Will Police Hate Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law, Too?

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/25-1

Will Police Hate Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law, Too?

by Michelle Chen


If a bad law gets passed and no one is there to enforce it, will it still have an impact?

The nationwide public outcry over Arizona's new anti-immigrant law isn't surprising; activists see it as just one drop in a wave of state and federal crackdowns that have criminalized immigrants and unraveled civil liberties. The law, SB1070, doesn't just ruthlessly target Latinos; it pushes local police to profile and detain people suspected of being "deportable." You might think this is just the kind of unchecked power that a sadistic cop might relish. But a new flare of opposition actually comes from within the ranks of law enforcement.

snip//

In addition to isolating and stigmatizing immigrants, needlessly burdening police departments, and incurring massive fiscal costs, Arizona's government may face legal trouble on two fronts. The ACLU's recent litigation against alleged unlawful detention in Colorado (h/t immigration law prof) suggests that policies that encourage the criminalization of immigrants will invite not only political antipathy, but also endless lawsuits. Meanwhile, the NY Times reports that Arizona's law bizarrely compounds the problem by enabling community members to sue "if they believe federal or state immigration law is not being enforced." In other words, the law leaves the police wide open to various legal challenges, either for being racist, or for not being racist enough.

Even a liberal bastion like San Francisco faces similar dilemmas. Like many other cities, it has a "sanctuary" policy that broadly restricts local police from colluding with federal immigration agents. But the policy has come under fire lately, with local officials and civil liberties advocates battling over whether the city should hand over undocumented youth charged with felonies.

Now, Arizona has become the latest testing ground for the boundaries of police aggression against people of color. It's not clear whether most of the state's police wish to emulate Arpaio's demagoguery. SB1070 purportedly provides some discretion in enforcement, so districts may vary in how stringently they apply the law. Yet the legal flexibility offers no comfort to immigrants and activists. It simply proves that Arizona, under the guise of establishing law and order, has made its criminal justice system even more arbitrary, chaotic, and alienating to the communities who have come to see police as the real security threat.

[paulsby]

1. arizona's law is a funhouse mirror version of san francisco's

that's the irony

they are both ridiculous, but for different reasons.

and as i stated, cops want no part

[stray cat]

2. Police have hispanics and blacks in their ranks in high numbers

and most are not crazy about ambiguous political crap