Mekstizzle wrote:
Jumping into this cos something caught me eye
So the cops can't just go up to someone and say "Papuhz pleez".
It has alot of words saying this and that, but in reality they seem to be able to do just that.
"Where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien"
"When practicable"
"May not consider race"
It's all just words, in reality none of this applies. How would you enforce it? Unless you made police officers report and document every single person they stopped and asked them for papers, stating why they stopped them, what made them suspicious etc etc... that would probably cut down on the BS profiling and annoyance and such people are going to expect.
Also, I'm not even sure of if we have something similar here. I wouldn't be surprised if police officers in the UK would already be allowed to stop, search and ask for proof of legal residence whenever they feel like. Saying that, the problem of specifically "illegal" immigration here is much smaller than in the US. We don't have swathes of people who are staying here illegally. So it's a different situation for the cops. It's much smaller so you can have specialised units taking the responsibility instead of regular cops stopping random people.
Personally, cops don't need any of this shit anyway. If they want to stop and ID someone they will find a way using existing laws in zero time. I'm sure that already applies to the US too. Cops are cops. This law probably creates unnecessary controversy and also probably widens the gap between cops and community.
You missed the key phrase "for any lawful contact made". That means the law enforcement officer has to have a legal reason to be interacting with the person in question. That means they can't just go up to the person and ask for their "papers". That isn't legal, as it violates the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution. However, if they stopped them for a traffic violation or something similar, that IS a lawful contact that does not violate the 4th Amendment and they CAN legally ask for proof of immigration status at that point. Aliens are required (by law) to have that on them at all times. US citizens are not. That is the one point where it would get sticky.
Uzique wrote:
we looked away while the holocaust was happening? im not quite sure that's how the history went...
Someone needs to read
Human Smoke. Far too many looked the other way.
KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
Hurricane2k9 wrote:
i'm so confused as to why Mexico is pissed off about this law
why don't they take better care of their country so that their citizens don't consider living as clandestine, illegal residents in another country?
Because Mexican citizens legally traveling in AZ can be pulled over because....THEY LOOK LIKE THEY ARE MEXICAN.
I'm curious as to how an illegal looks any different than anyone else? Scarlet letter time?
KJ. That is patently UNTRUE. The wording of the law is crystal clear regarding that.
Also, there are plenty of Mexican citizens who are blonde-haired, blue-eyed, euro-looking people. This law is just as applicable to them (and Canadians and Asians and...) as it is to anyone else.
Another point people seem to overlook: The Arizona electorate supports this measure more than
two-to-one. That electorate includes a whole lot of people who would be negatively impacted if they thought racial profiling were to occur. And there's this other thing: Many of the Arizona cops are Hispanic, as well. I guess they'll be racially profiling their own "people", eh?
The bottomline is that the people who are screaming about this are the ones who aren't affected by it. Those who are (Hispanic population of Arizona) by and large don't have issue with it--in fact, quite the opposite. Yes, there are some protesters, but polling shows they are the minority.
Last edited by FEOS (2010-04-29 03:35:46)