Playing to His Base
David Z. Morris
10:46 AM ET
... The pardon is a clear play to Trump’s core supporters, who regard Arpaio as a hero for his repeated defiance of court orders, law enforcement norms, and the constitutional rights of detainees in his jurisdiction. In 2011, the Justice Department concluded that Arpaio’s office had "a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos" and repeatedly violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Arpaio was described by a DOJ expert as overseeing the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history.
In December of 2011, a U.S. District Judge issued an injunction ordering Arpaio to stop racially profiling Latino drivers. Arpaio and his office vocally refused to comply for 18 months. Arpaio nonetheless argued in the subsequent contempt case that his noncompliance was "not intentional" ...
... the former head of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, Vanita Gupta, said that the pardon sent "a dangerous message that a law enforcement officer who abused his position of power and defied a court order can simply be excused by a President who himself clearly does not respect the law" ...
http://fortune.com/2017/08/26/donald-trump-pardons-joe-arpaio/
