The Crime Myth And Arizona

This article is two fold. First, we will look at one of the myths that the Conservatives are spreading to justify their big government power grab in Arizona and we will see how this is false. Second, we will take the same idea, assume that it is true and show how their power grab is not justified even if it were true.

The statist myth used to support is often to accuse the migrants of being criminals and dangerous. They partake in the classic fear mongering of the statist. The Cato Institute points out that misguided fears of crime fuels Arizona’s immigration law:

The crime rate in Arizona in 2008 was the lowest it has been in four decades. In the past decade, as the number of illegal immigrants in the state grew rapidly, the violent crime rate dropped by 23 percent, the property crime rate by 28 percent. (You can check out the DoJ figures here.)

Well that was easy.

But the murder and killing this was all about! I know some fear-mongers will say that brown people want to kill you.  Let us look at that killing this was all about for a minute and see how it is not a product of migration, but of a war declared by the conservatives and their support of morality regulation and the overpriced warfare state.

The individual in question was a farmer that was murdered. Yes the people who shot him were not citizens of the United States, and that is the wonderfully convenient half truth.   These were not people coming in to look for a new life by migrating to the U.S.  This man was killed by a drug cartel.  Oh, so it’s the criminals! I told you so Punk Johnny Cash! There are brown people from the south out to kill us!  I fail to see a television cartel, or a beer cartel.  Really the cartels are created by our prohibition supported by the same conservatives who look to place this mess on the shoulders of the migrants.  If a legal action were to be taken to make certain the tragedy of this poor man was not something that will happen again the government should look at ending their war on drugs.
Update: Current reports are saying that the killer in question was likely not an “illegal” immigrant but in fact an American citizen. Seeing that any person is innocent until proven guilty I feel it is too early to even say that the suspect is in fact the one guilty, yet alone for a state to jump the gun and pass legislation like Arizona has done.

Let us assume that a migrant was more likely to commit a crime. Now I mean an actual crime like the one committed on them, a use of aggressive force on another, not an abstract crime the state invents to justify it’s crime.  let us assume that for one minute that all the fear mongering of violent migrants killing and stealing in the streets was true.  Let us assume for a minute they are a threat.  So what? We get rid of them? Anyone fitting the description of the criminals should be punished and aggressed upon? I thought you constitution people liked the idea of innocent until proven guilty.  Let’s look at this with another group.

Let us look for a minute at rape. It can be assumed that the majority of rapes are committed by men.  So for the good of all society we will round up these men and take actions against them so the women won’t be raped. If I say oh they may commit a crime they must be attacked for this before a crime is committed then the one we accuse of being in the people group or is most likely to commit crimes is not the criminal but the victim.  Now the criminal is the state.

This is reality that we choose to not see. We choose to attempt to justify our actions that violate others the arguments presented against migration are nothing short of utilitarianism.  I reject society as a valid individual. I accept individuals as valid sovereign individuals.  I will not choose to take the liberty of the one away from that individual based on a “greater good” concept that is founded on a paranoid myth.