We are losing the message war against SB 1070. I just have to say it because it's true.
Why should I oppose SB 1070? Because it's racist. How is it racist? Because it leads to racial profiling. Well okay, what does that mean?...you're taking to long to explain.
See the problem?
Many, who have never experienced racial profiling or heard that expression, just don't understand what that means.
Just ask your grandmother, if she's not black, what racial profiling is. Ask her if she agrees with it. Exactly.
African-Americans are about the only demographic, in fact, that might have any idea what racial profiling is. Racial profiling has often been ascribed to people of color and mainly dark people of color for that matter.
In other words: Asians or light-skinned Hispanics most often either support RP or have never experienced it. It's a complex idea that doesn't grab the unaffected, average person.
So why isn't this working, where is outcry?
Racial profiling is a term that hasn't been fully defined yet in the public conscious and, in many areas where it has, it's viewed approvingly.
In the liberal bastion, New York City, for example, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly both openly advocated racial profiling as a policy. And it was popular.
Think about that for a second. The largest city in the US had a mayor and police chief that openly suggested it was okay to stop and search people because they "looked the part."
Moreover, in this climate of heightened racial rhetoric, racial profiling complaints could be interpreted as more of victimization from the left. Objecting to racial profiling could also mean you are "soft" on crime.
That's the real political trap here set by conservatives: To portray anyone who opposes SB 1070 as someone who is soft on crime.
Those of use who oppose SB 1070 because we truly understand it's implications must emphasize a different message if we are to truly win over moderates as to why it's not good policy.
The first and most aggregious of these effects is how the law will scare immigrants away from reporting crimes. Imagine, an illegal immigrant's wife is raped while walking home one night, who does he turn to? They are afraid of calling the cops, so who can they turn to? The Church?
Or even simpler, an illegal immigrant mops some floors and cleans up a construction site for a week. At the end of the week, the boss refuses to pay him. What does he do? Who can he call? Will he gather his friends and try to fight the boss for his money? There is no rule of law.
That's why Police Unions were the first to object to SB 1070, because it creates lawlessness for millions of people in Arizona. SB 1070 makes the streets more dangerous. Less crimes will be reported under SB 1070.
Imagine this ad:
A photo of a young woman slowly pans out.
"This is Maria Consuelo. She was 19 when she was raped walking home from work in Phoenix, Arizona. She knew the man who raped her, but she never reported the crime because she was afraid of being deported. That man later murdered her and there was nothing that I could do to save her."
Cut to police officer (white), who's voice we've been hearing. He looks directly at the camera.
"SB 1070 makes immigrants afraid of me. SB 1070 won't let me stop crime."
When will a message like that be said on the news and the media?