Some Innocent People …

Posted By | April 30th, 2010 | Category: Hot Topics | 2 comments Print This Post Print This Post

By Lee A. Daniels

Strip away all the rhetoric of rationalization from the proponents of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law.

And shelve, too, the legitimate complaints about Congressional inaction over the last two decades to revamp the immigration policing system (for which conservatives deserve the preponderance of the blame).

What you’re left with is another example of how thin the veneer of civilization is, of how willing some people are to be cruel to others – especially when their cruelty can be simultaneously fostered and shielded by laws.

Arizona’s anti-immigrant bill, of course, does not come close to matching the degree of evil of the laws that maintained apartheid in South Africa, or those that uprooted Japanese Americans and interned them in concentration camps in this country during World War II, or those that have propped up totalitarian regimes the world over.

But Arizona’s laws and the laws used in these other instances do share a common underpinning. They are designed to make the innocent suffer.

Oh, yes, the advocates of the Arizona law trumpet their respect for the sanctity of the law and intent to safeguard ordinary, law-abiding folk – who they claim are preyed on by the predatory illegals.

That assertion is a cornerstone of the immoral use of law-making – be it in the Jim Crow South or Stalin’s Soviet Union or Argentina under the reign of the Generals, or Uganda under Amin, and on and on.

Similarly, the Arizona law is aimed at the innocents – the brown-skinned innocents who are undocumented immigrants and the brown-skinned and ‘Latino-looking’ innocents who are legal residents of the United States. Because the law is based on a racial or ethnic “look,” its enforcement will inevitably lead to stopping wildly disproportionate numbers of the innocent because they look like those whom the law defines as guilty.

As Jose Melendez, a 55-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico, told the Associated Press, “When they come up with these things, it doesn’t matter if I’m here legally. If they see a Mexican face and a Mexican name, they’ll ask me for papers.”

Of course, one of the assertions that proponents of the Arizona law make is that the innocent shouldn’t complain about the racial profiling if it’s for the “greater good.” It’s only a minor inconvenience, they say. If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about. These are, overwhelmingly, people who’ve never endured being racially profiled.

They remind me of a story that appeared in the New York Times in April, 1999 in the wake of the killing of Amadou Diallo , an unarmed, innocent West African immigrant, by four New York City police officers. The Times reporter had followed then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on a political tour to the predominantly white towns and cities of upstate New York, where he found little concern that the city police were perhaps violating the civil liberties of thousands of African-American and Latino-American city residents.

“If you’ve got police doing all this undercover stuff to clean up the streets,” said one man, the owner of a bakery in Troy, New York, “some innocent people might get hurt by it. But over all, it’s going to do some good.”

Who, I wondered when I read the story, are the innocent people the man was thinking of?

Of course, I knew the answer. He wasn’t thinking of the innocent people “who might get hurt.” Neither are the advocates of Arizona’s disgraceful law.

Lee A. Daniels is Director of Communications for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; and Editor-in-Chief of TheDefendersOnline.

 

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  1. Michael Nellett May 1st, 2010 12:37 pm :

    Robert Krenz was a 50 yr. old Arizona rancher who was shot and killed on his OWN land by an illegal immigrant, so who do you chase Mr Daniels?……a Chinaman? Hispanics are the ones who are ILLEGALLY coming across the border Mr Daniels. “Profiling” those people Mr Daniels may just help you stop them from coming across and doing damage?? It’s like talking about “profiling” Muslims, who are we in a war on terror with anyway? Headhunters from Borneo? Chinese? Dutch? African Americans? How totally idiot to stick your head in the sand and go to any lengths to avoid “offending”those who may want to kill us. The Hispanics need to help police the border by turning in those who are border jumping into the U.S. The Muslims in America need to start speaking up and refute the hatred being spouted by clerics in this country Mr Daniels. Otherwise I guess profiling makes perfect sense to avoid more problems for Americans now doesn’t it Mr Daniels?

  2. David Mills May 10th, 2010 1:36 pm :

    Talk about rhetoric! In Daniels’ opening statement he misstated the facts. He said: “Strip away all the rhetoric of rationalization from the proponents of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law.” It’s not an “anti-immigrant law” as he claims, it’s an anti-ILLEGAL immigrant law.” Big difference. He goes on to characterize the law “…how willing some people are to be cruel to others – especially when their cruelty can be simultaneously fostered and shielded by laws.” Cruelty? The folks this law is designed to impact are ILLEGALLY in this country. He goes on to say “But Arizona’s laws and the laws used in these other instances do share a common underpinning. They are designed to make the innocent suffer.” How does he know that the law is designed to make the ‘innocent’ suffer?? What leap of illogical, paranoid thinking! He then leaps illogically to the Soviet Union, Uganda, Argentina and Jim Crow laws to prove his point. What a reach! If Daniels actually READ the law he would know that it applies ONLY to those who come into unrelated police attention for violating the law (traffic stop, loitering perhaps, etc.) and then ONLY if the individual(s) don’t have appropriate identification. For the record Mr. Daniels, for YEARS now it’s been Federal law that non-citizens MUST carry their “green card” at all times. My wife was among those who had to carry the “Alien Registration Card” until she LEGALLY obtained U.S. citizenship last year. A provision in the Arizona law permits victims of abuse of the law by over zealous law enforcement officers TO FILE LAWSUITS against them if the enforcement officer misuse the law. All in all, Daniels’ lame argument is, when you distill it down to the facts, is just more hot air from a disgruntled liberal who remains lost in past mistreatment of certain immigrant groups — mostly people of color. But… he neglects to mention the treatment of Italian & Irish immigrants when they first came to the U.S.. He also left out the fact that with an estimated 500,000 ILLEGALS in Arizona the crime rate is only 16,000 crimes less than that of New York City and NYC has 6 TIMES more population than Arizona! Hmmm… go figure.