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Wrong target, Anon. Law enforcement personnel, while a natural ally to every form of official corruption, do not have the power to improve the immigration situa

Wrong target, Anon. Law enforcement personnel, while a natural ally to every form of official corruption, do not have the power to improve the immigration situation. At most they could refuse to uphold the law by ignoring any suspicion of illegal status. Maybe they should do this, but not because they fear Anon; because they know it's right.

dolvlo 15y ago
Law enforcement can absolutely refuse to uphold laws that are unjust. In fact, many northern law enforcement officials refused to return slaves that escaped from the south. Everyone involved is partly responsible
danilocampos 15y ago
I'm not so sure. If we can take as given the notion that power leads inevitably to corruption, and that corruption currently exists, it strikes me that the most straightforward way to minimize the potential for ongoing corruption is to compromise the secrecy it requires. Further, if we agree that law enforcement may serve as an agent of corruption, its large surface area makes it an interesting target. If the arm of the corrupt is bound by watchful eyes, the damage that arm can do is minimized. Further, if the corrupt are using law enforcement in the advancement of their own dubious agenda, there may be useful evidence laying around. To bring this back to something more concrete: Arizona politicians are using bullshit fear to advance an agenda and immigration laws are a lever they're trying to pull. Who can guess how law enforcement activities are implicated in such a strategy? It seems a reasonable tree to shake. This is not to say that I necessary endorse – or condemn – the actions described here. I'm pretty conflicted. But if you're going to batman this kind of thing, you could do a lot worse than starting with law enforcement. There's no direct route to the end boss of corrupt power. You'd need to build a Rube Goldberg machine – and this strikes me as decent cog in such a device.
civilian 15y ago
I don't believe it either. Because of the vast amount of laws on the book and places that police can patrol or investigate, there is a lot of potential for selectively applying the law. Selectively applying the law allows them to introduce bias and change the immigration situation, or any situation! A good example is the drug-busts of medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Federal law enforcement ran the busts, but they got help from California state troopers & city police, even though the Californian policeman should be upholding California law and the 10th Amendment. They were choosing to misapply the law. I hoped they would have defended the dispensaries-- and at the least, I was hoping that they would be a neutral force.

dolvlo 15y ago

Law enforcement can absolutely refuse to uphold laws that are unjust. In fact, many northern law enforcement officials refused to return slaves that escaped from the south. Everyone involved is partly responsible

danilocampos 15y ago

I'm not so sure. If we can take as given the notion that power leads inevitably to corruption, and that corruption currently exists, it strikes me that the most straightforward way to minimize the potential for ongoing corruption is to compromise the secrecy it requires. Further, if we agree that law enforcement may serve as an agent of corruption, its large surface area makes it an interesting target. If the arm of the corrupt is bound by watchful eyes, the damage that arm can do is minimized. Further, if the corrupt are using law enforcement in the advancement of their own dubious agenda, there may be useful evidence laying around. To bring this back to something more concrete: Arizona politicians are using bullshit fear to advance an agenda and immigration laws are a lever they're trying to pull. Who can guess how law enforcement activities are implicated in such a strategy? It seems a reasonable tree to shake. This is not to say that I necessary endorse – or condemn – the actions described here. I'm pretty conflicted. But if you're going to batman this kind of thing, you could do a lot worse than starting with law enforcement. There's no direct route to the end boss of corrupt power. You'd need to build a Rube Goldberg machine – and this strikes me as decent cog in such a device.

civilian 15y ago

I don't believe it either. Because of the vast amount of laws on the book and places that police can patrol or investigate, there is a lot of potential for selectively applying the law. Selectively applying the law allows them to introduce bias and change the immigration situation, or any situation! A good example is the drug-busts of medical marijuana dispensaries in California. Federal law enforcement ran the busts, but they got help from California state troopers & city police, even though the Californian policeman should be upholding California law and the 10th Amendment. They were choosing to misapply the law. I hoped they would have defended the dispensaries-- and at the least, I was hoping that they would be a neutral force.