Yesterday, in a nation built by immigrants, anti-immigrant protestors prevented the federal government from transferring three busloads of undocumented detainees - mostly children - to the holding facility in Murrieta, California. The anti-immigrant protestors were successful in preventing the Customs and Border Protection Agency from carrying out their lawful duties; even with other law enforcement agencies present.
Here’s what the mayor of Murrieta, Alan Long, had to say of the protest.
What people need to understand is that they [protesters] are showing their emotion and passion about a federal policy that isn’t working […] and if it started here in Murrieta, so be it. It won’t be just one mayor or councilmember or a group of small protesters, it’s going to take an entire region, maybe an entire state, to send a message to fix the problem so that this doesn't land on the community’s doorsteps.
I wonder what part of the federal policy he thinks isn’t working. Could he be referring to the record amount of deportations by the current president? Or maybe he wants a more humanitarian approach to our current refugee crises? For some strange reason I don’t believe either one of those were his motivation when he was addressing a crowd of people with signs that read “Go Back to Mexico” and “Return to Sender” or (my personal favorite) “Protect Your Kids From Diseases.”
I leave it up you, the readers, to conclude what could possibly be the reason for Alan Long, and the rest of those protestors, of wanting to blockade busloads of children mostly from Central America.
Jump over the yellow fence to find out my reason for writing this diary.
Not too long ago the OWS protests made national headlines. Every location was met with a strong police presence and many were beaten and taken to jail for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of speech. In this country, a group of black, or Latino, men walking down the street is suspicion enough to stop them and make them account for why there are walking down the street while being a minority.
Yet, on numerous occasions, with recent examples of just within these past couple of months, white protestors have been allowed to blockade and prevent law enforcement officials from carrying out their duties WHILE ARMED WITH SEMIAUTOMATIC WEAPONS. Groups of armed gun fanatics have invaded places of business with no legal consequences whatsoever.
Does anybody see anything wrong with this double standard? The actions of federal law enforcement officials to allow this blatant disregard of our laws by these ultra-conservatives will only empower them to push the limits even more. I fear this will not end well.
Where is our outrage?
9:06 PM PT: I included two topics in this diary because those two thoughts were intertwined in my head. I apologize. I believe there should be a lot more threads on the immigration crises, but the real intention of this diary became the lack of law enforcement response when dealing with right wing protesters; as evident in the Murrieta incident yesterday.
I rash of these kind of incidents in regards to right wing protests, most of them armed with semiautomatic weapons, have empowered these lunatics to continue to push their limits in disobeying laws and hindering law enforcement. They feel they can challenge the authority of local and federal authorities because there hasn't been any negative fallout from their actions.
This administrations has established a very dangerous precedent, and it is one I feel will lead to a very dangerous situation.