Ah, the best made plans of mice and men. I'm referring to a story in the Los Angeles Times Monday.
It is a case of political correctness that has turned and bitten the mayor and city council on the butt. Just a tiny bite, mind you.
The Los Angeles City Council by an overwhelming majority had voted to suspend business ties with companies in Arizona because of that state's anti-illegal immigrant law.
There were a few exemptions because of contractual obligations. But, by and large, the city leaders patted themselves on the back and joined a growing boycott against Arizona.
First, the boycott.
In the eyes of the ethnic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and city councilmen, many who represent districts with vast majorities of Latinos, the Arizona law was seen as requiring police to determine the status of people they lawfully stop, encouraging racial profiling and violating constitutional rights.
It is not, in the minds of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, the Legislature and its supporters.
Either way, the law makes it illegal to be in the state of Arizona without proper legal papers such as birth certificates. passports or visas.
The LAPD wants an exemption to extend a contract with an Arizona firm that provides 32 intersections with cameras catching motorists running red lights.
Analysis by two city departments say the $3.8 million contract with American Traffic Solutions of Scottsdale costs the city $300,000 after fines -- some as high as $500 --
even though it reduces traffic accidents. Proponents contend the safety cost of reduced accidents in property, deaths, injuries and medical costs should be factored in to that equation.
American Traffic Solutions and another Arizona company are rated the two top companies in the country providing the service.
Ed Reyes, a vociferous boycott supporter and councilman representing a district of mostly minority voters, is caught between the proverbial rock and hard place.
He supports the LAPD exemption request because "I would not jeopardize Angelenos." But, he would prefer other options:
One option, he said, could be to use the city's contracting power to lure existing vendors to the Los Angeles area. Or the city could help new local companies develop the capacity — and jobs — to provide photo enforcement equipment and services. "I want to be opportunistic with these dollars and nurture new business and bring in new jobs," he said. "This would be a classic case for that."
LAPD Lt. Ron Katona, who oversees the camera enforcement program, said the boycott is likely to be a factor in choosing a new contractor but that he doubted the city would select a firm that was rated poorly or was far more costly just because it was not in Arizona.
The first exemption to the boycott resolution also was filed but withdrawn by LAPD when some councilmen balked. The department wanted to send officers to a safety training conference in Arizona.
This prompted the police officers' union to complain that political correctness at City Hall was taking precedence over public safety.
The red light intersection contract extension will be voted on Tuesday by the city council.
--------------------
EPILOGUE
The Arizona boycott, in my opinion, is ill served because the economic sector it hits hardest -- conventions and the tourist industry -- is serviced by a labor force primarily of Latinos, many of whom are legal residents.
3 comments:
The Tea Bag Party are just “haters not debaters” or as others have dubbed them “screamers not dreamers”, with their failed attempts at stopping Healthcare reform, they say they respect the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence but they do not mind passing laws, through weak Governors (no one voted for this crazy) who only cares about getting elected Governor, on the backs of undocumented workers, that will not pass Constitution muster.
Brewer signed into law;
1. S.B. 1070,
2. No permit conceal weapons law,
3. The famous Birthers law,
4. Banning Ethnic studies law,
5. Could she be behind the Mural in Prescott, Arizona, ordered to be whiten,
6. On deck to pass, no citizenship to babies born to undocumented workers,
7. If she can read she should look up Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago (which was un-constitution and failed when legally challenged),
8. The boycotted Martin Luther King Day, what idiots don’t want another holiday? Yes, you guessed it Arizona.
Well Arizona, you can boycott new holidays and keep passing crazy laws and the rest of us will continue to challenged them in a court of law and continue to add cities to our Boycott of your state.
I real cannot believe anything that comes out of Brewer’s mouth, in an interview she first said her father had died in Germany fighting the Nazi in World War II (war ended 1945) but of course we find out the truth that father was never in Germany and died in California in 1955. But we are suppose to believe everything else she says, right! No one voted for you for Governor, yet you keep listening to the tiny brains of the crazies and signing into law everything that comes into their feeble minds, it only make you look dumb, stupid or racist, or maybe all three.
As for the Tea Bag Party, their phony patriotism is sickening; they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, energy (remember Cheney’s secret meetings with oil companies where loosening regulation and oversight were sealed), climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions).
My my Montana. You certainly took my critique of the Arizona boycott to new levels. I think the points you raise symbolize the hysteria surrounding the foundation of the boycott.
It is odd that there has been this big spike in right wing idiocy coming out of Arizona though. Texas has a higher background level of crazy and right now Arizona is like a supernova taking the attention. I wonder how long it will last.
Actually it isn’t that strange. Arizona has been moving gradually towards the middle over the last twenty years. The population has doubled in that time and a big part of that spike wasn’t old retirees who tended to be conservative, but a lot of younger families moving from blue states, etc. In 2008 McCain only received 53.4% of the vote here in Arizona, his sixth lowest vote total among the states he won. Now think about that, his home state was one of his least supportive states. Had McCain been from Texas, Florida, etc., he likely would have lost Arizona.
This state has a long history of very conservative, often racist politics and the supporters of those policies aren’t happy that they are consistently losing ground to moderates and liberals (simply termed as liberals in their tirades). Because of how the state legislature is set up conservatives still have a major majority in both houses but, when Napolitano was governor, she vetoed a lot of their stupidity. In fact she set the record for vetoes in the history of the state. You take her away, bring in Brewer who is a wing-nut’s wing-nut, and you see incredibly stupid legislation that was shut down by a reasonable governor make it out of the state house. At the same time you see an increase in non-conservative population as well as an increase in non-white population and the far white err, right is freaking out.
Post a Comment