Saturday, May 1, 2010

Can We Please Get Tangible?

Alright, here's a scenario for you. You're a cop on the border (with Mexico), and you see this dude at 3 AM going through a stop light. It looks like he's the only person in the vehicle. But, when you get up the vehicle, you see that there are an additional 5-6 Hispanic looking individuals hiding inside of it. Me - I personally don't have a problem with you, the officer, asking these 5-6 individuals for identification. That, in my mind, IS probable cause. And, yes, if in fact the new Arizona law were to have as its focus these types of scenarios, then, yes, perhaps I could eventually support it. IF, I'm saying........................................................................................................If, however, there continues to be a vagueness to the law (especially, I'm saying, as it pertains to this whole issue of probable cause), dicier scenarios, not only would be possible, but, HELLO, expected as well. For instance, what if a dude is just standing on the street corner (a day laborer, perhaps) - does the new law allow/mandate that the police officer go up and question HIM? How 'bout a Hispanic looking fellow who literally does nothing more than spit/flick a cigarette butt onto the sidewalk (the police, of course, ignoring the hundreds of whites who do literally the same thing) - does that same cop have the right to approach him, too?.........................................................................................................I don't know (about this Arizona law), folks. It really sounds like we might be needing a lot more in terms of specificity here.

2 comments:

Commander Zaius said...

The thing that pisses me off is that everyone is reacting to events. Smart people generally are able to get events to react to them.

We need to secure the border by all means necessary without acting like Nazis; yes, I'm saying a border wall. Of course on the other hand we need to realize that the 12 to 20 million undocumented workers who have families here in America and long histories of being tax payers and law abiding citizens cannot be loaded up and sent back to Mexico.

On a side note, during their last presidential election Mexico came damn close to electing their own Hugo Chavez clone. If I understand correctly dude plans on running again and instead of feeding the discontent that almost got him elected let’s try and work a way that our harebrained actions do not get him elected this time causing more problems.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

This was the one area that George W. Bush seemed to be on the right track. It's just too bad that his own Republican party ended up derailing him......I agree with your major points, double b. I would just add that maybe we need to penalize some of these companies that knowingly hire illegals, pay them lousy/dirt wages under the table, etc..