Ruben Navarrette In Dallas watch your language - Press-Telegram

Ruben Navarrette: In Dallas watch your language-Press-Telegram


Today, at least 20 patrol officers of the Dallas Police Department - ranging from a rookie to a 13-year veteran - are in hot water after ticketing 38 motorists since 2007 for not speaking English. The problem - this isn't even a crime. Not in Dallas or anywhere else in the United States.

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I posted this not because of the DWM aspect and the racial bias that it presupposes - rather it was this passage that got my attention...

"During these turbulent times, you can tell by the way that people look at you," he said. "My wife has told me: `Have you noticed the difference in the way that they look at us these days?' And you have to admit there's something there that you just can't identify. Attitudes have definitely hardened because of the harsh debate over immigration and other things like that."


Yes, I think that is fair to say - attitudes have hardened.  Attitudes about immigration and alot of other things as well.  Sometimes it feels like this country is all about harsh attitudes on some issue or other and is about little else. 

I have worked in this field now for over a decade and I have noticed that if you want to treat people badly you have to objectify them, you have to name them so you don't have to think of them as actual human beings that you are being nasty to. So calling people "illegals" or "criminaliens" allows one to think it is OK to look down on them and consider them unworthy as people compared to we citizens.

Americans (possibly humans in general) seem to have a need to define themselves by figuring out who they don't like.  The man quoted above is a former Texas Police Officer not an illegal immigrant.  I hope that the people that are giving he and his wife the sideways glances might come to realize that all Latinos are not illegal immigrants.  Maybe someday those same people might come to the conclusion that people who immigrated here illegally are also people - not actual "aliens" to be feared and hated.

Even if people must return to their home countries - I think it would be better for everyone if America could do that without the becoming as mean, petty and racist about it as some government and media opinon leaders have proven to be recent years.

ImmigrationProf Blog: Sacramento Police Chief: It's time to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants who are productive, law-abiding citizens - the public's safety depends on it

ImmigrationProf Blog: Sacramento Police Chief: It's time to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants who are productive, law-abiding citizens - the public's safety depends on it

Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel has joined other chiefs in the nation in calling for an immigration overhaul that considers legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants.

Braziel said Congress must take a two-pronged approach: tighter borders and a way to allow undocumented immigrants who are productive to stay in the U.S. legally. Now, many are afraid to assist in criminal investigations, Braziel said.

"We need to remember that there are at least 12 million people out there who are unauthorized to be in this country, and they're our neighbors," Braziel said during a telephone press conference Thursday with police officials from Iowa and Texas.

"They're the ones that live down the street, participate in our communities, send children to our schools."

Their fear of deportation is putting the general public at risk, Braziel said. He told the story of a couple rear-ended by a drunk driver. "Prior to the police showing up, all of the witnesses left," Braziel said, "And the reason they left is because none of them had legal status in this country."

To read the rest you can check out the Immprof blog or go straight to the Sacramento Bee

http://www.sacbee.com/government/story/2275917.html