Pahrump Passes Sweeping Anti-Latino Ordinance
Tuesday November 21, 2006
Category: Free Speech | Immigrants' Rights
The Town Board of Pahrump, Nevada has just passed an ordinance (3-2) that essentially subjects all Latino citizens, including legal residents and U.S. citizens, to job discrimination, police harassment, repression of free speech, and potentially life-threatening delays in emergency medical care.
The Pahrump ordinance combines the recently-struck Hazleton policies with a new statute, referred to ominously as Section 8, which states that anyone who flies the flag of any nation other than that of the United States, without flying the U.S. flag above it, may be prosecuted. The ordinance was written to prevent protests such as those on May 1st, 2006, in which protesters of Latin American lineage proudly flied the flags of their ancestral nations as a gesture of solidarity with undocumented immigrants.
Will this law be enforced against The Who if they fly the Union Jack at a concert, or against civil war reenactors if they fly the Confederate flag? Technically it could be, but don't hold your breath. The purpose of the legislation is very clear, and--like the rest of the ordinance--it wasn't really written for caucasians.
The ordinance will face a preliminary injunction, and will be perfunctorily struck down. Everyone must have known, coming into the proceedings, that none of these policies are consistent with the Bill of Rights or with federal civil rights laws. The angry mob that supported the bill essentially conceded as much, as one local paper reports:
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The Pahrump ordinance combines the recently-struck Hazleton policies with a new statute, referred to ominously as Section 8, which states that anyone who flies the flag of any nation other than that of the United States, without flying the U.S. flag above it, may be prosecuted. The ordinance was written to prevent protests such as those on May 1st, 2006, in which protesters of Latin American lineage proudly flied the flags of their ancestral nations as a gesture of solidarity with undocumented immigrants.
Will this law be enforced against The Who if they fly the Union Jack at a concert, or against civil war reenactors if they fly the Confederate flag? Technically it could be, but don't hold your breath. The purpose of the legislation is very clear, and--like the rest of the ordinance--it wasn't really written for caucasians.
The ordinance will face a preliminary injunction, and will be perfunctorily struck down. Everyone must have known, coming into the proceedings, that none of these policies are consistent with the Bill of Rights or with federal civil rights laws. The angry mob that supported the bill essentially conceded as much, as one local paper reports:
The ordinance once again drew both representatives of statewide organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and various concerned citizens, all of whom were responded to loudly and forcefully by sitting audience members when they took their turn at the podium.But then this ordinance was never really about creating enforceable policy anyway. It was about sending a message to the 7.63% of the town's population that identifies as Hispanic or Latino. Judging by the stunned expressions on the faces of the Hispanics in Politics representatives who attended the council meeting, that message is being heard loud and clear.
Lee Rowland, a representative of the ACLU, was booed and shouted out by the audience almost immediately upon announcing her name and organization.
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Comments
Once again I am stunned with the racist attitudes of my fellow Americans.
Although with a town named Pahrump ….
I am a legal resident of the US. I am not a citizen.I have lived here for almost 50 years (not in Pahrump). I am of white, western European, non English speaking descent, not Latino. I have lived, worked, and paid my taxes as if I were a citizen. That said, I would never dream of marching down ANY street in the US, waving my country’s flag, demanding my rights. I chose to stay in the US (being brought here as a child) as a non-citizen. I do not think of myself as being any different than any Latino who is here LEGALLY. If Americans went to Mexico and paraded down the streets there with a 10ft. American flag, demanding their rights (whatever they may be), they would be laughed at and summarily deported, as they would be in any other country of the world.
If a person chooses to live in a country other than where they were born, then they should live by the rules, laws, language and customs of that country. How you live within the four walls of your house, is your business, but when you walk out on the street, you must become part of the society that you chose to adopt. If you cannot accept this, then you have no right to complain, especially under another county’s flag.
No one wants to deny anyone their rights. This is NOT a matter of racism. This is a matter of courtesy and common sense. Americans are very fond of waving their flag, proclaiming this to be the best country in the world. Those that come here to live from elsewhere, should accept that pride and wave the American flag, not the Mexican or any other flag, including mine……