Between 500 and 600 protesters stormed the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix, Arizona on Friday calling for the resignation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
"Arrest Arpaio, not the people!" shouted the protesters as they marched from the downtown Convention Center to the 4th Avenue Jail, and then to the Maricopa County Sheriff's headquarters, reports the Phoenix New Times.
The rally was organized by Puente Arizona, a "grassroots migrant justice organization," and coincided with the annual Netroots Nations conference, the largest progressive gathering in the nation, which was attended by several 2016 Democratic presidential candidates, who were heckled by protesters, as HNGN reported.
Arpaio has been one of the most outspoken critics of the nation's immigration policies. His department has been determined to have repeatedly engaged in questionable law enforcement practices that discriminated against and violated constitutional rights of immigrants, according to the LA Times. In 2012, the Justice Department filed a civil rights lawsuit against Arpaio and his department, which is in the final stages of litigation.
To show their support and solidarity with illegal immigrants subjected to Arpaio's policies, local Phoenicians were joined by hundreds of Netroots Nations' protesters in assembling at noon on the west side of the Convention Center, where they began rallying for his resignation.
One woman told the crowd that what Arpaio does "is not just an immigrant issue; it's not just a Latino issue," eliciting cheers and claps, according to the Times. "Arizona is a very racist state, and we don't just experience the fear when we get arrested. We feel the pain everyday psychologically."
VID: Arrest Arpaio Not the People chants outside Sheriff's HQ in Phoenix #ArpaioFreeAZ #NN15 pic.twitter.com/HvyJZiUWJ6
— Nancy Mancias (@nancymancias) July 17, 2015
Protesters chanted:
"Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Sheriff Joe has got to go!"
"Arrest Arpaio, not the people!"
"Shut it down! Shut it down!"
"Arpaio-free Arizona!"
After circling the jail, they assembled in front of the main entrance, where they began to dance to the artist Selena and were accompanied by a handful of counter-protesters holding signs that read "Thank you Joe," according to Peoplesworld.org.
Before dispersing, famed left-wing hop-hop artist Immortal Technique took over to provide words of encouragement and a brief lesson on U.S. relations with Latin America
Other than forcing Arpaio's resignation, protesters hoped to bring attention to an initiative to remove U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from Maricopa County Jails, where they are supposedly complicit in implementing Arpaio's "abusive policies" to detain illegal immigrants. According to the Times, protesters are upset about ICE holding illegal aliens in federal detention facilities for an indeterminate length of time, rather than issuing them a court date and letting them walk free.
