I swear folks are losing their minds in A-merry-ca. In the state of Arizona the state legislature is expected to pass a law that will make it legal to profile brown people.
Imagine, if you will, that you are a Latino man who just ran out to Home Depot to get some supplies to do some yard work. You just got your supplies and you are outside loading your Chevy F-150 and some local po po rolls up on you and demands that you prove that you are an A-merry-can. Can you imagine? Well, that is exactly what the law could allow them to do in Mr. Morton country in the next couple of days. These assholes in "the land of the sun" just told the federal government to go and f*&k themselves because they have a border control problem.
"Arizona’s Republican Governor, under pressure from right-wing rivals for her job, has until Saturday afternoon to sign or veto the measure. The Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles, a leading champion of immigration reform, has denounced it as a mandate for “German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques” of snooping and betrayal.
Up to ten other states are said to be considering similar laws as pressure mounts on the Republican Right and along America’s southern border for state-based immigration crackdowns in the absence of federal immigration reform. The Arizona Bill would make it a crime for legal immigrants not to carry their alien registration papers, and would allow police to arrest those unable to produce them — potentially upending the presumption of innocence underpinning US law and the principle that its enforcement should be colour-blind. "
Up to ten other states are said to be considering similar laws as pressure mounts on the Republican Right and along America’s southern border for state-based immigration crackdowns in the absence of federal immigration reform. The Arizona Bill would make it a crime for legal immigrants not to carry their alien registration papers, and would allow police to arrest those unable to produce them — potentially upending the presumption of innocence underpinning US law and the principle that its enforcement should be colour-blind. "
For all you non-lawyers out there, let me break it down in really simple terms for you: This new law would make it a newly created misdemeanor under their criminal code to be caught without immigration documents if you are even a legal immigrant. All law enforcement officials would need to make life miserable for some poor Latino- who happened to leave home without their Immigration Express Card- would be a reasonable suspicion to check them. That's it. This poorly worded law is too broad and it's too vague. It will be challenged and it will be struck down. Just imagine two local cops talking in Arizona:
Hey Harry, see that guy over there looking like Ricky Martin? I bet he is a Mexican. Nah, he looks like a white guy with a really nice tan. Or, he could be Italian. Nah, if he was Italian he wouldn't be driving a Chevy. Those Mexicans really love Chevys. Yeah,you might be right....look he is talking to that other guy, can you tell if he is speaking English? Naw, I can't see from here....
The poor folks in law enforcement don't even want this bill, because guess what? It's actually going to make it harder to fight crime for all those dumb ass xenophobes in Arizona. And, so far, a similar national law has not even been working.
I agree with Ruben Naverette when he writes:
"The real tragedy in all this is that the bill, which professes to take a hard line against illegal activity, will almost certainly produce much more of it. By proposing a law that deputizes every local and state law enforcement officer in Arizona to enforce immigration law, Pearce has single-handedly destroyed the trust between law enforcement agencies and the immigrant communities they have spent years trying to better serve.Good luck finding people who are willing to report crimes and be interviewed as witnesses now that they are afraid they might be arrested or deported. That makes these communities easy prey for criminals and makes the job of law enforcement much harder."
Not to mention the fact that law enforcement officials will be overworked trying to find the illegal bogeyman while real crimes are taking place.
And why now? Why these draconian and unconstitutional measures now? I wonder if the the folks in Arizona realize that the illegal immigrant population has actually been going down. (About one million over the past two years) That might be due to the fact that they are actually doing better in their own damn country than they would have been here in the land of "milk and honey." But try telling that to the folks in Arizona. The brown people are the root of all of their problems. Can't get a job? It's those damn illegals? Crime rate going up? It's those damn illegals. Value of your home plummeted? It's those damn illegals. Wife banging the Gardener? Well, that just might be the illegal....let me stop.
"American people are fair-minded and respectful. I can't imagine Arizonans now reverting to German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques whereby people are required to turn one another in to the authorities on any suspicion of documentation,"
Thank you Cardinal Mahony. And this is the perfect time to end with a very famous quote from another man of god: Pastor Martin Niemoller:
"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.THEN THEY CAME for me and by that time no one was left to speak up."
Fortunately, there are plenty people speaking up now; let's just hope that it makes a difference.
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