On profiling....

“This week, Arizona signed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country which will allow police to demand identification papers from anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. I know there’s some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but could we all agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying “Show me your papers?” There’s never been a World War II movie that didn’t include the line “show me your papers.” It’s their catchphrase. Every time someone says “show me your papers,” Hitler’s family gets a residual check. So heads up, Arizona; that’s fascism. I know, I know, it’s a dry fascism, but it’s still fascism.”

Seth Myers on SNL’s Weekend Update this week.

Found on Bill in Exile...

I was not surprised at this, not at all. And yes, it is racial profiling.... this time. However there are other kinds of profiling. People look at other people, and immediately classify them in their heads, putting them into drawers with labels in a split second. It is human nature.

Case in point.... Where I grew up, I lived and worked in the center of the city. It was three blocks from my work to my home, walking. And the police had beats, about eight square blocks, I would imagine, and call boxes to ring in where they were and prove they weren't goofing off, or something. The regulars knew me, and I would close up, drop in the days' deposits at the bank next door and walk home.

BUT: if there were someone new on the beat... the following invariably happened. I would be roughly pushed up against a brick wall, frisked, asked for ID, and got the inevitable rapid-fire series of barked questions. 'Where are you coming from?' 'Where are you going?' 'Who are your parents?' (Don't wanna ruffle some big-wigs' feathers, now do we, Preciousses?) And would invariably be allowed to continue on to my home, with the admonition, 'Don't you know that if anything bad were to happen here, you would be the first suspect, because you were here?'

This went on from the late Sixties to mid-Seventies, and you will be asking yourselves, 'Why would he think it was profiling? He is white enough...'

It was profiling however. Poor vs. middle class. Because, you see, if you were over the age to have a car and were walking down Main Street near or after midnight, you just had to be up to no good. I had to deal with that from the time I was about fourteen till the time I left.

Certainly, it wasn't the same, I didn't get any slurs, but in principle, oh yeah, I know that feeling all right... And can imagine how much worse it is going to be for people who have a sort of dark complexion in Arizona.

I never realised at the time that that isn't exactly normal in civilised countries, I thought it was normal. Until I was in Salzburg the first time, and we would be out till all hours of the night, and just marveled that we never even saw a policeman/policewoman. Here they seem to be busy catching real criminals rather than bothering people out on the street at unseemly hours.

All of this comes from a culture of fear. And I think it will only make the existing problems in Arizona much worse, cause a lot of innocent people a lot of grief, and in the end, will cause more problems than it 'solves'.

(And Blogger is driving me nuts with a specific font problem, but that is irrelevant.)