Racial Profiling
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010Author Linda Brady Traynham
It’s one of my Dagny Taggart days: “Gentlemen, there is not a single mind left in the Obama crowd.” To get even more Randian we have the situation in Arizona, where their legislators, despite large Hispanic influence, attempted to make their state a safer place to live by passing an incredibly controversial bill (on their behalf, let me state that the rest of us wouldn’t have thought it thus, either) stating that Federal law has to be obeyed, leading to enough hate speech…no, wait, it isn’t “hate speech” if the other side does it…leading to our diplomat telling the Chinese frequently what rotten people we are because even after all the explanations by kindly Progressives over 60% of all Americans think Arizona did the right thing. Even Americans who aren’t getting shot, robbed, kidnapped and trashed by Obama and illegal aliens streaming across their property slaughtering their cattle, using the watering troughs as toilets, and discarding dirty diapers on the property.
The part that makes me want to gibber is grave assurances that the Bill specifically forbids “racial profiling.” Okay, we’re in Arizona, a super highway for illegal aliens, so what exactly is there to profile? Can we exempt human beings? Do we have to interrogate pack mules (real and human drug carriers?) Are the officers forbidden to eye askance tall, blonde Scandahoovians with blue eyes speaking gibberish? How frequently are Frenchmen, Australians, and Fiji Islanders in Arizona disclosed as being in the US illegally?
How (short of asking for documents) do we expect one of my heroes, Sher’ff Joe Arpaio, to tell the Guatemalans from the Costa Ricans from Peruvians from Mexicans without asking to see some identification? Joe is a man of rare discrimination–the pink underwear being a particularly nice touch–but since the intent from the touchy-feeling crowd is to prevent arresting Mexicans who are there illegally because they are Mexicans, how is he supposed to know which ones to tell his troopers to let go with the Spanish equivalent of, “Sorry to bother you, Sir. Have a nice day?”
While it is certainly true that spies and Middle Eastern terrorists enter illegally through what we refer to quaintly as our Southern “border,” the fact remains that the Rio Grande and some imaginary lines on the ground are the gateway to Latin America, a rather large area teeming with generally black-haired, black-eyed, brown-skinned individuals of relatively short stature. I don’t know a single way–other than discerning if any particular suspect speaks Portugese, indicating Brazil as his national origin–to distinguish between Mexicans and anyone else from a central American country. It is possible that fleeing Nazis interbred in Argentina and produced taller mestizos with lighter skin and eyes. (Technically a “mestizo” is the product of crossing the indigineous population of Latin America with Conquistadors, but in context it seems fairly clear.)
Perhaps the Lefties will cheer up if Arizona state troopers promise solemnly to interrogate everyone they stop anywhere for whatever reason as to citizenship. That certainly sounds like a good Statist goal, combining “Citizen, show me your papers!” with complete lack of common sense of the sort that leads to using tasers on kids in schools and obviously white grandmothers, as dangerous a gang of old ladies up to no good as can be found anywhere.
“Probable cause” is frequently useful, and could be applied whenever a pack of short, brown, black-haired, black-eyed, non-English speakers are found traipsing across the desert carrying babies in backpacks. I think we can suppose safely that they are not on nature walks, collecting samples of cacti, or road-runner watching but are, in fact, attempting to enter the country illegally. A sartorial sorting device is a black baseball cap emblazoned “INS” or perhaps it is “ICE,” now. Or is it a good way to separate the citizens from the guilty? Perhaps all the little brown brothers scrambling to get out of the bar when a law officer walks in wearing such headgear would be quite coincidental, involving forgotten dental appointments, court appearances, and explanations that the man looked like his ex-wife’s lawyer there to take his tequila money for back child-support.
In the condescending words of a critic elsewhere, “We won. Get over it.”
Or perhaps the rest of us should demonstrate solidarity by ignoring all the laws we don’t feel like obeying. We could break up into groups of those who refuse to mow lawns (that’s what the Mexicans battled blazing heat and armed guards to come do, after all), those who smoke within 25 feet of doorways, those who choose not to file income tax forms, and those who object to being called names such as “homophobic,” “xenophobic,” and “racists” on the grounds we are a minority and offended thereby. In time we could apply for amnesty, welfare, food stamps, cab fare, school lunches, free medical care, earned income credits for a whole day’s work every year, Harvard educations, and the “right” to drive uninsured cars without bothering to get drivers’ licenses.
Equal treatment before the law. It’s the American way. Well…unless you’re in politics, unions, “entitled,” or can talk your doctor out of a permit that reserves all of the best parking spots in America for you. Or Janet Napolitano who isn’t racial profiling when she is leery of white former military men with crew cuts, blue jeans, flags, Bibles, and guns. Gee…maybe Janet is on to something because I sound at least a trifle irritated if not actually “bitter,” yet. I’d go to a Tea Party but the FBI showed up from the first taking down license plate numbers as though the Godfather were hosting a wedding, and I could end up on the “no fly” list. Silly Janet! I have a rule: “If I can’t smoke, I don’t go.”
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Desertrat says:
May 24th, 2010
6:29 am
As I’ve posted elsewhere, the new Arizona law is nearly a carbon copy of California’s existing law. How does Los Angeles boycott the rest of California?
Brains? My mother worried about an absence of statesmen, some twenty years back. I pointed out that I’d given up on that search; I’d settle for a mature adult. I’m not sure this present crowd has enough grip on reality to achieve the status of immature adult. Check out Alan Caruba’s http://www.WarningSigns.com , today’s post about Iran.
Gotta hit the highway; CUL.
‘Rat
PeterPansDad says:
May 24th, 2010
2:35 pm
Linda,
I don’t mind inviting people over from time to time. It’s the uninvited guests (from Mexico or from the census bureau) that I don’t like.
Bastiat said individuality, liberty, and property is the man. Men working together to maintain the rights of each is what government should be. I could get behind a government that would simply stick to enforcing property rights, protecting my life and respecting my individuality. Instead I have a government fixing prices on labor, encouraging a black market of illegal labor. I have a government intent on telling me what I can and can’t smoke (and where), encouraging an expensive black market on would be party supplies. I have a government telling me I should live in fear Arabs and Persians (they might build a nuke someday!!), wear a seat belt, buy health insurance, sponsor the unemployed, educate all children for free and support high prices for college educations. All these thing have unintended consequences. These are the things we should protest against and apologize for. I should not apologize for asking somebody who looks out of place if they are lost.
I just want to live my life, have some things of my own and have the freedom to do what I want to do short of violating your rights. It is right that government keeps trespassers off of my homestead. Why would we apologize for it?
I want the most talented people in the world working with me legally. I want them to earn a fair wage. I want my neighbors employed and to produce things of value. Please, government, abolish the minimum wage and give me a sound currency. That will go a long way toward solving causes rather than treating symptoms.
Though my hair is rather short, I home school my children and I do read my bible, I’m not ex-military and I don’t have a gun. Hopefully I’m under Janet’s radar.
Lynne says:
May 25th, 2010
4:40 pm
As Ann Coulter said it’s no longer a “profile”. It’s a description.
Funny my Mom is starting to come around to my right-wing zelotry. Funny though she is a nice little catholic girl raised in in OK she has never suffered fools gladly. But she is old school, when she thinks you are full of crap and nonsence she will say “That’s nice”
Then again R.E. Lee was always considered a gentelmen when he was kicking the stuffings out of Union Generals.
Man you Southern folks are a hell of a lot better at this “passive-aggressive” stuff than those yanks. Hell you leave marks and scars.
Lynne says:
May 25th, 2010
9:19 pm
Fummy the Isereali’s have a vested intrest in stopping terrorist, and they don’t use full body scanners. I’m just saying
Kurt says:
May 27th, 2010
12:09 am
That’s probably because the Israelis tend to know what works, and discard what don’t. The US government however, is only interested in appeasing, pleasing, and getting re elected. It’s uncomfortable? So what? With a name like “full body scanner” it must be high tech and it must work wonder. Evidence that it works? No, we don’t need no stinking evidence, we have our leaders word on it…….
Oldmanriver says:
May 27th, 2010
6:10 am
I had the expiriece of using one of the full body scanners last weekend. Its slower than molassas in January. Luckily they were not running all the people through one of those scanners. Using these things is really going to slow down the security process at the airport. I dont know if they are more effective or not. You have to stand in front of it for about 20-30 seconds with your hands over your head. You can have nothing at all in your pockets, even pieces of paper. It was interesting to say the least. I just hope that is not going to become standard mainly due to how much it slows everything down.
Lynne says:
May 27th, 2010
6:57 pm
Well if full-body scanners is so great why don’t the Israelis use it? They seem to have a powerful interest of keeping out terrorists.
I’ll never fly commercial air again. Airlines aren’t worried about the safety of their planes they are worried about getting sued. Will it be inconvenient yes but my life is worth a bit of inconvenience.
Lynne says:
May 27th, 2010
9:17 pm
I beginning to think that “comman sense” is the answer but comman sense is not all that comman.
Oldmanriver says:
May 28th, 2010
7:24 am
Ill keep flying, its the best way to travel. Its also the safest. The most dangerous way to travel is get into your car to go somewhere. The chances of me getting killed by a terrorist is damn near 0. I fly at least once a month and typically I vacation in Europe each year. Im going to turkey this fall and terrorism is way way down on my list of things to be worried about. Its a phantom fear and a joke the way the media plays up all the dangers of terrorism.
Linda Brady Traynham says:
May 31st, 2010
4:17 pm
Lynne, dear, we have an old South’n joke which necessitates using a vulgar word, for which I apologize. If I were forced to attend a tea party with Hillary, James Carville, and Rahm Emmanual I wouldn’t argue with them. I would smile, and murmur “charming” as necessary. Why? Because in finishing school they teach sweet young South’n girls that this is a more ladylike response than “bull shit.” Sometimes when I use “charming” I mean precisely that…but you may have noticed that when answering my rare hate mail I usually thank the author for his charming letter! I got stuck for a long dinner next to a hard core leftist recently–and promptly turned the conversation to fond remembrances of beloved pets, current and past. That seemed like the most useful response to an Israel-hating Jewess wolfing down pulled pork. She made one last try with “What do you think of Sarah Palin?” I replied sweetly, “I think she is very pretty,” and told another dog story.
James says:
June 3rd, 2010
2:43 pm
Hey Texas Lady!
Was the Israel-hating Jewess aware that she was eating pork? Thought that wasn’t kosher. Oh well, times change I guess …
Being male, I missed out on the finishing school routine, but saw enough of the results thereof. Some of my relatives were the most charming people you can imagine, if they didn’t know you. Once you were family, the kid gloves came off and they gave free lessons on dignity, responsibility, discipline and anything else you needed to know, in their opinion. Made for occasional fireworks, but I miss the departed ones dearly.
Hug a goat for me; now my research has taken a turn into “combustion synthesis”. The trick is not to combust too much at once…
Cheers!
james the wanderer
angie says:
June 6th, 2010
4:38 pm
LOL…Linda,I find myself coming in contact (not always by choice) with Obama loving,hard core leftists and it kills them most when you smile and state the facts to their comments.I do not look for an argument but if I were…there’d be plenty to say and I could say it in a very ladylike manner.
Lynne says:
June 6th, 2010
9:35 pm
Now My Mom told the southern ladies way of calling BS was to say “That’s nice” But she was raised in OK. so it might be a regional thing.
I being an Army vet tend to use a few more “colorful metaphors” and am a bit more pungent in my remarks. I’m trying to get better at saving the heavy verbal artillery for special occasions.
Lynne says:
June 13th, 2010
5:58 pm
I did not realize Linda that you were in the “belly of the beast”. I don’t think I’d hit them but my Momma had a take the battle to all bullies policy. I do try to be polite, but my momma never let me back away from a fight either.
Lynne says:
June 22nd, 2010
11:40 pm
I do call spade a spade. Now I could call up all kinds of stories about how downtrodden I was, But it just does not matter. Life is hard get used to it or move along. I don’t give a damn about your self esteem. You want me to respect you? What have you done but turn food into shit. Have you planted garden? talk and helped out your parents. I’ll treat you with respect when you do something. For god’s sake grow up. Not for my sake but your own.