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Kelly Ayotte's Fact-Free Support for Racial Profiling

by: Dean Barker

Mon May 03, 2010 at 21:16:22 PM EDT
Jennifer has already noted Kelly Ayotte's full-throated support for Arizona's Breathing While Brown law.

But why exactly is the former Attorney General fine with it?

AYOTTE: "...they are dealing with tremendous violence in Arizona.  Not just people coming over the border to get a job, people coming over for drug dealing, murder, and kidnapping. And what Arizona passed in their law, they passed it because it's been an abject failure in Washington to take on the fundamental responsibility of government, which is to keep us safe. And so we have a duty as a federal government to secure that border."
Back in reality-land, here's the Arizona Republic:
NOGALES, Ariz. - Assistant Police Chief Roy Bermudez shakes his head and smiles when he hears politicians and pundits declaring that Mexican cartel violence is overrunning his Arizona border town.

"We have not, thank God, witnessed any spillover violence from Mexico," Bermudez says emphatically. "You can look at the crime stats. I think Nogales, Arizona, is one of the safest places to live in all of America."

FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics provided by police agencies, in fact, show that the crime rates in Nogales, Douglas, Yuma and other Arizona border towns have remained essentially flat for the past decade, even as drug-related violence has spiraled out of control on the other side of the international line. Statewide, rates of violent crime also are down.

Why would a Washington-backed candidate like Kelly Ayotte want to demagogue the issue?  I'll let an Arizonan answer that:
"That's politics," he said, shrugging. "It's all about votes. . . . We have plenty of law enforcement."
Dean Barker :: Kelly Ayotte's Fact-Free Support for Racial Profiling
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Kelly Ayotte's Fact-Free Support for Racial Profiling | 2 comments
"Keep us safe" is an impossible goal, if only because nobody is (0.00 / 0)
"safe" to begin with.  So, this is another one of those "designed to fail" agendas.  When you aim to accomplish something that's not possible to accomplish, you have a recipe for "try and try again" -- for a politician that's equal to longevity in office.

On the other hand, perhaps because most people aren't aware that we organize government in order to be prepared for events that require an immediate (emergency) response, there's a tendency to argue, when no emergencies develop, that the preparations and the people designated to respond are unnecessary -- i.e. there's reason to dismiss public servants and "save" the time and expense of their employment.  So, our public servants try to come up with a rationale for why they shouldn't be de-hired.

Also, pointing the finger at humans as the source of social disruption and disaster is generally more successful than blaming "mother nature," because there's a belief that people are actually easier to control and our committed response is more likely to be successful.  People are actually more predictable than the forces of nature and predictability is valued as one of our unique attributes and capabilities.  The human brain takes great pride in being able to predict events and having those predictions validated by experience.  We humans really love to say, "I told you so."

Thinking (0.00 / 0)
The wealthy can afford the amenities in life. What they can't buy is safety.

Matter of fact, they fear their wealth makes them a target, so they are hyperfocused on safety.

They can afford health care. They can afford Humvees to traverse poorly maintained roads. So the wealthy are fine with drowning gov't in a bathtub. They can deal with life within their means. But safety?

They want gov't to take care of that. Do you have any idea how much Blackwater charges?

www.KusterforCongress.com - www.paulhodesforsenate.com

www.nikitsongas.com - www.devalpatrick.com

[ Parent ]
Kelly Ayotte's Fact-Free Support for Racial Profiling | 2 comments

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