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The new racist law of Arizona (SB1070), as you may know, allows citizens to denounce policemen if they do not stop and identify potential illegal immigrants, that is in practical terms: anyone who looks Hispanic, but holds no provision to guarantee the human rights of these people nor to allow them to denounce police or the state for abuses. It basically makes sure that police will be pressed hard to treat all Hispanic people as potential criminals or otherwise be reported to their bosses by the local nazis.
It has been globally condemned as a racist law and has been denounced that way in pan-American forums such as the OAS and within the USA itself.
In fact, what is happening is that Arizona is becoming the focus of a widespread boycott, what seems to bother the governor of the state, Jan Bewer, and is harming the hostery business, which has reported significant falls in customers since the law was pushed ahead. But really if not being blond with bright blue eyes and speaking broken English with a nasal accent while spitting "chew" on the floor makes your suspicious to the state police, who may even arrest you for no reason... it's clear that it's better not to go to Arizona, just in case.
Hostery industrials have detached themselves from the racist law. Debbie Johnson gremial speaker for the industry in Arizona, said: "I would like to tell to all the people who is angry for the law that we did not support it. Many of our workers are Hispanic and we respect them".
Even the City of Los Angeles is pondering the possibility of boycotting Arizona. Public servants of San Francisco, another major Californian city, already decided to suspend all cooperation with Arizona except in health and police. Both city governments have asked citizens not to consume any product with Arizonan origin.
Signatures are already being gathered in order to get a referendum on the law. Paradoxically, Arizona has some unusual democratic provisions in its constitution allowing the citizens to call for referendums easily.
Source: La Haine[es].
3 comments:
I live in Glendale Arizona just outside of Phoenix and I have seen the lawlessness get progressively worse over the last five years or so. I am the child of a Basque-Cuban immigrant and I have been asked about my immigration status by the police once before. I showed them my retired military ID card and that ends it.
I can tell you that the inhumane trafficking in human beings by the coyotes has made large areas of this state unsafe, even to drive on the freeways. If you are not familiar with the conditions in Arizona due to this trafficking and the Narco Wars in Mexico and you have not read the law, do not brand it as racist in knee jerk reaction.
Frankly, I do not recommend that you travel south of the Interstate highway 10, it can be very dangerous down there especially at night. There have been several instances wherein vehicles overloaded with smuggled immigrants have crashed, killing and injuring both the coyotes and immigrants and innocent people just driving down the road.
Once a week or more the nightly television news reports another house harboring abused immigrants being smuggled by coyotes has been found, there was gun fight between coyotes in which people are killed, some who may be bystanders, someone is kidnapped as result of not paying a coyote or due to rivalry between coyotes or there is a gun fight between the Narco Gangs from Mexico operating in Arizona. Some weeks it seems as though it is some incident involving every day of the week.
Polls show that 70% of the population that live here in Arizona support the law; from what I can tell among my friends, about half the Hispanics I know support it. The law may not be perfect, but it is a step to stop the lawlessness and make Arizona safe for the law abiding citizens.
It seems that the law has A LOT of people on their toes, in and outside the state. I doubt that such a big conservative city such as LA or such a US vassal like Mexico's illegitimate but de-facto president V. Calderón would slam the law "just because". As far as I can tell, the law is a matter of judging people on race and putting them in potential situations of no legal defense and also forcing police officers to act in extreme ways in that racist direction.
Said that, it would happen and it's surely already happening anyhow but adding legal weight to a de-facto racist practice is not to be welcomed by me or anyone concerned about ethnic discrimination.
As far as I can tell the biggest concern is that the law allows fascists to denounce policemen who in their racist eyes do not do their work with enough intolerance and arbitrariness and gives no provision instead for defense of human rights and against race/ethnic discrimination. You may feel safe with your military ID card... but also in the need to carry it with you every time you cross your home's door, Andrés, but remember:
"First they came for a Jew and I did nothing because I was not Jewish"...
Anyhow I mostly wanted to raise some debate because the issue is hot across America, at either side of Río Grande.
“…..big conservative city such as LA or such a US vassal like Mexico's illegitimate but de-facto president V. Calderón would slam the law "just because".”
LA is big but not conservative – I lived there for 16 years and know the political players, some personally – and it is one of the most left wing places in the USA just behind San Francisco. Orange county to south is more conservative.. As for Calderón, I suspect he -- like most of the other players in this – seeking to make political gain. The USA provides a safety valve for Mexico’s excess population and is a source of income – several billion dollars a month flow south to support families in what we sometimes call Latin America. The illegal immigrants are exploited by businesses both north and south of the border. Do not get me wrong – the immigrants I see here are hard working and do not beg and for the most part are law abiding but the whole set of circumstances that allows them to come also enable much that is evil.
The porous border allows drugs, gangsters, and God knows what else to come across it. The illegals are exploited and often physically assaulted by the coyotes, many of the women are raped multiple times before they arrive at their destinations. When they get here they receive jobs in which they are paid substandard wages with no benefits and work exploitive hours. The companies that send their remittances to their families make fortunes doing so by overcharging.
The people who benefit from illegal immigration are the businesses who get cheap labor and pay no benefits. As with most things, follow the money and you will find understanding and truth.
We need to have control of our border and know who comes and goes and for what reason. People who are here legally have legal recourse without fear of deportation when they are not treated properly.
The only just way to reconcile this is to secure the border first and then reconcile the status of the illegals in the country. We had an amnesty in 1987 for illegals but we did not secure the border and we now have a bigger mess than in the 1980s.
Meanwhile this weekend illegals smuggling marijuana shot a sheriff’s deputy in the stomach in Casa Grande between Phoenix and Tucson.
“As far as I can tell the biggest concern is that the law allows fascists to denounce policemen who in their racist eyes do not do their work….”
In the USA, every police department has an some type of Internal Affairs Bureau whose sole job is ferret out police malfeasance and investigate citizens reports. People in the USA complain about the police all of the time for being too diligent or not diligent enough in their jobs. It is the right of anyone in this country to denounce the police at anytime for anything. I have done so myself when I lived in LA. Anyone, left, right, center has this privilege and many use it.
The news organizations – television especially- builds their viewership/readership by reporting such things – so I do not worry too much about the politicians getting too out of control. They have little segments on each nightly newscast – Five on side for channel 5 here in Phoenix is a good example. Both the left and right in this country complain about the press so I suspect they are doing their job of keeping them honest.
Unlike Spain, most of Europe, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, and many other places in the world you can say what you want about anyone here without fear of reprisal and the government absolutely CANNOT shut down news organizations for ANY reason. Thank God for our Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Rule of Law in this country.
Quite frankly, if I lived in Latin America I would be trying to get across the myself, legally or illegally. But it does not make it right to come here illegally.
Bolinaga
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