http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0714fri1-14.html

Petty behavior turns Arpaio into a bully

Jul. 14, 2006 12:00 AM

"(I)n all of this, Jim, you must understand that the Sheriff's Office - the sheriff, this organization - does not need the West Valley View to get its message out. I want to make that clear." - Lt. Paul Chagolla, public information officer, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, to West Valley View reporter Jim Painter

It is hardly a secret that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio believes he has the media world by the ears.

The Washington Post recently came to the man known to the world as "Sheriff Joe" for his take on illegal immigration. The Canberra Times of Australia took note of his treatment of inmates. And the Sunday Times of London wrote in January about "America's Toughest Sheriff" seeking out Britons to man his overflowing jails.

Should it surprise anyone, then, that such an international icon might thumb his nose at a tiny, free newspaper published in his own backyard, the West Valley?

Small-circulation newspapers - among them, local publications produced by The Republic - probably don't do much for one who dwells on international glory. They simply provide neighborhood-focused news to their communities.

One of those small, independent papers is the West Valley View, which circulates free among 70,000 residents of Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear, Litchfield Park and Tolleson. For reasons even a judge has found "petty," Arpaio has opted to treat the View - and, by extension, its readers - as squashed bugs on the windshield of his squad car.

Last fall, Arpaio and his deputies in the press office decided they no longer would e-mail press releases to the reporters at the West Valley View. If the View wished to get news from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, reporters would have to jump through extraordinary hoops: File written Freedom of Information Act requests; schedule appointments with the sheriff's press officers; and drive to downtown Phoenix to meet with them.

Those are hoops through which no other local newspaper must jump. Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh gets e-mailed releases from Arpaio. So does former talk-show host Tony Snow, now press secretary to President Bush. But not a newspaper that covers a substantial portion of the unincorporated Valley that is patrolled by Arpaio's officers.

The View's editorial directors are a combative bunch, to be sure. Publisher Elliott Freireich, for example, makes no effort to mask his contempt for Arpaio, who, according to Freireich, "is more concerned with his image than in fighting crime."

The sheriff's own press aide acknowledged, in an interview with View reporter Jim Painter taped last November, that the View's disinterest in running Arpaio-friendly stories is at least part of the problem.

"(W)e've sent you multiple story ideas, multiple releases and, quite frankly, we don't see them covered," Lt. Paul Chagolla complained.

As the Chagolla comment at the top of this editorial indicates, the sheriff appears to have cut off the paper in a fit of petty-minded pique.

Our use of the word "petty" is not arbitrary. In a June 28 decision ordering Arpaio to make his press releases available "contemporaneously" to the View, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret H. Downie said the sheriff's action "appears petty." She also observed that it would be "simpler, more professional and less costly for all involved (including Maricopa County taxpayers) for the MCSO to, with a few keystrokes, add the West Valley View to its e-mail distribution list."

Nevertheless, the judge concluded she could not find Arpaio's treatment of the View "arbitrary, capricious, or in bad faith," so Downie declined to order the sheriff to add the View to its e-mail list.

Instead of a simple denouement to the matter, the sheriff opted to continue punishing his little "enemy." Rather than resolve the matter with a few keystrokes, the sheriff's press officers have "complied" with Downie's order by setting up a box downtown where its wealth of Arpaio-promoting press missives are deposited. View reporters can drive in from Tolleson to fetch them.

The sheriff's petulance does not stop there.

Small community papers often rely on police logs, reports of local crime, as an important part of their news budgets. For nearly 20 years, the View has enjoyed access to the Sheriff's Office logs at a West Valley substation. No more. Now, it must file written requests and, again, drive to downtown Phoenix to get them.

This behavior by Arpaio and his people is more than just unseemly arrogance. It is bullying.

The 70,000 readers of a free West Valley publication don't seem to matter much in the eyes of an international icon like Arpaio.

It is time the sheriff quit this childishness. No, the West Valley of Maricopa County isn't London. But for the elected sheriff of Maricopa County, that's rather the point.