[Peace-discuss] Charles Barkley and the Fight for Immigrant Rights

[Neil Parthun]

Zirin hits another out of the park.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090330/zirin


Charles Barkley and the Fight for Immigrant Rights
By Dave Zirin

If you tuned into CNN last weekend, you may have seen a press  
conference with NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley and a plump,  
hatchet-faced lawman who calls himself "the toughest sheriff in  
America," Joe Arpaio. You may have caught Sheriff Joe making clear  
with a feral smile that no, Barkley would not be required to "wear  
the pink underwear." It was American law enforcement at its ugliest.

Barkley, the fast-living, big-drinking, loud-talking NBA player  
turned commentator, was pulled over on December 31 for driving while  
intoxicated. The former hoops superstar was fined $2,000, sentenced  
to an alcohol treatment program and ordered to install an ignition  
interlock device on his cars. He also had to spend three days at  
Sheriff Joe's notorious Tent City prison. Barkley's experience was  
hardly typical for Tent City. He was given his own tent, where he  
could eat meals in privacy. He wasn't served food surplus like the  
prison's infamous green bologna for meals. He didn't have to listen  
to the prison radio station, KJOE, which plays all of Sheriff Joe's  
favorite hits. He could wear a red Nike tracksuit instead of the  
prison jumpsuit. He also participated in the press conference where  
Arpaio plugged his book, America's Toughest Sheriff: How We Can Win  
the War Against Crime.

And, as mentioned, he didn't have to wear the pink underwear Sheriff  
Joe favors for those under his thumb. But there was even more "Chuck"  
didn't have to do as a resident of Tent City.
Sheriff Joe doesn't only enjoy the thrill of knowing that his  
prisoners are pretty in pink. He has been known to parade the  
undocumented immigrants among them in shackles, wearing only their  
state-supplied pink underwear in front of a bevy of armed guards and  
a gaggle of television cameras. The mainstream media didn't travel  
into the dry desert heat to expose Sheriff Joe's tactics. They came  
because they received the press release, written by Sheriff Joe  
himself. In one of Sheriff Joe's "advisories," he made note of the  
state-of-the-art electric fence, promising that it would give "quite  
a shock--literally" to any escapees.

The Tent City also subjects the underwear-clad prisoners to the  
crushing Arizona heat, something Barkley, who was on "work release"  
from 8 am to 8 pm, was able to avoid. It can get blisteringly hot.  
Sheriff Joe's response to safety concerns was to say, "It's 120  
degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents, and they didn't  
commit any crimes, so shut your mouths." This attitude is the reason  
why Maricopa County has had to pay out $43 million under Sheriff  
Joe's leadership in wrongful death and injury cases.

But not everyone has the resources to issue lawsuits. Sheriff Joe, a  
man with his own reality program and his own "civilian posse," has  
made a national name for himself by being on the front lines of  
attacks on undocumented immigrants. Sheriff Joe's methods have led  
the Justice Department to announce on Wednesday that it is  
investigating his department for "patterns or practices of  
discriminatory police practices and unconstitutional searches and  
seizures." The Arizona Republic reports that David Harris, a  
University of Pittsburgh law professor, believes it is the  
department's first civil rights probe related to immigration  
enforcement.

Not surprisingly, Sheriff Joe justifies his treatment of immigrants  
on the most racist and intellectually specious grounds. He says that  
the Tent City is "a financially responsible alternative to taxpayers  
already overburdened by the economic drain imposed by a growing  
number of illegal aliens on social services like education and  
healthcare." This blithely ignores the fact that undocumented workers  
actually put more back into the economy than they extract, since they  
pay into Social Security and payroll taxes without getting anything  
back.

Barkley was shielded from the true ugliness of Sheriff Joe. But now  
that he is out of prison, the Arizona resident should do what he does  
best and speak his mind. Make no mistake, Barkley would have  
something to say. There was a time when Barkley was a proud  
Republican and entertained the idea of running for governor of  
Alabama. In fact, when Sheriff Joe's book came out in 1996, the  
blurbs on the back cover included praise from Rush Limbaugh, John  
McCain and, yes, Charles Barkley. But since those days, Barkley has  
undergone a transformation. He now says Republicans have "lost their  
minds." Last summer Barkley said, "What do the Republicans run on?  
Against gay marriage and for a war that makes no sense. A war that  
was based on faulty intelligence. That's all they ever talk about.  
That and immigration. Another discriminatory argument for political  
gain."

Barkley most likely understands that anti-immigrant policies are  
discriminatory nonsense, that the politics of poverty are critical in  
the United States and that there is more to life than material gain.  
Now that he is away from the watchful eye of Sheriff Joe, it's time  
for Barkley to apply those principles and call for the closing of  
Tent City, the removal of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the end of  
criminalizing the undocumented as a spectator sport.
Live hard,
      Neil

We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear.
[hunter s. thompson, 1937-2005]

It isn't even about revenge, although some people seem to think it  
is...I thrive to bring them down not by being a bastard, but by  
showing the world what, exactly, they did or said.  That's why who  
and what I am isn't important to the story.  The story is what's  
important...The truth won't defend itself, though, and bastard or  
not, it's got me.
[warren ellis, 1968-]

Neil Parthun || lennybrucefan at gmail.com
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