In April, a group of law-breakers calling themselves "Concerned Citizens of the United States" (CCUS) illegally stole a LIST with the names, addresses, social security numbers and other private information of 1300 Latinos living in Utah from a government data base and sent the list to ICE claiming the Latinos on the list were all "illeegals."Three months later, on Monday, July 12, when ICE hadn't arrested anyone on the list, the CCUS sent this same LIST to law enforcement, news media and politicians around the state. ABC 4 reported and later confirmed, the data source was from the Department of Social Services. The list also included pregnancies and due dates and stated: "some of the women on the list are pregnant at this time and steps should be taken for immediate deportation."
This racial profiling list was stolen from a government database by at least two government employees who have now been suspended pending further investigation. Investigators have determined that many people on the list are legal citizens or in legal residency status. The only common factor of all the names on this list is the fact they all have hispanic surnames.
If sb1070 is enacted in Arizona, citizens are encouraged to report anyone they suspect as "illeegal" to Law Enforcement. With sb1070, if police do not respond, then they could be sued by the person reporting this information. One can only speculate how often LISTS, such as the one created by CCUS, will be created with Latino surnames, racially profiling innocent citizens by those with an agenda.
The Salt Lake City examiner has reported "Some speculations suggest that at least one of the implicated vigilantes is also ksl.com’s self proclaimed, “law abiding, god fearing, honest racist,” codename sweetums." I checked KSL.com's database and found the profile for Sweetums. Sweetums has written several negative comments about Latinos and has outed herself as a State Dept of Social Services worker who frequently accesses the government databases to play private eye, then reveals her findings on KSL's website. Read her comments.
Every day I see hundreds of very negative, very racist commenters in comment sections, blogs and discussion boards who support sb1070, including the "citizen's arrest" section of the bill. Imagine, if sb1070 is enacted in states across the nation, we can only expect to see more of the same racial profiling antics as CCUS by like minded zealots of "Sweetums" who will perform LIST gathering of latino names - including citizen latino names in each state passing this racial profiling law. This is another reason we need the Federal Government to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR).
Now the minutemen are stepping in with these nutty remarks, especially considering the Governor and leaders in the DSS said many on the list were legal citizens or authorized to be in the country legally:
ReplyDeleteThere is a whistle-blower defense in the Utah law protecting an individual who violates the law believing he or she is exposing government corruption, and Eli Cawley, co-chairman of the Utah Minuteman Project, said that protection could apply.
“I believe whoever prepared the list is a patriot because they revealed violations of the law” committed by the immigrants, Cawley said, although he said he would not condone the publication of private information of any citizen or legal resident.
Legal: It is a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in prison or a $1,000 fine, to release protected information.
ReplyDeleteBut Herbert said federal law also appears to have been violated.
C'mon Dee! "Patriot"? Makes me wanna puke every time I hear one of these assklowns describe themselves thus.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "Patriots". Jim Kelly has a new word for Willy Gheen. "Patriot for Profit". How fitting
PCorn,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I don't call them Patriots. I just quoted a misguided MM. That's his comment in quotes above.