and then they drive off, since everything checks out..