Will Grigg comes through with another great essay on the walled camp our "small government" activists would love to turn America into:
Last week, many (by no means all) adherents of the Tea Party movement briefly suspended their campaign against invasive government to promote and applaud the enactment of a measure turning Arizona into an authentic police state -- that is, one in which police can demand identity papers from practically anyone and arrest those who don't comply.
Under SB 1070, signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer on April 24, any "lawful contact" between a law enforcement officer and a citizen can end with the latter being arrested and detained if he cannot satisfy a "reasonable suspicion" that he is in the country without official permission.
An incident that occurred two days before that law was signed by Brewer demonstrates that a valid driver's license may not be sufficient to allay that suspicion, and that it's entirely possible for a native-born U.S. citizen who fully cooperates with the police to end up being handcuffed, arrested, detained and humiliated.
On April 22, an Arizona resident who identifies himself as Abdon (he hasn't chosen to disclose his surname) pulled his truck into a weigh station. As his vehicle was being inspected, Abdon was asked by an official to display proof of legal residency. He promptly handed over a valid Arizona commercial driving license; he also supplied his Social Security number and additional personal details.
For some reason this was considered insufficient, and Abdon ended up being cuffed and hauled away to an ICE detention facility while his wife -- who was dragged out of work -- was dispatched to their home to retrieve Abdon's birth certificate and other documents.
4 comments:
So we are supposed to let the Mexican criminals into this country without checking any form of ID, because somebody MIGHT get "humiliated?" Oh come on, every American citizen has been advised to get a passport because if they step across the border into Canada, they will not be let back in without it. The liberals have it all backwards, lets treat our own citizens like crap, but let all manner of foreign riff raff into the country to rip us off. All public servants take an oath of office that says they will uphold the Constitution and protect the citizens. At least the governor of Arizona is fulfilling her vow, how many others have lied when taking their oath of office?
The liberals have it all backwards, lets treat our own citizens like crap, but let all manner of foreign riff raff into the country to rip us off.
I'm no liberal, but it sounds to me like you've got it backward. The conservatives want to treat us all like criminals in hope of discouraging "forign riff raff."
What part of the Constitution are the politicians upholding, that says citizens are required to carry "proof of legal residence?" Because the only way this abortion of a law will work is to demand that everybody keep their papers in order, and carry them at all times. Screw that. "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."
Actually, Anne, I daresay that some of us are simply far more concerned with the American criminals behind the robes, thrones and crowns of office than we are of any sort of freelancer, foreign or domestic.
I personally find the concept of borders repellent for many reasons, but it is the faux piety of those who presume that a wall guarded with dogs and militarized enforcement thugs will produce anything resembling liberty or security, that really gets my goat. ("Wow, I get to keep my original problem and get to grab my ankles over something new? Man, sign me up!" Yeah, I don't get that.)
I do not understand--do not--why it does not seem to bother people that all the things that we used to poke fun at other countries for doing--domestic spying, "papers please", etc--either have already come to pass or are being championed to thunderous applause as we speak. It's like we want to forget entirely who Santayana or Niemoller were, or why we should care.
Listen: there are entire professions dedicated to the art of exploiting people against one another, cynically, with the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement. You are being used in this game--just as are "the liberals" on both sides of "the aisle" who support (forced, public) entitlements, just as are those who support militarized "law imposement" in the name of [insert manufactured "crime" here], just as are those who support [insert government program--any program--here]. It's a racket.
Yeah, I know, it's about the "illegal" and not about the "immigrant". I have been there myself, I assure you. But I would urge you to take a closer look at history. Terms like "foreign riff raff" usually mean you're willing to throw someone else under the bus as a matter of prior restraint. How well does that work out?
"...First they came for the foreign riff raff, and I said nothing because I was not one of (hock, spit) them..."
Liberty is either for everyone, or it is for no one.
Oh, and Joel, I think the caption on the Mike Keefe comic should be a little different:
"What was the threat level for today again?"
:-)
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