On April 23, there was a rally in downtown Phoenix in acknowledgement of the fifth anniversary of passage of SB1070. This was the so called ‘papers please’ law, and if fully enacted it would allow any police officer, with any suspicions of the legal status of an individual, could demand to see verification of citizenship. As conceived, any interaction with an officer of the law, from a traffic stop to an investigation of witnesses to a homicide, could result in the officer demanding proof of citizenship. If a person was deemed not to have the proper documentation to prove citizenship, or indeed was a non-citizen, anything from fines, jail time, confiscation of property and deportation could be imposed. When the bill was passed into law in 2010, there was a modification which stated police could only investigate immigration status incidents to lawful stops, detention or arrest. The modifications also lowered the original fine from $500 to $100 and first time incarceration from 6 months to 20 days.

Thankfully, before the law could go into effect, many court efforts weakened the law, however it is still on the books. That is why the rally was held. It was to remind people, especially those not effected by the law that SB1070 was still out there. I heard a couple of people who were not part of the rally confused as to why all of the people assembled were protesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do have to say, considering a number of progressive rallies I have seen in Arizona, this one had a good amount of people in attendance. There were a couple of hundred people who gathered at the state capital before marching through the streets from the capital to the courts building. I do have to comment that the makeup of the crowd wasn’t as ethnically diverse as it could have been. Maybe because SB1070 is so weighted towards the Hispanic community that a vast majority of people concerned about its impact, and thus those mobilized to march, would be Hispanic. What was encouraging for me was sizable representation of the Hispanic LGBTQ community at the rally. I didn’t see any outward signs hostility towards the group, which I found refreshing because when diverse groups can rally to a common cause, it can cause many to focus on an issue they may not see as important to them. That’s why I was disappointed in the lack of other ethnic groups at the rally. It is possible none of the organizers reached out to them, but I heard about the rally on the news days before the event and I was able to get out there to cover it. I’m sure leaders of community organizations would have heard about the march and could have reached out to represent in support.

I always have trouble showing up at these types of rallies and seeing the police presence on site. The reason why, and I do understand the need to have plain clothes as well as uniformed officers to make sure things don’t get out of hand, but why do progressive rallies have to have an overkill of officers? A few days after the Occupy Phoenix rally in Phoenix, when the people occupying Cesar Chavez Park were less than 20 people, I would count five officers watching the group at any given time. There were anywhere from 200-300 people at this rally and I counted 12 officers at one time keeping an eye on the crowd. To be clear, this was before the crowd marched through downtown Phoenix, where understandably the police presence grew so they could be escorted through the streets. A few years ago, when there was a pro-gun rally at the state capital, by my count there were anywhere from 600-700 people there, with over half the crowd carrying firearms. There was only one officer on site. About a year ago there was a Tea Party rally in Phoenix which had about 50 people. There were two officers on site. I can’t quite fathom why the police feel that people who rally with a conservative point of view are less dangerous that those with progressive views, especially when looking the gun rally where there were many people openly carrying firearms. There were no police there checking to see if their guns were registered, if those in attendance had open carry licenses or to monitor those who were walking around with possible assault hardware.

There are more pictures from the SB1070 rally on my Flickr page.

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Rally Against SB1070 Five Years Later - April 24, 2015
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