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April 7, 2005

A Minuteman mess

The Minuteman Project is now in full swing. If you have not read about it, it is the community watch that is going on in Southern Arizona border towns.
Article one
Article two
Article three

Normally, a neighborhood watch is just that: A group of concerned citizens watching out for their homes and wanting the retail value to shoot up. Well, these people have gone one better: They are watching out for the border. You know, the one that separated us from Mexico. These people go out while the sun is waning and look for illegal border crossings. They then hoop and holler at the immigrants until their call for border patrol goes through and they get official help.

Why am I talking about this? I do not want to cast my vote for or against such a practice, but I do want to point out one thing -- the U.S. residents are packing. Yep, they have guns just for protection. Now, being a former Arizona resident and gun owner, you have to know one thing: You hope that you will never have to use one. And the law provides strict penalties if a jury decides that you could have removed yourself from a situation rather than engaging in gun play (not that this is a playful matter). So back to the border. The immigrants for now are a little turned off by the Minutemen and avoid them by hiding and dodging them as if they were The Man. But they are not, they are just men (and women).

Advance this situation a couple of days or weeks, when the person trying to get to America knows that the guy on the truck drinking beer is just a guy and proceeds to walk past. And the guy on the truck -- much like Cartman from South Park--wants his authority respected, so he has a gun. What then? Does he hold these men and women at gun point until the authorities arrive, essentially taking them hostage? Does a citizen's arrest apply to those who are not citizens? As an Arizona citizen in possesion of a gun, you must now go on to rule two in the book: You cannot use deadly force if your life is not in danger. If this immigrant tries to walk past this Minuteman who has ordered him to stop and has told him at gun point to remain where he is, then what? I know it sounds like a lot of "what ifs," but this is a distinct possibility.

Will this be an international incident? How will the world view this? And let's add one more thing: Most of the Minutemen are white and most of the illegal aliens areÑwell, brown. How does it look then? I do not want to see a picture on the news of a fat good ol' boy holding some aliens at gun point. HavenÕt we learned enough from that whole prison escapade?

Now fast forward to this Article. It looks like most of these illegal immigrants had to obtain some kind of forged document to work. And in order to fly under the radar they must claim their wages and pay taxes. Maybe --and I know this sounds un-AmericanÑwe should work some things out. Social Security is in need of drastic help. And really -- are illegals taking the jobs that you or I want (field worker and such)? I know, unskilled labor --we need to have jobs for those of us who are unskilled and need to work. Somehow, some way, this could be a win-win situation. I do not have a solution, but I am only a smart ass. It would take someone far smarter than me to figure it out.

Posted by Kwaku at April 7, 2005 1:49 PM

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