Does Arizona Have a Police State? The New Yorker/ Reader-Supported Media/AFP and Others

Photo of Shakira is from reuters dot com found at Positive Universe dot where you might expect many articles on Arizona as police state to show up during the coming days, weeks and possibly months...Colombian-born celebrity - Shakira - will meet with the mayor of Phoenix this week to help campaign against a new Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigration, a member of the mayor's staff said on Tuesday. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter will speak with Mayor Phil Gordon, a strong critic of the new law, and other city officials on Thursday afternoon, a spokesman for the mayor said.

Shakira, best known for her hit singles "Hips Don't Lie" and "Whenever, Wherever," was also expected to meet with families who could be affected by the Arizona law.

Representatives for the singer declined to comment on her visit to Arizona. The newly enacted immigration statute there has come under fire from Hispanic groups, organized labor and civil liberties activists who charge the measure is unconstitutional and will lead to ethnic profiling.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Steve Gorman and Todd Eastham)

File photo, Arizona Rangers volunteer police on patrol, 04/03/05. (photo: AFP) See The New Yorker article below

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Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called the (new Arizona immigration) law "unconstitutional on its face." Wondering if John Roberts would agree.

Arizona Leads the Way Backward on Immigration
Posted by William Finnegan

The long-deferred, urgent matter of immigration reform got a big kick in the pants yesterday. Arizona enacted a law that today’s Times calls “the broadest and strictest immigration measure in generations.” Among other things, the law requires local police to demand papers from anyone officers have any reason to doubt is a citizen—anyone, in other words, who looks Mexican. If you’re brown-skinned, and don’t have your wallet, you’re going to jail. Failure to carry immigration documents is now a crime in Arizona. The mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, called the law “unconstitutional on its face.” In a Washington Post Op-Ed today, Gordon blames local politicians who are “bitter, small-minded and full of hate,” and he names names: state senator Russell Pearce, the sponsor of the bill, and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom I profiled last summer.

President Obama’s response to the news was well-aimed. While criticizing the Arizona law as “misguided,” he blamed its passage on “our failure to act responsibly at the federal level.” This came at a naturalization ceremony being held in the Rose Garden for twenty-four American soldiers born in China, Mexico, Ethiopia, and elsewhere. The symbolism of the scene was strong, but the failure fingered by Obama is real. Border security and immigration control are federal responsibilities. Southern land-border states like Arizona suffer first and worst when those systems break down. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, is now talking about bringing major immigration-reform legislation to the floor after Memorial Day. The political momentum to pass such legislation, after the health-care reform success, may finally be at hand.

Meanwhile, Arizona will become an American-style police state. Racial profiling will be the law. Whites will be all right, just as they were in the Jim Crow South. God help everyone else. The nativist right seems to be calling the tune in Arizona politics today. Senator John McCain, facing a primary challenge from an anti-immigrant talk-radio host, abandoned long-held moderate positions on immigration policy and supported the new law. The governor, Jan Brewer, also being challenged from the right this year, did the same thing and signed the bill. The Arizona state legislature has tried to lead the nation backwards on racial issues before. In the nineteen-eighties, Arizona refused to recognize the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as an official holiday. This week the legislature’s lower chamber passed a bill that will require President Obama to produce his birth certificate if he wants to be on the ballot in Arizona in 2012. According to the Associated Press, “Supporters say the bill would help settle a controversy over whether Obama was born in the United States.”

Keywords

* Arizona;
* Barack Obama;
* Joe Arpaio;
* Phil Gordon;
* immigration

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Rapid growth of militias feeds off politics

The U.S. is one of the few Western democratic countries that permits independent militias. Reuters examines how their rapid growth coincides with a sharp rise in partisan rhetoric. Full Article

* Video: GO here

* Slideshow: Private armies in training GO Also to here

* Full Article: GO to the same link as above...

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