One of the main arguments I've heard for this is that since they're in the country illegally, this is just giving the police the power to enforce the law, which puts me in mind of what Martin Luther King Jr. said about how "a law can be just on its face and unjust in its application". That's something this law seems to be perfectly set up for, especially with people like Sheriff Joe running the show over there.
Yeah, it's really quite amazing seeing all the people dismiss concerns about racial profiling with "Well, it says RIGHT IN THE LAW you can't use racial profiling," like that's the end of the discussion.
So it turns out this law is starting to have some very predictable results: namely, making a very large group of voters very angry at the Republicans in an election year.
I do not think that Brewer thought her brilliant plan all the way through.
Sure she did. If she'd vetoed the thing, she wouldn't get the Republican nomination for governor. There's really no disputing that.
Of course, she might STILL not.
She might be running against
fucking Arpaio.
But it IS going to galvanize the Latino vote. Not just in Arizona but nationwide.
The New Times (which, for purposes of perspective, I will note would be flattered to be referred to as "a left-wing rag") has an
article about the backlash:
[Reverend Warren H. Stewart] called upon the Biblical story of Joseph in Genesis. Joseph had been made governor of Egypt, after he'd been sold into slavery by his own brothers. Joseph's brothers worried about revenge.
But according to Stewart, Joseph told them, "Do not be afraid, even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good in order to preserve a great people.'"
Then Stewart thanked the Arizona Legislature for passing the bill and Brewer for signing it.
"You may have intended it to do harm, to thousands of people of color and Latino descent," he preached, "but God intended it for good for his great people.
"Thank you, Arizona, for SB 1070 . . . you have awakened the 21st-century civil rights movement!"
I'd sure like for this to be a big rallying point like that, a moment that changes the course of the future...even though it sucks that my home is the negative example against which the future will be judged.
Anyhow, yeah, boycotts are rolling in. MLB's liable to be a biggie. NFL could be too. Essentially what forced AZ into recognizing the MLK holiday was the Super Bowl pulling out to another state.