Arizona has recently passed a new law titled “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” or SB 1070 (PDF). The text of the bill is complicated, but I invite you to read a summary from the LA Times. I contend that this law will neither support law enforcement nor make neighborhoods safer. It is also likely a violation of a citizen’s constitutional right against unlawful search and seizure, and so, an issue with consequences that reach past Arizona’s borders.

I do not on principle object to stronger border enforcement or deporting those who enter the country illegally. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s justification of this bill however, is to protect Arizonans from rising cross-border violence in the state due to the influence of drug cartels (her words).

The bill doesn’t go after drug cartels. It instead invites racial profiling of minorities for harassment and identification. And although the law is not to take effect until mid-summer, some of the law enforcement in Arizona is not hesitating to make use of it, and already one of our own citizens has been harassed and detained (video from an Arizona news channel). The man detained underlines the point that Arizona’s lawmakers refuse to accept – that this man, being as stereotypically categorized as “illegal”, presumably because of the color of his skin and his accent, is in fact as American as they are. The truth is that is exactly the type of person the bill is intended to target, harass, and annoy.

Supporters cite that police are prohibited from using the law unless there is ‘reasonable cause’ for suspicion, and that it cannot be on the basis of race. It is well-established that the police are at times an overbearing power against the citizens. In particular, Maricopa County Sherrif Joe Arpaio’s methods are reminiscent of Bull Connor’s during the 1960s. These provisions do nothing but encourage the fabrication of ‘reasonable cause’ by police forces. The requirements for reasonable cause of suspicion is easily reached by any behavior that an officer feels is justified.

The fabrication of these circumstances are encouraged by the provision that allows citizens to sue their police forces or local governments if they do not adequately enforce this law. In comparison, I want to point to an ordinance in Los Angeles that would be illegal in Arizona, called Special Order 40. This order mandates that officers will not initiate police action for the purpose of determining immigration status. It does not prevent criminal suspects who have been booked for other crimes from being reported to immigration authorities, but in fact mandates it if there is cause for suspicion. In the belief of the past several police chiefs of the city and myself, it creates a safer society when residents are able to report crimes against them to police authorities without fear of reprisal. The nature of the Arizona law makes already besieged communities targets for criminal and administrative misconduct because they cannot report crimes against them. When a population is fearful of the police, crimes go unreported and unresolved. This will raise, rather than lower the amount of crime in Arizona, especially against minorities, and does nothing to stem the tide of violence or those who engage in criminal activity.

This law will undoubtedly affect Americans who fit a stereotype and reside in Arizona, or pass through the state. Citizens everywhere should be offended that the encroachment upon their 4th Amendment rights that this law codifies. While a boycott of Arizona products is short-sighted and accomplishes only the further destruction of the legal economy there, opposition is rightly directed at those who support this legalized discrimination and the political officials who created and passed it.

To learn more about how to take a stand against SB 1070, please visit ¡Alto Arizona!