Thread: MSM IA hugger: bus tragedy has turned political

Nick Coleman: The bus tragedy has turned into a political one
By NICK COLEMAN, Star Tribune

February 24, 2008

The tragedy in Cottonwood, Minn., where four schoolchildren died in an accident caused by an illegal immigrant without a valid driver's license, has brought out the best in Minnesotans -- a community pulling together in a time of grief, the kindness of strangers, the prayers of thousands.

It also has brought out the worst: Anger, bigotry and politically-charged complaints about immigrants, the vast majority of whom are here legally.

Some of the anger is natural. Fatal accidents caused by irresponsible driving always upset us, whether the party at fault was playing with an iPod or driving drunk, driving a luxury car or a junker -- whether he or she was black or white, homegrown or here illegally.

But at a time like this -- when anger is tinged with racism and resentment in a season of charged political debate -- it is important to think carefully about what measures might help public safety, and what might hurt it.

The focus right now should be on the loss of four children, and the enormous grief suffered by the families and the town. But anger is powerful. Some people have moved on already, from mourning to murder.

"She should be swinging by her neck on the end of a rope," one blogger wrote about the driver on a website called Lake Minnetonka Liberty. And there was more where that came from. The trip from rage to lynch mob mentality can be short.

What would be a better response to this tragedy?

What if we raid the businesses who employ illegal immigrants, rip the workers away from their families, and deport them?

Oops. We're already doing that: About 200,000 were arrested and deported in 2006, including several hundred employed at a Swift & Co., packing plant in Worthington, Minn., not far from Cottonwood. There are millions of undocumented workers here. If you want to round them up and deport them all, you'll need barbed wire and jackboots.

And replacements.

How about if our politicians start turning up the heat by holding news conferences where they get all grim-faced, condemn illegal immigration and announce fantasy plans to crack down on it -- not because they have any intention of actually cracking down from St. Paul, 1,500 miles north of the border, but because it is shrewd election politics and feeds raw red meat to the rednecks?

Oops. We already have Tim Pawlenty. The governor's spokesman couldn't wait for the funerals to pass before trying to score points: The governor, he said Friday, thinks "we should do more to crack down on illegal immigration."

The night before, Pawlenty said at a prayer service that Minnesotans were "united in grief" by the tragedy. The next day, he went back to dividing.

Very vicey presidenty.

Illegal immigration is a national problem. You can build a wall around this country tomorrow and it will still be a problem. Solving it will be complicated and involve not slogans and politicking but difficult choices. Choices that might make sense, even if they don't pacify the vigilantes.

Do you want to feel safer on the roads? Well, when it comes to keeping unlicensed illegal immigrants off our highways, the governor of New York offered the only sensible plan. The solution, Eliot Spitzer said last year, is to let illegal immigrants apply for driver's licenses. That way, they might be illegal residents, but they would be legal drivers, subject to the same licensing, insurance and identity requirements as everyone else.

It ain't perfect: Plenty of American-born drivers, without licenses, kill people. And plenty of American-born legal drivers make tragic mistakes. But if illegal immigrants drove legally (many police chiefs wish they could), they could be policed and, if necessary, punished -- just like us red-blooded Americans.

Not letting them get licenses "does nothing" for safety, Spitzer said. "All it does is drive immigrants into the shadows, creating a class of people with no public records."

Yep. That's what we have.

But Spitzer's plan was shot down in a New York minute, killed by an angry outcry from people so obsessed with "illegals" that they would rather have them drive in the shadows, without licenses, lying about their identities, living in fear that they might encounter police, fleeing from accidents and, sometimes, doing something desperate. Smart, huh?

Lynch mob wannabees have a much simpler solution to the problem of illegal drivers.

Simple is how hate works. Nick Coleman • ncoleman@startribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/local/15927542.html

Not letting them get licenses "does nothing" for safety, Spitzer said. "All it does is drive immigrants into the shadows, creating a class of people with no public records

Bollocks! Spitzer thinks they'll become safe drivers if they are able to get the "magic" license? PLEASE! They will use the fake ID's if caught, does he really think they will obey driver laws, when they can't even obey immigration laws?

Refusing to give them licenses is to make it impossible for them to remain here and they self-deport.

''Bigotry''?The bigots are people who want illegals to stay here and break our laws.They never reported the 9 year old georgia boy who yelled at a passing car that his tire was going flat and the illegal stopped and killed him with a hatchet.IF PEOPLE CANNOT GET ANGER OVER THE MURDER OF CHILDREN AND THE AID AND ABETTING TO THESE CRIMINALS BY STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNENTS WE ARE NOT WORTH SPIT!It does make me very angry and to know that these chidren would be alive if our government would threaten to cut off all aid to all mexican and south american countries and put the scum that hire them in prison and auction off thier businesses this would stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, either by a thorough read of the article or by going to the posted source on the paper's website this humble reader is still challenged to find whether this qualifies as 'reporting' or as an 'op-ed'. I'd be very surprised to learn that this was published as a pure reporting-based piece.

To draw attention to the 'oops' section of the 'article'...

but because it is shrewd election politics and feeds raw red meat to the rednecks

Well, dude, you just insulted all the people I know that are a) pro-enforcement and are b) far from being rednecks. For your information, I actually know a few that are against illegal immigration and will probably vote for a Democrat in the election in November. Do you still think they're 'rednecks'?

...Just another reality-challenged reporter in an MSM establishment that is fine to espouse the warm and fuzzy causes of the OBL... so long as it doesn't affect himself or his family. If it did, I suspect this entire discussion might take a very different tone.

Oh yeah, as an afterthought...

Borrowing upon Miguelina's post above... well, living in a state that had provided DLs to IAs (and just about anyone anywhere that wanted one...) I can tell you that providing the license does not at all ensure that overall driving safety is increased; in fact, it would be very interesting to get auto insurers stats. on the subject (it's a tricky one, because you really need both conditions within the same state to make the best comparison - but, usually what will be most readily available will be each condition and then compared between different states). I'd be willing to bet the insurance industry stats. show there is little overall difference in accident rates for IA drivers.

Actually, just thinking about this a bit more, providing the DL actually incites a secondary effect type problem - if an IA has a license but gets in an accident and doesn't want to be apprehended or investigated, they will tend to run. This is exactly what happened several months in ago in a nasty hit-and-run which killed a disabled woman crossing a busy highway in my area. An approx 50 yr old IA man, driving about a 9-10 yr old van, hit a woman early in the morning (at dark) on a foggy day. In our area, we get 'inversion fogs' especially in the morning. The fog builds in fast and thick overnight, and then burns away during the day. However, the perp was driving at or about the speed limit in such conditions - which, in IMHO, based upon my spotless driving record over about 3 decades - is over-driving the conditions significantly. He hit the woman, realized he hit her, and just kept on going. He left her for dead. He failed to stop and render attention to the victim nor report it to 911. She was dragged 50 feet by the vehicle before she became dislodged and she died a short time later. She was a patient at a local drug treatment counseling center and a single mother of 4 kids. He had a valid OR DL - he was also an illegal alien.

Of course, there is a certain circularity to the logic in all this - eg. if you can get here, and can find the job, and you can get the license, it is easier to find the next job. If you remove the ability to gain ready transport to the job, you remove the desire to get/stay here, remove that attraction, and then you set the seeds of attrition in place. In the end, if the accident rates are even approx the same, then the default approach should be to DENY provision of the licenses.

Good analysis, Phred. IMHO, no ifs-ands-or buts...We don't need to be giving no stinkin' badgeez (licenses) to illegal aliens.

Looked up this skunk writer who claims that most spanish speaking people in his staTe were there legally and they have very few 'undocumented'.There was one nice note,he said that a couple of men asked him at governor's press conference( where he heckled the governor about why he did not have forgieners on his commitee) if he hated americans and said they wish they could let there fist speak alone with his nose privately.

I think I may have posted this before but what the heck. "There isn’t much chance that they will be able to learn to safely drive in the United States. My comments are partially based on observations from two teachers in the IILLEGALS(bilingual) program who were LEGAL immigrants and are now United States citizens from Spain and Cuba that become frustrated attempting to teach "proper"(their own word) Spanish to the illiterate ILLEGALS in the Texas School System. The ILLEGALS in the Texas School System are so illiterate that "our" schools have to spend time and resources to teach the ILLEGALS proper Spanish (proper Spanish is an oxymoron in this case) before they can even consider teaching them English!!! The ILLEGALS have their own program from Pre-Kindergarten through the 5th grade and still most do NOT learn English so there is little hope of the legitimacy of a passed Drivers Test!"

It ain't perfect: Plenty of American-born drivers, without licenses, kill people. And plenty of American-born legal drivers make tragic mistakes. But if illegal immigrants drove legally (many police chiefs wish they could), they could be policed and, if necessary, punished -- just like us red-blooded Americans.

they are already POLICED! It's called finger-printing just like any other criminal. Whether they had licenses or not, they'd still just run. Driver's licenses aren't going to make them any more legal NOR make them get insurance because their ultimate goal is to send the $$$$$ back home.

If they wanted to be here legally, then they'd return home & take there number and wait in line!!!

I think the statistic below very much understates the 'educational gap' of Mexican nationals as a whole:

More than 40% of Mexican nationals over age 25 living in the U.S. had less than a ninth-grade education, according to 2005 data compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... &cset=true