WHAT IS A CRIME AND WHO IS A CRIMINAL

At what point is a crime a crime? We are a country of laws with a basic book of rules starting with the Constitution. The job of law enforcement is to find and arrest the lawbreakers. The job of the courts is to interpret the law and to render the proper punishments. It’s really all pretty simple.

We don’t get to pick and choose which laws we obey. We can’t break a law just because we don’t like it. If you are out on the highway and the speed limit is 65mph, that means some governing agency has decided that 65mph is the maximum speed one should travel. It is for the safety of everyone using the highway. If you violate that law, you do so at your peril. You face monetary punishment and worse, possibly even losing your driving privilege.  

If you are a law enforcement officer, you are faced with similar restrictions. You don’t get to decide what laws you are going to enforce. In court you have a somewhat different situation. Often judges can mediate a case and offer reduced punishment if they feel the community is best served. Sometimes however judges take on too much power. They can bring their political bias to a case and make a complete mess of the law.

Such is the case in the matter of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Leftover Obama appointees decided that the good sheriff was arresting too many illegal aliens so he must be targeting them. He must be profiling them. To make sure he never did that again, he was arrested and convicted of disobeying the “illegal” order of a Federal Judge who told him to leave the illegals alone. This 85-year-old sheriff who had faithfully discharged his duties as sheriff was now facing jail time for the crime of arresting criminals.

It is important here to state for the record just what is a crime and who is a criminal. Every single individual who is in this country without proper documentation, whether by overstaying a visa or sneaking in through an underground tunnel, is a criminal. They are law breakers. Some may be murderers or rapists or thieves, who knows? Some may bring strange diseases. Again, who knows? The simple fact is they are here illegally and are subject to arrest and jail time.

Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner just signed a bill forbidding his state’s police agencies from arresting illegal aliens or from working with Federal Immigration agencies. He has decided to make his entire state a sanctuary state. In other words, he has decided to only obey laws which he likes and will only allow that state’s police agencies to enforce laws with which the Governor agrees.

What we are talking about here is simple anarchy. What if the good governor decided that child molestation was okay?  How about simple assault? In other words, what if this governor and the prosecutor in Maricopa County along with the judge who levied punishment on Arpaio, just made their own laws? Oh, wait a minute. That’s exactly what they just did.

Fortunately for the sake of justice and law and order, President Trump pardoned Arpaio thereby relieving this law enforcement officer of what could have easily been a death sentence. It is interesting to note that the Mayor of Phoenix, Democrat Greg Stanton,  publicly declared that this pardon was a slap in the face of all of Phoenix.

No, Mr. Mayor. This pardon was fair and just. The prosecution of Arpaio was an insult to all law abiding citizens of the entire country. You and all who participated in this travesty should be ashamed. Crime is crime, criminals are criminals, and we are fortunate indeed to have law enforcement officers who still do the job they are paid to do.

Ron Scarbro