Donald Trump does a lot of things I do not like much, but pardoning Joe Arpaio for some reason struck me as particularly unpardonable, if you will, so here is a little post by me trying to explain, to myself as much as anyone, what it was about this particular atrocity that struck me as unredeemable.

A Racist Pardons a Racist for Being a Racist

Hmm, that might be the only reason I need. But anyway, unlike many of Trump's follies - repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something better, or something worse, or anything, or nothing, for example - pardoning Arpaio was not Republican dogma. This was Donald Trump doing what Donald Trump wanted to do, and what he wanted was to pardon a man who is only known on a national scale for using his public office to enforce racist practices, and who was convicted of the crime of using his office to continue racist policies after being told to stop it by a federal court. After Charlottesville, this is just another signal to the racist right wing that our President supports white nationalism.

Arpaio is a Bad, Bad Guy

The Phoenix New Times tweeted a long list of some of the things Arpaio has done over the years, more than just defying a federal court. People died because of this man:

• A guy baked in his cell in one of Arpaio's prison cells, His dead body temperature was 109 degrees.
• Prisoners hanged themselves at a surprising rate in his jails.
• A mother giving birth was denied care long enough that her baby died before she got to the hospital. "Babies often survive the condition, if their mothers go immediately to a hospital. The treatment is simple: immediate delivery."
• He once marched Latino prisoners into an area surrounded by an electric fence.
• He had two reporters arrested for writing about him. They sued and won $3.75 million.
• The numbers seem to differ, but the brutality of his jails and his history of racial profiling have cost Maricopa county somewhere between $44 million and $140 million in court costs, settlements and judgments.

He did not deserve a pardon.

This Smacks of Corruption

Arpaio was an early and enthusiastic Trump supporter (and a known racist. Huh.) Trump pardoned him without even the usual review. It certainly seems as though Trump pardoned him at least partially as a political favor. If that is how pardons will be used, we need to alter the constitution to take away the President's power to pardon.

This Is Not the Usual Pardon

I suppose that by their very nature, Presidential pardons involve the President overriding the criminal courts. However, in most cases the person receiving the pardon has served some punishment and shown some cause why they should be pardoned. Arpaio has not shown contrition and had not even been sentenced. This is not a case of the President saying that Arpaio has somehow redeemed himself. This is the President saying that defying a federal court by racially profiling citizens is OK - that he does not agree with the law, so he is just setting it aside. That seems abusive to me. Pardons were never meant for the President to just decide which laws should be followed and which can be ignored. Again, it really makes you think that Trump should never have been handed that power.

So this one leaves a bitter taste. Donald Trump is an awful person, but pardoning Joe Arpaio went beyond his usual standards of awfulness.