Photos by Hugo Polanco and Stephanie Snyder
A round-table interview with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio abruptly ended Monday night at the Walter Cronkite School when a small group of singing protesters interrupted the sheriff as he was answering a question concerning his immigration policies.
About 10 protesters began singing an original rendition of the British rock band Queen’s 1975 hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” at approximately 7:45 p.m. with less than 15 minutes left in the hour-long interview. Arpaio walked off stage and out of the Cronkite School’s First Amendment Forum when the singers refused to stop until they finished the song.
“This isn’t the way journalists should operate,” Arpaio said in reference to the singers before getting up to leave. According to multiple protesters, however, none of them were Cronkite students.
Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan attempted to stop the singing by asking the protesters to allow the journalists to finish their questions, but his efforts were unsuccessful.
“We appreciate the verses … but if you don’t stop we’re just going to end,” Callahan said. “I just don’t understand why you want to stop reporters from doing their job.”
The protesters responded to Callahan and the hostility from the rest of the crowd by singing louder until their song was complete. By the time they had finished, Arpaio had made his way out of the forum.
“I understand your passion about this issue,” Callahan said to the protesters after they finished. “It just seems, to me, misplaced.”
The Cronkite School had prepared for such an interruption to occur and had plans to relocate the interview to a previously prepared studio on the sixth floor of the building and away from the crowd, Callahan said. The interview would then have been broadcasted to the First Amendment Forum, but because the interruption occurred so close to the end of the one-hour interview, a decision was made not to relocate.
“If it would have happened at the beginning we would have gone upstairs,” Callahan said. “It’s sad that we missed 12 minutes but we got in a great 48 minutes.”
Peter Kropotkin, one of the singing protesters, said the interruption was planned because Arpaio doesn’t allow his opposition to be heard.
“He gets a lot of airtime and has a loud voice,” said Kropotkin, who graduated from ASU last semester with a degree in anthropology. “We just wanted four minutes to get our message out, which is, basically, that Arpaio is a racist.”
All of the singing protesters were either current or former ASU students but none were Cronkite students or students who had class on the Downtown campus, Kropotkin said.
Philosophy sophomore Tyler McAneny, another protester who participated in the singing, said he was not impressed with the questions the Cronkite professors had been asking Arpaio.
“I felt like the journalists weren’t asking hard enough questions,” McAneny said. “They were focusing on minutiae.”
McAneny said he knows many passive protesters will be upset with the disruptive action he took but that he believes it was necessary to send a clear message.
“We are on the same side as all opponents of Arpaio but we feel we need to be more vocal and combative,” he said.
The interview, which was modeled after the “Meet the Press” style of panel discussion, was the latest in the Cronkite School’s series of “Must See Monday” events that are typically designed to bring prominent journalists to the school to talk to students. The Cronkite School chose Arpaio because he is controversial, in a position of power and popular, Callahan said in his opening remarks.
For 45 minutes, Arpaio had been answering questions from three Cronkite professors in front of a peaceful crowd of about 300. Arpaio was asked about his relationship with the media primarily and the issue of public records came up repeatedly.
Arpaio, whose daughter graduated from the Cronkite School, was at times very critical of the media, suggesting journalists oftentimes are biased in their reporting of his policies.
“The polls show that 68 percent of the public does not agree with the media,” Arpaio said. “(The media) has been trying to tear me down for 17 years.”
When asked if he used media access as a weapon, Arpaio deflected the question.
“You invited me — I didn’t invite you,” he said.
Arpaio also refuted questions suggesting his office doesn’t always cooperate with the media.
“The people have a right to know what I’m doing,” Arpaio said. “I’m not afraid to face the media, no matter what the subject is.”
Arpaio responded to questions about his controversial media battle with The Phoenix New Times by poking fun at the publication.
“This is a free weekly paper,” Arpaio said. “Not that that makes any difference.”
When Rick Rodriguez, the Cronkite School’s Carnegie Professor of Journalism and former executive editor of The Sacramento Bee, asked the sheriff about his history of profiling Latinos, the singing protesters interrupted Arpaio.
“Please let us finish,” Rodriguez said. “This is the First Amendment Forum.”
Before walking off stage, Arpaio, grinning, donned a University of Arizona Wilbur Wildcat hat followed by an ASU baseball hat.
Steve Elliott, one of the journalists who interviewed Arpaio, said he thought the sheriff gave a mix of honest and evasive answers.
“He was combative at times and at least feigned being candid some of the time,” said Elliott, the digital news director of Cronkite News Service and former Associated Press Phoenix bureau chief. “I think he evaded some answers but I let it go because we were getting to get back to (those questions) at the end.”
Elliott said he was frustrated that protesters cut the interview short because he and his colleagues spent a lot of time researching Arpaio.
“I feel sorry for Arpaio,” Elliott said. “People have the right to protest, but they need to be respectful. It’s not like we were lobbing softball questions.”
Students expressed frustration that the event was cut short as well.
“Sheriff Joe was just answering the question,” said R.C. Brown, a journalism freshman. “Let the guy speak. There were only 12 minutes left.”
Brown said he used to be a supporter of Arpaio but after learning more about the sheriff and his policies he is unsure if he will continue to support him. Brown said he wanted to hear more from Arpaio so he could help make up his mind about the controversial sheriff.
“The least we can do is give him our attention,” he said. “(The journalists) were doing a really great job.”
Brown said the protesters infuriated him and admitted he was one of the students in the crowd that responded to the singing by yelling obscenities.
“My friends were literally holding me back,” he said.
Journalism freshman Amy Vogelsang also said she would have liked to see the interview come to its natural end.
“I thought the questions were really good,” Vogelsang said. “They weren’t afraid to get right at him.”
Vogelsang said she thought that Arpaio did a poor job of answering questions.
“Arpaio was vague with his answers and kept going back to the same topics,” she said.
Vogelsang wasn’t surprised the protesters who interrupted met a hostile reaction from the crowd.
“It was not the time or place to do that, especially when they didn’t stop,” she said. “A lot of students, myself included, wanted to hear the interview completed. I don’t think their message came across the way they wanted to because it was a rude interruption.”
Because of the high interest in Arpaio and the event, the Cronkite School only allowed ASU students, faculty and staff, as well as personnel from several media outlets, into the building.
“First and foremost, we’re here to serve the students,” Callahan said in his opening remarks that prefaced the interview. Callahan explained that fire code restrictions limited the number of people that could be let into the forum.
Outside, hundreds more — both those affiliated with ASU and members of the community who were not — gathered to protest Arpaio and watch a live stream of the panel interview on a large screen set up on Taylor Mall.
“We’re concerned with Arpaio coming to the Cronkite School,” said Bryant Partida, a political science and Chicano studies senior who participated in the protest.
Partida joined a coalition of students and community members that had been planning to protest for over a month. According to Partida, protesters began picketing on Taylor Mall at 4:30 p.m., two and a half hours before Arpaio was scheduled to sit down for his interview at Cronkite.
Other protesters expressed similar frustration directed toward Arpaio, the Cronkite School and ASU.
“It is disrespectful that someone who dehumanizes people is here at the largest university in the country,” said Silvia Rodriguez, a spring 2009 graduate of ASU in political science and Chicano studies.
Around 6:00 p.m. the protesters began chanting “stop the injustice, stop the hate, we don’t want your police state” as well as many other short anthems. Protesters also carried signs that read “We are human” and “Why is ASU welcoming a racist with a badge?”
A much smaller group of Arpaio supporters were present on Taylor Mall.
Barbara Heller, of Phoenix, said she was showing her support because she knew that protesters would be rallying against the sheriff.
“(I will show support) anywhere protesters show up and deny that he has the right to enforce the law,” Heller said.
Heller said she was disappointed that members of the community could not go inside the Cronkite School to watch Arpaio.
“Being taxpayers, we pay for the school so it doesn’t seem fair,” she said.
Arpaio supporters carried signs saying “We support Joe” and “Stand up America! No illegals!” One Arpaio supporter had a rifle slung over his shoulder.
Protesters and supporters weren’t the only ones hoisting signs, however.
A sign taped to the front door of the Sbarro Italian Eatery located on the first floor of the Cronkite building read “Arpaio supporters not welcome.”
“I will refuse customers,” the Sbarro assistant manager, who refused to be named, said. “I don’t stand for fascism in my store.”
About 80 protesters who were not ASU students or faculty pushed their way into the first floor lobby of the Cronkite building when the interview began, Cronkite Assistant Dean Kristin Gilger said.
“They were pretty calm,” Gilger said. “We didn’t try to keep any protesters out (of the lobby).”
The protesters remained in the lobby throughout the event before dispersing peacefully, Gilger said. They sang and chanted, but did not try to force through police officers into other parts of the building, she said.
Cmdr. Rich Wilson of the Phoenix Police Department said there were eight to 10 Phoenix police officers on assignment for the event. A handful of ASU police officers were present as well.
Wilson said the police department expected anywhere from 300 to 500 protesters to show up, based on the size of a Facebook group coordinating the effort.
“We’ve got a group of officers here to keep the peace,” said Wilson, adding that he believed appropriate measures had been taken to ensure safety.
Contact the reporter at dustin.volz@asu.edu
