Libertarian activist attorney Clint Bolick on the Arpaio Recall.

Attorney Clint Bolick, who serves as Director of the Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute, has been critical of Maricopa County's nativist sheriff, Joseph Arpaio, for a long time. In the video clip below, of Arpaio's failure to investigate more than 400 sex abuse cases, Bolick declares, "This is one of the greatest failures of law enforcement I've ever seen."



So, I asked Bolick today whether he has made any public statements about US District Court Judge G. Murray Snow's ruling Friday against Arpaio? I also asked him if he supports the recall effort? Bolick replied,

No I haven't. Our focus has been on different issues. I had not supported the recall previously because he had just been elected and there was nothing new on which to base a recall. But this ruling certainly provides a basis. 

GI [Goldwater Institute] rules prohibit staff from being formally involved in election campaigns. But I will sign a petition and let folks know I have done so. (emphasis mine)

In 2008, for the Goldwater Institute, Bolick issued a position paper titled, Mission Unaccomplished: The Misplaced Priorities of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. In the executive summary, it states (in part):

The Maricopa County Sheriffs Office is responsible for vitally important law-enforcement functions in one of the largest counties in the nation.  It defines its core missions as law-enforcement services, support services, and detention.

MCSO falls seriously short of fulfilling its mission in all three areas.  Although MCSO is adept at self-promotion and is an unquestionably tough law-enforcement agency, under its watch violent crime rates recently have soared, both in absolute terms and relative to other jurisdictions.  It has diverted resources away from basic law-enforcement functions to highly publicized immigration sweeps, which are ineffective in policing illegal immigration and in reducing crime generally, and to extensive trips by MCSO officials to Honduras for purposes that are nebulous at best.  Profligate spending on those diversions helped produce a financial crisis in late 2007 that forced MCSO to curtail or reduce important law-enforcement functions.

Bolick's perspective on the recall is certainly notable. I hope that conservative leaning voters in Maricopa County will consider it, go beyond simply echoing standard nativist talking points and join in the recall effort by signing a petition in the next few days.

More information can be found on Respect Arizona's website.