Xoff's BlogCommentary on state politics by Bill Christofferson, who often uses Xofferson or Xoff to shorten his 14-letter last name.
Christofferson, a recovered journalist and ex-political reporter, has been a Democratic strategist and consultant for 20 years and is now retired. He lives in Milwaukee. |
From Whallah!
The Nutosphere continues its crusade to report every crime that involves an illegal immigrant.
They've been at it for a long time, starting with a Memorial Day shooting in 2006 that was commited by someone who turned out to be here legally. It was truly an Emily Litella moment. Jessica McBride blamed the police for providing the wrong info, but she had been claiming, long before any police announcement, that the shooter must have been an illegal.
McBride challenges the news media every time an illegal is found to have committed a crime or even been accused.
Her mentor, Charlie Sykes,does the same.
It seems less about crime than about looking for one more way to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment, using fear. Mr. McBride, Paul Bucher, tried to demagog the issue to victory in his failed race for attorney general, but he couldn't even sell the idea to the conservatives voting in the GOP primary. We are not experiencing an illegal immigrant crime wave. Our guess is that illegals commit fewer violent crimes than US citizens, although we haven't seen any statistics.
Here's a modest proposal:
If the right wing thinks it is so important, and so relevant, for the media to report it every time an illegal immigrant is accused of a crime, let's be fair about it. Crime stories could all include information that identifies the suspect as (a) an illegal immigrant, (b) an alien living here legally, or (c) a US citizen.
The media doesn't single out and identify suspects by race only when they are black. Why should it single out illegal immigrants, unless it is to promote another agenda?
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US Citizens in Crime Way
You asked: "The media doesn't single out and identify suspects by race only when they are black. Why should it single out illegal immigrants, unless it is to promote another agenda?"
The answer is: Because it is illegal to be an illegal immigrant and that is a material fact worth reporting. It is not illegal to be black, or of any other race, and so is not reportable. I, like many citizens, definately want to know when illegal immigrants commit crimes. It helps us determine how big the problem really is.
Huh?
How could you possibly determine "how big a problem" it is from news reports? How big would be too big? What would you do about it, since -- as you point out -- it is already illegal (duh) to be an illegal immigrtant?
The Repub base isn't with this one.
I was at a Farm Bureau meeting with Ron Kind giving report on the farm bill and the issue of immigration kept coming up. Farmers need labor and since they can't determine if a willing worker is legal or not, they don't want anything to do with any of it. Reports of crops being plowed under because there isn't labor to pick it will compel those in power to find a way to welcome these folks in--temporary permits, turning a blind eye, it doesn't matter to farmers who wonder how their crop will get to market.
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