It's been in the news for awhile: authorities in Prince William County, Virginia, are cracking down on illegal immigration. From a distance, it sounds benign, maybe even a good thing.Up close, it's a different story. You know those WWII movies where the Gestapo are stopping people, asking for their "papers" and carting off those who don't comply? (That's the Nazi checkpoint to the Warsaw ghetto at right.)
Well that's the reality in the police state of Prince William County today.
Our nanny immigrated to the United States from Panama more than 20 years ago. She immigrated legally and has been a U.S. citizen for nearly 15 years. She works hard, pays taxes, owns a home in Prince William County, near Woodbridge. She has two grown sons, both of whom are gainfully employed and raising families. They are largely assimilated into the U.S., and are as patriotic as the next citizen, if not more so.
But the other day, while our nanny was driving down Old Bridge Road near Woodbridge, she came upon a makeshift checkpoint, manned by officers in two police cruisers. They asked her--and other latino drivers in the line--to pull over.
Now let's be clear about this: she wasn't pulled over for any traffic infraction. She was singled out because she looks like a Hispanic.
The police asked for her drivers license. They asked for the registration--the car is registered to the Curmudgeon. They then asked if they could search her car. Scared, our nanny complied. They poked around. Then they said she could go.
It's one thing for the cops to check on the legal status of someone pulled over for a good reason. (Although it still results in racial and ethnic profiling.) But to have random checkpoints to see people's "papers"--and subject them to a search with no cause whatsoever?
White people wouldn't put up with this for one second. They'd be up in arms, decrying Nazi tactics. U.S. citizens shouldn't be subjected to this crap, regardless of skin color. If the police in Prince William County are required--and it may take a lawsuit to do this--to pull over EVERYONE at a random check point, including the white folk, and subject them to the same scrutiny, then you could be this BS would end in an instant.
5 comments:
Wow...do you think a lot of white people don't know about the situtation going on in the county? If there was a way to bring it to everyone's attention, I would hope behavior would change.
Pulled the hispanic drivers out? Sounds like racial profiling to me. Get a lawyer, sue the county, preferably in to bankruptcy. Nothing get's the white people attention like a massive tax increase to pay off the costs of their own racism.
Live in PWC, I'm latino, never been pulled over or seen one of these makeshift checkpoints. It is pretty disturbing though. I don't mind racial profiling after one's been pulled over for something else, but this is too far.
Blacks have been going through this for years. We have been enslaved by whites, beaten, raped, and racially profiled. The difference is that we didn't ask to come here!
I've lived in PWC for about 16 years now and have never ran into one of these check points. I've never even heard of them. I am latino and I have been pulled over by police though. I think they're more aggressive in woodbridge and dumfries then any other part of the county. I think the check point thing isn't quite accurate though.
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