Friday, December 23, 2011

Obama Targeting Police Nationwide to Divert from Fast and Furious


Sheriff Joe Arpaio is only one of several law enforcement agencies around the country the Obama administration attacked over the past two weeks, alleging racism and related abuses.

Either there has been a huge increase in discrimination by law enforcement during the Obama administration, or Obama is targeting law enforcement for politically motivated reasons. In the current era of heightened sensitivity to racism and police brutality, it makes no sense that abuses by law enforcement are increasing. The U.S. Department of Justice’s sudden flurry of investigations finding massive amounts of discrimination and abuses by police agencies around the country is coincidentally occurring at the same time the U.S. Department of Justice is undergoing a highly publicized Congressional investigation into Fast and Furious.
Law enforcement is a natural target for the left, which often seems to prefer criminals over the police. Alleging vague charges of racism or racial profiling is becoming one of the most prevalent ways the left dishonestly demonizes and discredits its opponents. Made-up charges of racism are difficult to defend against, because almost any difference in treatment between two people of different ethnic backgrounds can be blamed on racism with no way of proving otherwise. You cannot get inside someone’s head to prove that he had no racist thoughts; it is one person’s word against another’s.
This latest round of politically motivated investigations comes on the heels of the Obama administration suing Arizona, Utah, Alabama and South Carolina over their tough new laws against illegal immigration. Those lawsuits are mostly based on unfounded grounds of racial profiling; Arizona’s law specifically includes a provision prohibiting racial profiling. The constant barrage of lawsuits is costing taxpayers exorbitant amounts of money. They’re paying double; once to fund Obama’s lawsuits through their federal taxes and again to defend against the lawsuits and pay any penalties through their local taxes.
The flurry of attacks on law enforcement agencies began last week on December 15, when the DOJ announced vague racial profiling accusations against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The DOJ claims that the agency racially profiles more than any other police agency around the country. However, it refuses to release the “statistical study” on which the findings are supposedly based. It is widely thought that Arpaio was targeted in retaliation for enforcing laws against illegal immigration. Since Arizona has such a high percentage of Latinos, it is easy to make people think there could be discrimination. The DOJ stripped the agency of its ability to screen for illegal immigrants through the 287(g) program and is ordering Arpaio to make numerous changes, such as setting up policies against discrimination. This is redundant considering there are so many policies, rules, and laws prohibiting discrimination at every level of government.

No comments: