Village Voice Media is underwriting the cost of a lawsuit challenging Arizona's controversial immigration law.
In a note to readers Thursday, VVM Chairman and CEO Michael Lacey and Executive Editor Jim Larkin said the law forces "all law enforcement in the state (to) adopt the police-state tactics of infamous sheriff Joe Arpaio."
The VVM executives were arrested and jailed two years ago in a grand jury probe into an online story that disclosed real estate dealings by Arpaio. A grand jury convened under controversial circumstances sought the identities of all online readers of VVM's New Times newspaper in Phoenix.
"Beyond the issue of immigration, Village Voice Media's journalists in Phoenix have been targets of the sheriff," Larkin and Lacey wrote. "Writers, editors, and our publisher have been stonewalled and harassed. The pursuit of public records has led to the filing of criminal charges against a reporter."
VVM has helped finance past litigation on immigrants rights filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is planning the lawsuit challenging the new immigration law, which allows law enforcement personnel to detain someone if there is a "reasonable suspicion" the person is in the United States illegally.
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