Racial profiling is bullying

Good point.

In pursuing a hostile racial profiling campaign against Mexican-looking citizens, the Arizona Maricopa County sheriff’s actions are the topic of emotional debate. Following the vile behavior example of 1960s southern sheriffs who used their official positions to fight racial equality for Black citizens, the Arizona sheriff is using his position to likewise violate civil rights. He has developed his own predatory criteria. If Mexican-looking blue-collar worker citizens are heard speaking Spanish, or drive older vehicles, they are targeted for illegal search and seizure. Ironically, many Mexican-appearing Arizona citizens descend from families who have lived in the Southwest for eight to ten generations. Equally, members of the various Native American tribes whose ancestral lands are threatened by the Berlin Wall-type fence have called Arizona home for thousands of years.

How sad that the sheriff’s misguided aggressiveness is teaching impressionable Mexican-descent children to fear law enforcement officials. His supporters must realize that terrorizing carloads of terrified working-class poor families is not a courageous act. So reprehensible is this rogue sheriff’s behavior that a recent Justice Department report confirms that he is biased in executing his duties. History will record that he got his self-imposed ‘toughest sheriff in the country’ label by being what he truly is – an irritable bully in search of TV cameras.

When law enforcement does it, it's called racial profiling. When other people do it, it's called a hate crime. Hate crimes, like bullying, are meant to intimidate other people. Too bad Texas doesn't enforce hate crime law. But, then, republicans are the kings of bullying.