The recent criticism of President Donald Trump from the left and the right – and especially from GOP members of Congress – over the pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona has exposed a dangerous problem within our government.
A sheriff in a state that borders Mexico, where tens of thousands illegally enter the U.S. every year, targeted these criminals in accordance with U.S. immigration laws.
Yet the federal government claimed he was racially profiling. His response was that he was targeting those he believed had entered the country illegally. A federal crime.
In reality, his actions were predictive and criminal profiling, but in today's politically correct environment, it's "racial profiling."
Arpaio was targeted for prosecution by the same administration that was ignoring violations of U.S. immigration law, endorsing sanctuary cities/states, and doing everything in its power to diminish local, state, and federal law enforcement's authority.
Rather than charging Arpaio with criminal contempt over racial profiling, the Justice Department should have prosecuted Rahm Emmanuel and Bill DeBlasio, the mayors of Chicago and New York, for obstruction of justice by continually harboring illegals, and ordering their police departments to refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities. All federal crimes.
But if the government did that, the left and the president's critics would scream selective and political prosecution!
A first-year law student could see Arpaio's was a politically motivated prosecution, with prosecutors announcing it on the eve of his election day.
Fast forward to the pardon fallout and criticism that's so repugnant that it defies description.
Sally Yates, President Barack Obama's Deputy Attorney General tweeted, "With his pardon pen, POTUS reveals his own contempt for our Constitution, our courts, and our founding principles of equality and justice."
Really?
She was so outraged at Arpaio's pardon, but said nothing about President Obama's granting of clemency to more than 1,000 drug dealers, a terrorist whose organization was responsible for numerous bombings and murders, and a traitor, a military soldier, who leaked hundreds, if not thousands of classified documents.
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York, tweeted, "This pardon is contrary to DOJ guidelines, unsurprisingly. Pure politics. Wonder what the pardon attorney's official recommendation was."
"Pure Politics," he says! That's like the pot, calling the kettle black. He conveniently forgot to mention that the President of the United States isn't bound by DOJ guidelines.
Then you had Speaker Paul Ryan who chose to criticize the president's actions, saying: "Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon."
And Arizona Senator John McCain said: "The president has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law."
Did Ryan and McCain not find the prosecution against 85-year-old Arpaio outrageous in the first place?
Anyone, Republican or Democrat, left or right, saw this for what is was — a selective and political prosecution, yet neither one of them had the courage to say it.
Or, was it something else?
Both Ryan and McCain did everything they could to keep Donald Trump from becoming president. Unfortunately for Arpaio, he not only irritated the Obama administration by attempting to enforce the federal immigration law, but also irritated the GOP anti-Trumpers with his support for the president.
Their criticism of Trump for this pardon, is as politically sickening as was the original investigation against the sheriff in the first place.
Every American concerned about the constitution and our freedoms and liberties, should have been outraged by the Obama administration's use of the Justice Department to target the sheriff for political purposes.
There is no greater threat to our democracy than a government that fails protect our freedoms and liberties, as aggressively as it pursues justice, and the only thing worse, are politicians and members of Congress that encourage this failure, and or stand by silently, and allows it to happen.
Bernard Kerik is a former New York City police commissioner and was in command of the NYPD during the attacks on America on 9/11.