I was appalled by this story (http://www.alternet.org/rights/51084/?page=1) of a man who basically gets to hunt individuals of Mexican heritage in Cochise County, Ariz. That he has gone from detaining illegal immigrants to sicing dogs on them, running them down, and now threatening anyone of Mexican heritage and threatening EMT workers without reprisal from the law shows how the intersection of race and money can override the law in AZ.

I was particularly struck by this writing on the last page - the local whites support this behavior:

Local support for Barnett galvanized in the trial's aftermath and seemed to grow even stronger with passing weeks. "I think most of the people of Cochise County support Roger Barnett in principle, as far as rightfully protecting his family and property from the invasion of illegal immigrants," read one of many pro-Barnett comments published in the Bisbee Herald-Review after the trial. "My personal thanks to the Barnetts and Mr. Kelliher for standing up for us all."

At the same time, prosecutors like Andrew Thomas in Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, continue to decline similar prosecutions -- and are even now charging illegal immigrants with conspiracy, a novel legal construction, for conspiring to smuggle themselves. The first months of 2007 were marked by several murders of border crossers, and although authorities continue to attribute such deaths to human- and drug-smuggling disputes, suspicions are mounting that some immigrant-bashers may actually be murdering people.

Tags: az, injustice