Thread: "Los Suns" Lose in the Political Arena

"Los Suns" Lose in the Political Arena
by Ron Meyer

05/08/2010

As an Arizona native, the Phoenix Suns have been my favorite basketball team, and even after I moved out of Arizona, Steve Nash's prolific style of play kept me following the Suns. While I'm happy they won their playoff game against the Spurs Wednesday night, I'm disappointed in the way Nash and "Los Suns" have reacted to Arizona's new immigration law.

It's not unusual for teams to wear Spanish jerseys on special occasions, especially in the Southwest.Wednesday night was different; the Suns decided to enter the political arena by wearing these "Los Suns" jerseys with an intended purpose.

Suns owner Robert Sarver went above and beyond celebrating Latino culture when he said this in a team statement: "The frustration with the federal government's failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law. However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona's already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them."

Comments like these prove that sports people ought to stick with sports.

Sarver implies that Arizona's economy will suffer from its employers following the laws of the United States. If you're hiring illegals, you're breaking federal law. The new Arizona law doesn't miraculously change that.

The Suns owner also incorrectly suggests that S.B. 1070 violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Not to be outdone, ESPN commentator J.A. Adande concurs that, "It is the potential racial profiling and abuse of the reasonable-suspicion clause that make this law suspect."

The new law is black and white (pardon the pun) when it comes to racial profiling. "Reasonable-suspicion" echoes the Bill of Rights language of banning "unreasonable searches and seizures" in the 4th Amendment. Case-law refinement has interpreted "reasonable" not to include racial profiling.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has also redundantly signed an executive order and an amendment to the bill specifically banning racial profiling. If a cop profiles on his own, he will be held accountable for breaking the law, including the 14th Amendment. Every time a cop asks for papers, he can be legally forced to prove probable cause for the search, and if he has no other reason besides race, the charges will not stand.

Adande—following the lead of another sports-turned-political commentator Keith Olbermann—says this doesn't matter. Here's his convincing legal analysis: "It's not too hard to guess who will be asked to provide their papers (Hint: They're more likely to look like Leandro Barbosa than like Steve Nash). If Americans are regularly stopped and asked to prove they're American, then America feels less like America."

Sarver and Adande either haven't read the bill, or they just don't get it.

After, and only after, a legal stop for some other offense can police officers ask for proper identification under this "reasonable-suspicion" clause. No one can be stopped, much less "regularly stopped," to prove their citizenship. Once an officer has made a legal stop (for something other than immigration status) and has reason (besides race) to be suspicious, then he can demand papers.

Unlike sports celebrities, Arizonans and the majority of Americans are not falling for the rampant misperceptions being spread about this bill. They get it. The polls show that more than two-thirds of the state support S.B. 1070.

Arizona has had enough of the kidnappings and drug-trafficking crimes committed by illegal aliens. This bill helps with enforcement and sends a strong signal to Washington that they need to step up.

We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. We need to allow more people to legally immigrate, but we must secure the border. If it is easier to jump the border than to file immigration paperwork, we will continue to see problems.

"Los Suns" would do themselves well to stay out of controversial political issues, especially the ones they don't understand. Politics and sports do not blend well. I don't watch ESPN for politics, and I don't watch Fox News for sports. As a loyal fan, I recommend that if you want to keep supporters like me happy, stick with basketball.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36907

"We need to allow more people to legally immigrate"

UMMM NO WE DO NOT. We need to cut back on legal immigration and eliminate Illegal immigration in order to allow our infrastructure to catch up and for the immigrants here to assimilate...

Time for a Moratorium on all immigration and to make numbers that are sustainable. Enough of this crapola that we need massive numbers of immigrants here. That is a LIE.

Originally Posted by Tbow009

"We need to allow more people to legally immigrate"

UMMM NO WE DO NOT. We need to cut back on legal immigration and eliminate Illegal immigration in order to allow our infrastructure to catch up and for the immigrants here to assimilate...

Time for a Moratorium on all immigration and to make numbers that are sustainable. Enough of this crapola that we need massive numbers of immigrants here. That is a LIE.

Hear hear, no more indentured servants for mister Gates and like minded slave masters to take advantage of. They are under cutting American workers for billionaires and globalist..

Aside from Africa, EVERY country was built with immigrants. And, EVERY country had to put the brakes on immigration. Except, of course, the United States that seems to feel so guilty about everything that they feel a need to allow anyone and anything to immigrate, legal or illegal.

Every country has a limit except us. We just can't get it. I have a friend that argues with me on this topic. I asked her how long her son could keep bringing his friends over to dinner and just how many could she afford to feed and house before she had to stop. For some reason not only can she not answer that, like our federal government, but she likes to pretend it would never get that bad.

It's bad in Arizona and I'm amazed at how many people think the state is just overreacting. I lived in a Hispanic community outside of Phoenix. It was a nightmare. Graffiti, safe houses, houses being broken in to, gunshots, helicopters flying overhead and basically a bunch of people treating me rudely because I'm white. If that is the way you want to live then roll over and let them invade. Because that, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, is precisely what they are intending to do. With Obama and crew sanctioning it.