Gonna find a way
Make the state pay
Lookin' for the day
Hard as it seems
This ain't no damn dream
Gotta know what I mean
It's team against team--Public Enemy, By the Time I Get to Arizona
This will be the last column I write about the Arizona Diamondbacks in the foreseeable future. For me, they do not exist. They will continue to not exist in my mind as long as the horribly named "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" remains law in Arizona. This law has brought echoes of apartheid to the state.
One Democratic lawmaker has said that it has made Arizona a "laughingstock" but it's difficult to find an ounce of humor in this kind of venal legislation. The law makes it a crime to walk the streets without clutching your passport, green card, visa, or state I.D. It not only empowers but absolutely requires cops to demand paperwork if they so much as suspect a person of being undocumented. A citizen can, in fact, sue any police officer they see not harassing suspected immigrants. The bill would also make it a class one misdemeanor for anyone to "pick up passengers for work" if their vehicle blocks traffic. And it makes a second violation of any aspect of the law a felony.
In response, Representative Raul Grijalva, who's from Arizona itself, has called for a national boycott against the state, saying, "Do not vacation and or retire there." He got so many hateful threats this week that he had to close his Arizona offices at noon on Friday.
Many of us aren't in either the imminent vacation or retirement mode. We do, however, live in baseball cities where the Arizona Diamondbacks come to play.
When they arrive in my hometown in D.C., my back will be turned, and my television will be off. This is not merely because they happen to be the team from Arizona. The D-backs organization is a primary funder of the state Republican Party, which has been driving the measure through the legislature.
As the official Arizona Diamondbacks boycott call states, "In 2010, the National Republican Senatorial Committee's third highest Contributor was the [executives of the] Arizona Diamondbacks, who gave $121,600; furthermore, they also contributed $129,500, which ranked as the eighteenth highest contribution to the Republican Party Committee." The team's big boss, Ken Kendrick, and his family members, E. G. Kendrick Sr. and Randy Kendrick, made contributions to the Republicans totaling a staggering $1,023,527. The Kendricks follow in the footsteps of team founder and former owner Jerry Colangelo. Colangelo, along with other baseball executives and ex-players, launched a group called Battin' 1000: a national campaign that uses baseball memorabilia to raise funds for a Campus for Life, the largest anti-choice student network in the country. Colangelo was also deputy chair of Bush/Cheney 2004 in Arizona, and his deep pockets created what was called the Presidential Prayer Team -- a private evangelical group that claims to have signed up more than one million people to drop to their knees and pray daily for Bush.
Under Colangelo, John McCain also owned a piece of the team. The former maverick said before the bill's passage that he "understood" why it was being passed because "the drivers of cars with illegals in it [that] are intentionally causing accidents on the freeway."
This is who the Arizona Diamondback executives are. This is the tradition they stand in.
The Diamondbacks' owners have every right to their politics, and if we policed the political proclivities of every owner's box there might not be anyone left to root for (except for the Green Bay Packers, who don't have an owner's box). But this is different. The law is an open invitation to racial profiling and harassment. The boycott call is coming from inside the state.
If the owners of the Diamondbacks want to underwrite an ugly edge of bigotry, we should raise our collective sporting fists against them. A boycott is also an expression of solidarity with Diamondback players such as Juan Guitterez, Gerardo Parra, and Rodrigo Lopez. They shouldn't be put in a position where they're cheered on the playing field and then asked for their papers when the uniform comes off.
This article first appeared at The Progressive.
Follow Dave Zirin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/edgeofsports
Perhaps anarchy is your preferred form of government?
We're close when people believe illegal is not illegal.
Sometimes laws are unjust and need to be changed. Sometimes governments have been known to be oppressive to their citizens. Anarchy, voluntary organization of citizens to provide basic needs, would be preferable to an oppressive government like that of Iran or North Korea.
I do think everyone is overreacting here though. (Of course I'm an old white woman; the discrimination against me has not usually been from law enforcement but from employers.)
And I think if Hispanics and others really cared about the issue, or the US, instead of themselves, they would have been screaming for decades about the racist discrimination against blacks, for Driving While Black for instance. Or the looks when I'd be with a black friend, esp male. (Of course now Hollywood is showing interracial couples rampantly, which over time will change the culture.) In the 80s, my folks wouldn't let me bring my best friend home to the South with me because she was black. So I'm less than totally sympathetic to the "plight" of illegal immigrants and don't think "showing your papers" - which every one of us has to do if a cop asks for them (DL and ins) - is that big a deal. (I appreciate your civil and well thought reply.)
Additionally "any lawful contact" does NOT mean stopped for a crime. It means if a police officer is walking in my direction, and I in his, we will eventually be in "lawful contact". How appropriate is it for those officials to have the authority to determine 'reasonable suspicion' when the rule of law is 'probable cause'? Suspicion is a dangerous precedent infringing on the constitutional rights of WAY too many people.
"The law in its majesty forbids both rich and poor the right to sleep under a bridge."
And you're right again I think in your statement.
What part of "no trespassing" can't the pro- illegal alien lobby understand????
Clearly there are way too many laws in this country. In my state, each legislator can put forth 5 laws per year. Imagine the proliferation of nonsense! I think we should wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. Unfortunately that will take a revolution in the streets.
Legal citizens and resident aliens cannot legally refuse to show their papers if they are pulled over by the cops, common fallacy there. Until this law, illegals could. The Constitution is not the last word in laws, only in the laws that can be passed. Many states have laws on their books that require you to identify yourself when asked, and in some, there are even stiff penalties for "failure to identify".
Here in Arizona what we want is more jobs for our citizens and for our legal residents. We have no problem with legal immigrants, we just welcomed another 3000 this week. We welcome them in by the open door, we are just tired of them kicking in our windows.
this is an invasion.
Those of you fanning the racism flames in a state you don't live in.....GET A CLUE. READ THE BILL AND COMPARE IT TO FEDERAL LAW. That's why many right wingers like KARL ROVE....ARE AGAINST THIS LAW. get a clue.
Stupidest statement EVER!
Boycott away Dave. It only shows your hypocrasy in that you would punish innocent local businesses for something they have no say in and no control over.
That really says it all. Just another, or possibly the BEST, example that the Left could care less about our sovereignty, our borders or our Nation. They envision a borderless Global Community where there are no 'superpowers'.
Unfortunately for the Left most Countries have a strict immigration policy...(and go figure)...they actually enforce those policies. For an example see: Mexico.
Maybe Dave should sneak into Mexico and try out his brilliant theory? Once he gets there he can walk up to any local official and proudly declare..."I am not here with the permission of the Mexican Gov't, but that doesn't matter...because afterall..no one is illegal !!"
Have at us, if it makes you feel better...
AZ Citizen
closures and many state park closures because we are broke.
And they won't have to put up with all the nasty used toilet paper on the floor in public restrooms...and you know where that comes from....