20,000 march against racist sheriff

“¡Se ve, se siente! ¡El pueblo está presente! (You can see it! You can feel it! The people are here!)” This was one of the many popular chants that reverberated through the streets of Phoenix on Jan. 16 as 20,000 people expressed their outrage and disgust with Joe Arpaio, the racist, immigrant-bashing and terrorist sheriff of Maricopa County.

WW photos: Bob McCubbin

The marchers made their way through various working-class neighborhoods and commercial areas where people came out of their homes and businesses to express their support. Motorists who had to stop while the mile-long, pro-immigrant march passed by also showed their solidarity with smiles, honking horns and raised fists.

The marchers represented many sectors of the workers and oppressed. There were Latino/a, Black, white and Indigenous peoples. Some participants had traveled from areas as distant as California and Oregon to attend the protest. Marchers were young and old and in between and included families with children in strollers and a lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer contingent chanting “We are queer and we are here!” There were seasoned veterans of political demonstrations and people for whom this was their first protest ever.

The march concluded at the Maricopa County Durango Jail Complex. This is the home of the infamous Tent City Jail where Arpaio forces the most inhumane treatment upon detainees: temperatures in excess of 130 degrees during the summer months, the serving of spoiled food, and nonstop racial slurs and abuse at the hands of sheriff’s deputies.

Speakers addressed the crowd as they gathered near the complex. Isabel Garcia, a leading southern Arizona immigrant rights activist and May 1 organizer, announced from the stage that the march was so long that she could not see the end of it. “This march is historic and unprecedented in Arizona,” she said. “The people are not going to be complacent and will no longer let Arizona be used as the incubator for anti-immigrant legislation and policies.” This march, she continued, “captures the political conditions of the border” and exposes them for everyone to see