By GottaLaff
Racial profiling has been going on for some time in Arizona, thanks to Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as we've posted over and over. Today the L.A. Times is reporting that very same thing, and it's not pretty:
[...] Latino activists and civil rights attorneys contend that profiling is already a reality in the Maricopa County, where two-thirds of the state's residents live. [...]Arpaio even pulls over his supporters. What better way to maintain popularity with your base?
Since 2008 [Arpaio] has sent hundreds of his deputies and sworn volunteers on "sweeps" through immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, where they stop jaywalkers or drivers with broken taillights and ask for identification and immigration information. An analysis by civil rights lawyers found 70% of those arrested in these operations have Spanish surnames. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and Scottsdale, is only 31% Latino, the majority of whom are legal residents or U.S. citizens.
Arpaio's tactics, which he says are necessary to suppress crime, have made him wildly popular in Arizona.
U.S. citizens? Pfft. Arizona is an equal opportunity persecutor. Take 64-year-old Dan Magos, for example. He had a gun inside his truck, which is legal, nor had that never concerned the police before. Magos was pulled over for (supposedly) not having a license plate on the trailer he was pulling:
[T]he deputy made him wait 10 minutes before letting him go with the words: "I don't want you to think this has anything to do with racial profiling."
Of course not, why would anyone think that?
The Times describes a few more instances like that one.
Remember when Arizona was a vacation destination, a place where people went to relax?
The new Arizona law in effect orders every Arizona law enforcement officer to respond like Arpaio's deputies.
That new Papers Please law should be quite a boon for the tourism industry.
Call me crazy, but I have a feeling getting arrested for Driving While Ethnic just isn't the draw Arizona hopes it will be.
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