1 October 2004

Consequences of Political Correctness

You know, some days I really wish that I had it in me to make this stuff up. On the other hand, where would I be were it not for silly news stories?

Police in Oakland, California have halted their use of DUI checkpoints after the cities Hispanic leaders complained because the checkpoints snared too many illegal immigrants.

I couldn’t believe it when I heard about this. I mean, I know intuitively that the vast majority of the human race is comprised of silly pea brained little twits who make the Gumbys from Monty Python’s Flying Circus appear intelligent in comparison but it still flabbergasts me when I see demonstrated evidence of this fact and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I still hold out hope that we as a people can remake ourselves to be better than we are, but that’s another story.

Now, let’s take a moment to analyze this particular stupidity.

First of all, every police force in North America uses DUI checkpoints as a means of keeping impaired drivers off of the roads. The nice thing about the checkpoints is that the police have the right to demand your driver’s licence and proof of insurance, and you’re obligated to provide it to them. If they catch you there just isn’t any hiding from them. The checkpoints also serve a secondary purpose of trapping those people who are driving without either license or insurance or both, and herein lies the core of the problem.

Oakland's Hispanic community, including the president of the City Council, feel that the checkpoints are making life miserable for illegal immigrants who don’t have drivers licenses but are otherwise obeying the law. Apparently they feel that the illegals have a god given right to be in the country without having to bother with such trifles as immigration paperwork and proper border crossings, and it’s right unfair of the police and the legal system to catch them at it. However, this in itself constitutes only half of the stupidity.

The City Council has called for a month-long moratorium on the checkpoints and instructed the police to draft new checkpoint guidelines to get around his problem. And therein lies the core of the stupidity involved.

Personally, I don’t see a problem. If you’re in the country illegally then you have to expect that it’s only going to be a matter of time before you are caught and sent back home. Now, it doesn’t matter that you know and I know and they know that you’ll be back next week, the fact remains that you shouldn’t be there in the first place and the only thing that’s happening is that you’re being called on it.

This notion that the illegal community should be left alone if they’re behaving as normal, average, every day law abiding citizens is a complete and utter crock. You’re already breaking the law by being in the country and you expect the law enforcement agencies to leave you along once they find you? Can you say misguided? I thought you could.

Now, if the problem in question was so minor that it only involved a few isolated incidents then most of us might be inclined to look the other way and just shake our heads at the foolishness of it all. But this isn’t a tiny isolated problem. Illegal immigration is a huge problem in America, especially in the states along the Mexico/US border. Conditions in Mexico aren’t exactly the greatest for your average person, and these people cross the river and come north because they’re looking for a better life for themselves. And in most cases they simply don’t have the monetary resources to do things properly (immigration costs money, you know) so they just don’t bother. They go out and get jobs from employers who are willing to look the other way and otherwise behave as ordinary citizens.

But they’re there illegally and they have to expect that it’s only a matter of time before they’re caught. If I was an illegal immigrant I would be living with that fear every day of my life. I would go out of my way to keep a low profile, but I would know in my head and in my heart that it wouldn’t be enough, that sooner or later they would catch me and deport me. If I was in such dire straits that illegal immigration was my only alternative then I would accept that consequence willingly.

So, why isn’t the Hispanic community in Oakland willing to do the same thing? Because apparently America exists to preserve the god given right of Mexicans to sneak into the land of the eternal shopping mall and get away with it. I bet the people who signed the Constitution didn’t see that one coming.

The fact that they complained at all is silly in itself. The fact that city council not only listened to them, but bowed down to their wishes is even sillier. City Council should have laughed in their faces but that isn’t an option when the president of our council belongs to the community that’s complaining, is it?

Political correctness has consequences, boys and girls. Bet you didn’t see this one coming.