Performing America’s Toughest Sheriff: media as practice in Joe Arpaio’s Old West

Abstract

Joe Arpaio, or ''America's Toughest Sheriff,'' uses hardline tactics that have won the hearts of conservative Republicans on the one hand and the condemnation of groups such as Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union on the other. In order to legitimize his extreme tactics toward illegal immigration Joe mobilizes the media to create an identity for himself and his opposition. This performative act of the lawman and the careful construction of the modern day Wild West in which it is situated are used to cover up practices of cruelty, racism, and corruption. With this paper we explore how Joe Arpaio uses the media to produce and reify his own mythic image. Empirical facts and the ''real'' may not be as powerful as myth and media in a land where Phoenicians, (illegal) aliens, and coyotes (someone who traffics immigrants from Mexico to the United States in an illegal fashion) roam through the Valley of the Sun under the watchful eye of Sheriff Joe and his posse.

Immigration enforcement, crime, and demography

“…First, the largest county in Arizona, Maricopa County, which accounts for nearly 60% of the state's population, had, since 1993, had an elected sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who publicly branded himself to be “America's toughest sheriff.” 26 His policy initiatives include having built a “tent city” to house inmates outdoors during the summer, re‐instituting the practice of inmate chain gangs, and requiring inmates to wear pink underwear 27 . Sheriff Arpaio is also known for being especially interested in directing county law enforcement resources to enforce federal immigration laws, a policy that led to numerous private lawsuits as well as to federal litigation (Lacey, 2011; Lukinbeal & Sharp, 2015).…”