Cunnilingus very very good, racial profiling very very bad.

To add to what you were saying about illegal immigrants being afraid of cops, even if you’re a citizen and you’re of color and you witness a crime, you’re *still* not going to want to call the cops because you’re going to end up getting interrogated for an hour about your right to be in this country, just because you were a good fucking Samaritan. I agree with you–this policy, both in Arizona and the check in your neighborhood, isn’t about citizenship. It’s about making people who don’t fit other (racist) people’s idea of “American”, regardless of their citizenship, feel unsafe and unwelcome. So just know, I care. The police force in YOUR country is making you feel unsafe because of your race and where you live, and that is not fucking okay.

Re: the banality of evil and what you’re saying about how shit like this doesn’t happen in America–I think that actually plays into the first part. Because this is America! Things like this don’t happen here! So that deportation must be legal, that imprisonment must be justified, that papers check must only be targeting criminals, etc. etc. etc.

It’s possible that you recorded this a few days ago, but for what it’s worth, the blogosphere *and* journalists are reacting against the Arizona law, Obama has denounced it and the White House is looking for grounds to challenge it, an Arizona sheriff has refused to obey the law and it’s likely that other law enforcement officials will follow. So people are aware and are actively fighting against it there. As for what happened to you, yeah, I had no idea it was happening until you posted about in on Facebook, and I’m sure a lot of other people didn’t, either. See again the above paragraph, “shit like that doesn’t happen here and so this must be a one time thing/totally justified/etc.” which I’m sure is why people reacted the way they did in your comments. I immediately connected it to the Arizona law, though, and with your additional details about your neighborhood being primarily Mexican, it absolutely sounds like law enforcement taking advantage of racial profiling being legalized in other states to do some over here.