Political Nevada

Profiling and the Abuse of Power

Several weeks ago a 27-year-old single male took a trip to Idaho to purchase a car. After making his purchase he drove the car back toward Las Vegas. Within a few miles of the border between Idaho and Nevada, on the Nevada side, where there is nothing but isolation, he was pulled over by Nevada Highway Patrol. The officer asked the young man if he knew why he was being pulled over and was told that he didn’t know why. The officer informed the driver that he had failed to put his lights on as per the sign several miles back. As the driver hadn’t seen the sign he accepted that he was getting a ticket. The officer asked for the driver’s license, and asked if there were any wants or warrants issued for the driver. The driver replied that as far as he knew there was nothing. The officer called into his office and promptly returned stating that there was nothing on record for the driver. At about the same time as the officer was finishing the ticket and stating to the driver that everything looked good on the driver’s record, two more highway Patrol officers pulled up and had a conversation with the first officer. After their talk the initial officer asked the driver if he would have a problem with a random search of his person and of the car. At that point the driver was feeling intimidated by all the attention, but felt that he had no choice but to allow the three highway patrol officers to do their search. The initial officer asked if they would find any illegal drugs or paraphernalia on the driver or in the car and was told there would be nothing. The three officers made the driver get out of the car, then two officers began to search the car as well as the driver’s suitcase and personal possessions, while the third officer did a “pat-down” of the driver. After ten minutes the officers decided that they were done and the driver was finally freed to go. As they were getting ready to get into their cars, a homeless wanderer was passing by and one of the officers made a comment to the driver that he should pick-up the bum so he would have company on his drive to Las Vegas. The three officers thought that the comment was extremely funny and laughed as they departed the area. The driver spent an additional half hour picking up the clothes that the officers had strewn throughout the area, shaking off the dirt and folding the clothes as best he could so he could place the clothes back in the suitcase, then reorganized his car so he could continue on his way. None of the officers made any effort to help the driver put his items back the way they had been before their search and none offered either an apology for the mess and inconvenience or a thank you for his cooperation. He felt that once they had finished, he was a non-entity in the way they ignored him.
The driver could not file a complaint because he had been too afraid of the officers to ask for names, badge numbers or to even take note of the numbers on the three patrol cars.
Why was this driver treated to so much attention?
Was it because he is very Hispanic looking?
Was it because he is only in his twenties?
Was it because he had the effrontery to be driving by himself, ( the officer’s comment made the driver think that had he had a passenger, they might not have subjected him to as much scrutiny)?
Was it because the Highway Patrol officers in that area of Nevada are so bored that they needed something to do?
After the driver’s license had been run and the officer found nothing to indicate a problem, why did two additional officers feel the need to join their fellow officer instead of doing their job and keeping the highway safe?
Those that heard the driver’s story believe that the answer to the question as to why this driver was subjected to so much attention is a combination of being Hispanic, in his twenties, a single driver, with officers that are getting paid to protect the public having too much time and too much power on their hands.
They knew that the driver was fearful of being arrested, not because he had committed a crime, but because he was alone with three police officers and whatever would have happened it would have been the word of three police officers against the word of a single Hispanic driver. Who would believe that the officers would do anything against an honest citizen?
This story shows that profiling is part of our lives and without control police can take advantage of their power. Whether we like it or not, there may not be a solution to abuse of power or profiling, but it is an issue that needs a reality check.

Immigration

There seems to be two thoughts on immigration, “kick ‘em all out of the country” or allow those that are already living here “a path toward citizenship”.
The kick ‘em out group seems to feel that if a person is here illegally it is because they entered the country illegally,knowingly.

The problem with putting all the “Illegals” in one bag is that there is more than one reason why a person is an illegal alien in this country.

Below are several examples of illegals:

1. People are issued a three-year visa to live and to work in this country, they are required to renew every three years, but they forget and the visa expires, now they are afraid that if they go to renew they will be deported. Because of their visa they were setup to pay taxes on the money they make, and since they own a house they pay property taxes. Therefore they were legal, now they are illegal, but they are paying their fair share of the income and property taxes.

2. What about the young man or woman who was brought to this country as a child, but never knew they weren’t really citizens of this country. They have gone to an American Elementary School, Junior High School, and High School, even some college and are now in their 20′s. At some point they found out that they are illegal, what should they do, this is the only country they ever knew.They have been paying their income taxes and property taxes as well.

3. The college student who was in this country legally, as a student, when their visa runs out and like the person with the work visa, they forget to renew. They do the same as the three-year visa immigrant, they remain in this country and try not to get in trouble. Perhaps while they were in college they met someone and fell in love, even got married, and had children. What are their options?

4. Many “illegals” have married American citizens and have children from that marriage.

For many that are in those four categories, there is only one solution, they have to turn themselves into the Federal authorities.

The scenario works like this:
They get an Immigration Attorney or an Immigration specialist, who helps them fill out all sorts of paperwork which is then submitted to the INS for scrutiny. Then they wait for an interview with Immigration, which usually takes several months, but may even take a few years. Next, once the interview is over they have to wait several more months until they receive notice that they are to be relocated to their original country. They wait for another few months until they are picked up and placed on a bus(assuming they are being deported to Mexico). Now they must wait until some bureaucrat decides to look at their file; once the file is looked at it is now sent to the FBI who might or might not look into the situation right away. When they do they run a complete check on that person and once the check is finished, they might inform that immigrant of their findings immediately, or might have the information sitting on someone’s desk(until the immigrant’s attorney requests information as to why the 12 months limit is past) at which time that person is now allowed back into the only country they have known.
By the time the process is completed several years has gone by.

There should be other ways to complete the process, especially when that immigrant fits into one of the four scenarios listed above, because that person lived and went to school in only a limited number of places.

Change the process, make it more realistic, less bureaucratic, and there would by more “illegal immigrants” becoming legal.

These anti-immigrants who are ranting and raving about the illegals in this country have no connection to reality, they need to blame someone for their problems, blame makes them feel so superior.