An Arizona sheriff will provide police protection to largely black congregations in his county in response to the shooting in a church in Charleston, S.C., on Wednesday.
Nine black church members were killed during a Bible study.
Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County sheriff, said Rev. Jarrett Maupin, a civil rights activist in the area, asked him for increased police protection. Though there have not yet been any direct threats, Maupin told the Associated Press that black churches have been “the target of threats and hate mail,” the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
“Arizona is, according to federal and Southern Poverty Law Center reports, a hotbed of white supremacy hate groups,” Maupin said, according to the Phoenix Business Journal. “There are people like this shooter Dylann Roof in our midst and they must know that law enforcement is prepared to stop them.”
Arpaio also said that there will be more officers patrolling areas with black-owned businesses, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
However, Arpaio’s office is currently being monitored by a federal judge after the judge ruled that Arpaio’s officers had racially profiled Hispanic people, Fox News reported.
He will also fight a lawsuit in August as his office is accused of punishing Hispanic inmates who struggle to speak English in addition to allegedly discriminating against Hispanic people in identity theft raids on businesses, Fox News reported.
