Sunday, April 25, 2010
Arizona's New Law
There's a lot I could say about the law just enacted in Arizona to rid the State of illegal aliens. A short summary of my opinion is that it won't work. As written, the law can not be enforced, at least if the governor is serious about not permitting the police to engage in racial profiling. I admit that the police may have some secret and mysterious way of watching a person and deciding that he or she is an illegal alien. They may have the ability to tell, but I doubt it.
However, the police can be surprisingly skillful at determining a person's background and origin. I recall visiting Ottawa, Canada in 1982 with my wife. We stood next to the parliament building to watch for the prime minister. The police were keeping order by keeping the crowd on the sidewalk and kerb and out of the street. A policeman near me would approach a man walking in the street and speak to him in French if he was from Quebec Province or in English if he was from other parts of Canada. I asked the policeman how he could tell. He couldn't tell me, but he had the ability. Perhaps there is a slight difference in the way the Quebecois people walk. I have noticed, for example, seeing people on television walk. The Chinese have a characteristic way of walking that is noticeably different from that of an American.
I don't think that the manner of walking will serve the Arizona policemen. Mexicans may indeed have a characteristic walk that is a little different from that of a "white" American like me. However, I suspect that Arizonans of Mexican extraction who have American citizenship walk just like their relatives in Mexico.
In the end I suspect the police will give up the practice of simply stopping and questioning anyone they suspect. They will confine their questioning to persons stopped for traffic violations as well as those arrested and put in jail for more serious offenses. Even that won't work. How is a person who is in Arizona legally to prove he or she isn't an illegal alien? We Americans don't carry passports or birth certificates with us. A driver's license isn't a guarantee of citizenship. The only people who are apt to carry identification with them sufficient to convince a skeptical policeman of their legality are tourists with visitor's visas.
Perhaps the only workable solution is for everyone who is in Arizona legally to move to some other State. California, look out!
However, the police can be surprisingly skillful at determining a person's background and origin. I recall visiting Ottawa, Canada in 1982 with my wife. We stood next to the parliament building to watch for the prime minister. The police were keeping order by keeping the crowd on the sidewalk and kerb and out of the street. A policeman near me would approach a man walking in the street and speak to him in French if he was from Quebec Province or in English if he was from other parts of Canada. I asked the policeman how he could tell. He couldn't tell me, but he had the ability. Perhaps there is a slight difference in the way the Quebecois people walk. I have noticed, for example, seeing people on television walk. The Chinese have a characteristic way of walking that is noticeably different from that of an American.
I don't think that the manner of walking will serve the Arizona policemen. Mexicans may indeed have a characteristic walk that is a little different from that of a "white" American like me. However, I suspect that Arizonans of Mexican extraction who have American citizenship walk just like their relatives in Mexico.
In the end I suspect the police will give up the practice of simply stopping and questioning anyone they suspect. They will confine their questioning to persons stopped for traffic violations as well as those arrested and put in jail for more serious offenses. Even that won't work. How is a person who is in Arizona legally to prove he or she isn't an illegal alien? We Americans don't carry passports or birth certificates with us. A driver's license isn't a guarantee of citizenship. The only people who are apt to carry identification with them sufficient to convince a skeptical policeman of their legality are tourists with visitor's visas.
Perhaps the only workable solution is for everyone who is in Arizona legally to move to some other State. California, look out!
Labels: Arizona's anti illegal immigrant law; racial profiling; walking
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Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws and the state can continue to boycott Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat War profiteering contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
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