The community of Los Angeles has made it crystal clear where they stand on Arizona's controversial Senate Bill 1070, which sanctifies racial profiling as state law. The LA city council voted 13-1 to "ban most city travel there and to forgo future business contracts with companies headquartered in the state." The Los Angeles Times Editorial Page called for the moving of the 2011 Major League Baseball All Star game from Phoenix writing, "A new law in Arizona seems almost certain to lead to racial profiling against Latinos, violating the American values so integral to baseball."
Yes, Los Angeles is standing as one against Arizona's spastic extremism. Everyone in Los Angeles, that is, except for iconic Los Angeles Lakers basketball coach Phil Jackson. In an interview with ESPN, Jackson spoke in support of SB 1070 saying, "Am I crazy, or am I the only one that heard [the legislature] say 'we just took the United States immigration law and adapted it to our state.'" When sports reporter J.A. Adande remarked that SB 1070 actually represented "the usurping of federal law," Jackson responded, "It's not usurping.... they gave it some teeth to be able to enforce it."
He then chided his upcoming playoff opponent, the Phoenix Suns, for coming out as a team - from owner to players - against the bill.
"I don't think teams should get involved in the political stuff," Jackson said. "If I heard it right the American people are really for stronger immigration laws, if I'm not mistaken. Where we stand as basketball teams, we should let that kind of play out and let the political end of that go where it's going to go."
Yes, Phil Jackson in the same breath, supported this draconian bill and then blasted the Suns for making a political statement about it. That's what my grandmother would have called "cheek."
Jackson's words have sparked a petition campaign by the group AltoArizona.com which reads,
"Coach Jackson, Stand with Los Angeles. The city just denounced Arizona's hateful law and so should you. Targeting people based on their skin color isn't 'giving [the law] teeth'. It's a backwards and terrible step on the wrong side of history. On or off the court, there's no room for haters. Los Lakers need to take a stand with the fans."
There is also a call to protest outside the Staples Center on May 17th before game one of the Lakers Western conference championship series against Los Suns. It states,
"What if during a basketball Game in Arizona, Lakers Fans get questioned about their immigration status? Protest outside Staples Center on Monday May17th, at 5pm to denounce Lakers Coach Phil Jackson for his support of Racist Arizona bill SB1070. We all know that a great deal of our community members support the Lakers. ....People want the LAKERS to take a stand or for Phil Jackson to clarify his position on the racist bill that criminalizes fans."
Phil Jackson has a reputation for being some sort of liberal. But he's really more of a cliché: the 1960s flower child who has made the lucrative journey from rebel to reactionary. It was Phil Jackson when the NBA passed dress code requirements for players, who lectured, "I don't mean to say [this] as a snide remark toward a certain population in our society, but they have a limitation of their attention span, a lot of it probably due to too much rap music going in their ears and coming out their being....The players have been dressing in prison garb the last five or six years. All the stuff that goes on, it's like gangster, thuggery stuff."
This is Phil Jackson: if you dress a certain way, you must be some sort of criminal thug. If you look a certain way, police have every right to demand your papers. He's a man of the 60s all right. The 1860s. Not only should people sign the petition. Not only should people come out to the Staples Center and protest on May 17th. People in LA, lifelong Lakers fans, should boo Phil Jackson and his team. They should root and cheer for Los Suns, devoting every last particle of karmic energy toward sending the Lakers home for the summer. As Alto Arizona says, "A coach that doesn't support the community doesn't have the community's support." Vivan Los Suns.
[Dave Zirin is the author of the forthcoming "Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love" (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.]
First run at thenation.com
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Rabbi Joshua Hess: Phil Jackson: Zenmaster Mo More
Really? Everyone in Los Angeles except Phil. Please. There are plenty of people here who support Phil, the Lakers, and Arizona. The majority of the nation supports it. So don't lie through your teeth.
That is really going to help your cause?
Misguided to say the least.
Why are the right wing bigots allowed to have free reign to spew their hateful name calling bigotry with unfiltered abandon? At Fox, even courteous and civil comments are never allowed if it goes against the right wing bigotry. If you go through the history of these harrassers, they never add anything to the discussion, only Minutemen, teabagging trash. And no amount of logic or truth will change them.
Perhaps your anger should be for the US corporations (Tyson Chicken, Kraft Foods) who blantantly break existing laws forbidding the hiring of illegals.But we turn our eyes away, so business gets cheap labor doing their part keeping American wages articially low.
Do a little research on the topic instead of getting upset when your store clerk has an accent you have trouble understanding.
Since when are the corrupt pols of LA City, representative of the SoCal?
Ha ha ha ha ha.
I never let politics interfere with sport. This is an excellent example. The great majority of the people on both sides of this issue are trying to do what they think is right on a very difficult problem. Boycotts and the like just make everyone angrier. And the anti-AZ law commentators have been so over the top, it is very counterproductive.
In AZ they are just trying to make up for the Federal government's lack of enforcement of the immigration laws. Until the Feds mount a serious effort to close the border, it is up to the States to deal with illegal immigrants. It is easy to criticize AZ, but I have not seen any solutions offered by anyone else that will take all these people, who are not supposed to be here, off their hands.
Thanks Phil Jackson for saying what you feel is true and right. Good to see a public figure not caving in to the liberal media and to those that think they know what is going on in Arizona (most who have never even been there to actually see for themselves) and those that have never even read the bill.
If most people participated the way you do, this article would not exist. Kudos to you for doing your part!
Good day
However, I was surprised to find out how hard it is to immigrate to this country from places like Mexico and other non white western countries. It's amazing. There are many factes to this story...just don't let your dislike of these people overwhelm you. We need someone to pick our vegetables and do all the menial tasks Americans a re too good for!
WE also forget that California didn't always belong to us. I just think all this hysteria about illegal immigration is totally out of hand and is the outcome of how cynical our society has become.
Mr. Zirin's claims are just another example of the increase in the volume of vitriol and intentional misinformation put forth by those apologist and activists who want open borders and amnesty for those criminals that have illegally entered this country. This happens EVERY time something gets close to preventing their fantasy. Theirs is a vocal protest based on emotion - not facts.
SB1070 does not condone or sanctify racial profiling. Read the law. It's a duplicate of federal laws - a duplicate. All existing constitutional protections still apply.
Boxer Voted on Senate floor against amendment to bar certain criminals from United States in 2007.
Sen. Boxer voted against the Cornyn Amendment (SA 1184) to S. 1385 to establish a permanent bar for gang members, terrorists, and other criminals. The Cornyn Amendment would have permanently barred from admission into the United States, and denied immigration benefits (including legal status under the amnesty in this bill), to:
(1) absconders (i.e., aliens already ordered deported);
(2) aliens deemed inadmissible or deportable as security risks (e.g., terrorists);
(3) aliens who fail to register as sex offenders;
(4) aliens convicted of certain firearms offenses;
(5) aliens convicted of domestic violence, stalking, crimes against children, or violation of protection orders;
(6) alien gang members; and
(7) aliens convicted of at least three DUIs.
The Cornyn Amendment failed by a vote of 46 to 51.
Open Borders Boxer. Thanks.
Google, its your friend. Yes thats jsut one of a few open border activists.
Your post is based on ignorance.