Don't Mess With Us

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, those despicable shitheads at Westboro Baptist church plan to picket the funerals of Arizona shooting victims -- including the youngest victim, Christina Green.

In response, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed emergency legislation barring protests within 300 feet of a funeral and within an hour from its beginning or end. Hell, this kind of restriction may not pass constitutional challenges, but hopefully it will allow the family to bury their nine year old child in peace!

There is one more line of defense though, and that's being provided by a counter-protest group using "angel action." Participants wear 8- by 10-foot "angel wings" to shield the mourners from the haters. It's a brilliant idea and I hope it works out peacefully.

Another piece of hasty extremist-inspired legislation also grabbed my attention today. New York Rep. Peter King wants to make it illegal to carry a gun within 1,000 feet of government officials. It's great to see some representatives finally standing up to the NRA, and I understand the utmost need to protect our democratically elected government from extremists... but how about protecting all of us? I don't want a gun within a 1,000 feet of me either! In fact, Rep. King is reminding me of all the congressmen and women who rejected health care reform when they already have great health care for themselves.

But I don't expect anything better than meek and unenforceable gun legislation to make it past the NRA. You mess with them, and one of their proud supporters will design a commemorative automatic rifle especially for killing you.

It's a Dry Fascism

Arizona’s SB1070 has been rightfully dubbed the "show me your papers" immigration law. The law, which was signed Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer, requires law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there is "reasonable suspicion."

Which, of course, raises the question "what the hell is reasonable suspicion?" Besides seeing somebody sneaking over the border, there's not much you can observe that is illegal immigrant behavior... unless you think speaking Spanish is suspicious. Or being brown. Supporters of the law will say you have nothing to worry about, as long as you carry your birth certificate with you.

Are birth certificates some kind of wingnut fetish lately? I'm not sure I want to touch that issue right now.

But what we do know is that many Latino and black Americans see this as a civil rights issue and are mobilizing against this draconian law. That can't be good news for Republicans.

Also, you'd think the common "tough on crime" stance would win over law enforcement officials. Well, more bad news, not this time:

Mr. Ramakrishnan says police departments don’t like SB1070 for two reasons.

One, it distracts police from their energies put into other crime and law and order. Two, immigrants are subsequently less likely to report crimes or serve as witnesses if their legal status is going to be questioned.

“The biggest trend in policing in the past two decades has been community policing in which cops walk the local beat and spend much time gaining the trust of the people,” says Ramakrishnan. “This puts that trend entirely in jeopardy – it is a very big deal for them, indeed.”

And that two decade policing trend has brought a 19 percent drop in the violent crime rate in Arizona! See, the truth is that immigrants do not bring an epidemic of murder and mayhem with them. However, shifting the role of police officers may backfire and reverse this positive change.

And since people seem to enjoy the chalkboard word games of Glenn Beck, let me close with one of my own: you can't spell "Arizona" without "Nazi."