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badgenome on 28 April 2010
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CommonMan said:
badgenome said:
CommonMan said:

I have to disagree with this badgenome, to a certain extent. The law doesn't say "Pull over dark skinned people and harass them" but you can bet your ass that will happen even more than it does now. I'm a white dude who dresses professionally and obeys laws almost too much (hell, I don't even jaywalk!) so everything is just hunky-dory for me, but the police already use ethnic profiling, I have a black friend who dresses and acts much the same as me and getting pulled over is a regular thing for him, he didn't even realize it wasn't normal for everyone until I remarked on it. This law gives the police unmitigated authority to do WHATEVER THEY WANT FOR ANY REASON AT ALL, I know that's not the intent, but it will be the effect. And since the people are here illegally, they have no recourse if they are harrassed or even beaten. If we want to stop immigration by threat of imminent violence, this is a great way to go.

No, it does not. If you are going to make that claim, back it up.

False. Look at what happened to Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean. They shot a Mexican drug dealer in the ass because they thought he had a gun, and the government granted him immunity so that he could testify against them! If they will do that for a drug dealer, they will certainly do it for a humble day laborer... unless the system is even more perverse than I think it is.

I just re-read what I wrote, apparently I have some trust issues with law enforcement, sheesh. What I'm getting at is that in my (granted second-hand) experience there is already a lot of racial profiling going on with no law to support the behavior whatsoever. This law gives that support to the behavior, the only outcome of which from my perspective is an increase and perhaps an escalation of the behavior.

As to the second part, the reason I say they wouldn't have recourse has less to do with "can" they report it and more with "will they". Most of the time illegal immigrants DON'T want to call attention to themselves, and suing the police department just might do that. So there are not necessarily laws that don't protect them, but in practice I imagine a lot goes unreported as we are right now.

I can't really blame you. Plenty of cops are power tripping dickheads, and even as a white guy I've had a cop pull a gun on me because I cut him off as he was pulling away from the curb (without using his turn signal).

The point is that this particular law doesn't turn Arizona into a police state any more than the United States is already a police state, as it simply mimics federal law. If someone is picked up for theft and barely speaks English, I don't see it as a grave violation of his rights if the police check with the feds on his immigration status, and I find it surreal that there is so much hue and cry over this law but very little when sanctuary cities let criminal illegal aliens go time and again until they finally kill someone.