Heather Mac Donald: The Arizona Lesson
As the start date of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, approaches, the Los Angeles Times has published an article on a nearly three-month-old homicide in Phoenix that no one but the victim’s family claims had anything to do with Arizona’s immigration initiative—not the Hispanic neighbors of the alleged killer and his victim, not the police, not even illegal-alien advocacy groups.
“It’s just weird to hear them say he’s racist,” one of the suspect’s Hispanic acquaintances marvels.
The suspect had expressed his opposition to Arizona’s law just days before the May 6 shooting; he had invited his Hispanic neighbors to Thanksgiving last year.
As for the victim, he “did not get shot because he was Mexican,” a local civil rights activist maintains.
And yet the Times has put the story on its front page as part of its coverage of SB 1070.