Michael Shannon has a guest column in the News & Messenger. Unfortunately, his rantings often go over into the realm of unacceptable public speech. By allowing him to have a column in the News & Messenger, the newspaper gives his voice a platform of legitimacy that includes prejudice, ignorance, and racism. Were Shannon to post his diatribe against Hispanics and Chief Deane as a letter to the editor, he would be exercising free speech. Because he writes as a guest columnist, the News & Messenger becomes complict in spreading this hateful message:
Shannon Column: The 2010 Mexican roundup
There was a near miss in Fairfax County for Prince William County’s Jefe de la Policia Charlie Deane. Authorities there arrested a Belgian accused of soliciting prostitution. A records check, conducted as part of the Federal “Secure Communities” program, revealed this miscreant was also an illegal alien.
Thank goodness this bad man was caught before he had a chance to cross the Occoquan.
Adding Belgian outreach to his already extensive Hispanic illegal alien outreach could have pushed Jefe Deane over the edge. There is only so much apologizing for enforcing the law that one man can do.
Reaching out to Belgians is particularly difficult in that you have to pander in two languages: Flemish and French. Plus Deane would have had to find a police officer with a French surname that spoke French and a Flemish surnamed officer that spoke Flemish otherwise his outreach would not be sincere.
Que Lastima!
That sort of complication makes last year’s Hispanic Contrition Tour (or Festival de Contrición) look like a model of efficiency, since one abject apology in Spanish covers about 15 countries and most of the landscapers in the county.
“Secure Communities” is actually sort of an SAT test for illegals. It only matches arrestees with a database of aliens who had a visa and overstayed, or aliens who were caught earlier and are making a return visit to the hoosegow.
If Juan is clever enough to avoid attracting attention after he wades the Rio Grande—not difficult under Deane’s lethargic enforcement regime—his name won’t be in the database. And if there is no database hit, then Juan remains in El Norte.
“Secure Communities” is a much less stringent affair than the 287g program that allows deputized local officials to determine whether or not to pursue deportation of illegals.
Of course if it were up to Deane, the welcome mat (or alfombra de bienvenida) would never be withdrawn. He worries that a lot of crime is going unreported due to a victim’s immigration status, hence the constant reassurance that Deane’s heart is not really in immigration work.
But I wonder if when Charlie is talking to “immigrant rights groups”, do the terms “aiding and abetting” or “conspiracy” ever come to mind?
The audience for his outreach often is illegal or knows other illegals, harbors illegals, knowingly does business with illegals and generally approves of the mass violation of the nation’s borders. Yet our jefe is unperturbed.
It is interesting to compare Deane’s come-one-come-all (or viene uno que llega a todos) philosophy with that of Frederick County, MD Sheriff Charles Jenkins (trust me, the first name is the only similarity).
Jenkins’ policy is to target every inmate identified as an illegal for deportation, which amounts to about 9 percent of his jail population.
“One of the first persons we processed [for deportation] was driving under the influence of alcohol through a school zone during school hours at 30 miles over the speed limit,” Jenkins told the Washington Post. “Is he any less of a threat to the community than a [top-level] offender? I would argue no.”
A sentiment not shared by Deane who downplays illegal alien crime by explaining the most common violations are driving without a license, public intoxication and driving under the influence of alcohol.
That’s certain to be comforting to the taxpayer in an auto crash with an illegal who had neither a licencia de operador del automóvil or insurance.
It’s a mere property crime, don’t you know, and besides the county furnishes Deane with his ride.
But now if looks like Charlie’s foot-dragging has finally paid off.
The census has come to town and thar’s gold in them thar Mexicans. Why our Board of Supervisor’s says Uncle Sam’s bounty on illegals is $1,000 a head and we want to count every last Jesús and Jesúsa.
That measly thousand bucks will just about cover the county fee for the ambulance and first visit to the emergency room for our newly welcome South-of-the-Border guest.
After Obama’s thousand bucks is gone, who pays for the schools and associated social costs that illegals bring?
Once the public gets past the whiplash-inducing political hypocrisy, I don’t foresee a counting problem. Just ask Charlie for the list of groups he’s apologized to and work up from there.
One thing is certain: Hispanics aren’t shy about lecturing the U.S. on how to improve the illegal immigrant experience. Just this week Columbian fanny-shaker Shakira was in the White House to discuss “child development programs in Latin America.”
But she’s behind the curve. We already have a program for that. It’s called “anchor babies.”
Michael R. Shannon is a public relations and advertising consultant with corporate, government and political experience around the globe. He is a dynamic and entertaining keynote speaker. He wants you to share the machines and can be reached at [email protected].
The News & Messenger needs to balance its columnists with individuals who maintain proper public decorum. It is the opinion of this blog’s administrators that Mr. Shannon’s public writings should no longer be a part of the News & Messenger. Translation: Fire Mike Shannon.
It appears that Mr. Shannon has a short memory. Didn’t a local blogger go after Chief Dean in the recent past? Do you think that if that blogger had it to do over again, he might rethink his actions? Will Mr. Shannon reget what he wrote or will the people of PWC give him a pass?
I think he might rethink his actions. I don’t think he liked how many resignation letters he got over those ill-conceived words he spoke.
Not only is Shannon demeaning and infammatory, he is also old news.
Mr. Shannon’s article serves as a very clear example of what the term “racism” really means. Perhaps it should be required reading in schools in hopes that the next generation will grow up with some small degree of tolerance for their fellow man.
What a stupid hit piece brought on by an event that did not even occur in PWC and had nothing to do with the chief. I don’t get what the overall point is. Is he concerned that illegal immigrants will get coverage under the Senate healthcare bill? I am, too, but I don’t think Chief Deane has anything to do with that issue any more than he does about child-development programs in Latin America.
It didn’t make any sense to me either. And had he said all of this as John Q. Private Citizen in a letter to the editor it wouldn’t have made it here. I just think the News and Messenger needs to not be complicit with stuff like this. When you are a columnist, you write under the auspices of a paper.
If he had discussed the pros and cons of Safe communities vs 287(g)…no problem. I don’t see what the Belgian has to do with any of it.
The fact that there is more human trafficking in PWC does bother me. There is something so raw and sickening about that.
There was an columnist who wrote a piece entitled “Why I Hate Blacks” that ran in an Asian publication San Francisco a few years ago. The community expressed its outrage and the editor apologized to the community, but I don’t think the columnist was fired.
While the editors would argue that Mr. Shannon’s views are not the views of the News & Messenger, they should review their editorial policy about hate and intolerance. A column with a string of online comments means readers are reading, no matter how negative the subject matter. But are they selling subscriptions and, more importantly, advertising?
Finally, the column is a not so veiled attack on the 2010 Census Both funding, redistricting and representation depend on an accurate census. Why bite off your own hand?
I see a huge difference in a guest columnist and a letter to the editor. In a letter to the editor, unless the writer advocates gunning down people in the street, it just rests differently than a guest columist. I wouldn’t care if this dude had this as a letter to the editor. I don’t have real high expectations for society in general.
While this article isn’t my cup of tea (especially as Mr. Shannon points out I *am* an anchor baby) he does have a 1st Amendment right to his view. Kudos to the N&M for letting him put out his idea on a public forum so that it could be discussed.
I may disagree with him and may not like what I’m hearing or reading but I’ll fight and die for him to always have the ability to say his piece.
I have to agree with Emma. “A stupid hit piece brought on by an event that did not occur in PWC and has nothing to do with the chief” is a perfect description for this column by Michael Shannon. Well, I guess the idea is to sell papers and to make profits, and stirring up controversy is how they do it. And of course, there’s 1st amendment rights.
However, I’m all for that, but if they write something stupid like that in the newspaper, they should expect to get plenty of flack about it! That’s how 1st amendment rights work – you can say something stupid, as long as you are prepared to get a lot of angry comments back! If you aren’t, well, maybe you shouldn’t be writing/publishing that stuff!
@Gainesville Resident Well, said, GR. I would defend his right to say boneheaded things, but I still think he’s a bonehead.
It isn’t that Mr. Shannon should not be allowed to speak his mind, I too support the integrity of the first amendment, the issue I have is the FORUM he is given to express his 1st amendment right. He could just as easily send his, mostly incomprehensive piece, as a letter to the editor, NOT as an offical editorial.
I agree with GR and Emma. He has a right to say whatever he wants and bear the consequences of his remarks.
Marin, had he just written a letter to the editor I would agree with you about first amendment. However, he posted under the auspices of the newspaper. Therefore they are going to have to bear the consequences rather than Shannon. When they use their ink and paper to propagate inflammatory rhetoric, then they need to expect a firestorm from their readers.
If we go in and insert black every time we see Hispanic or Mexican and put in names generally assigned to blacks (Lightning and Sapphire come to mind, from the old Amos and Andy Show of yesteryear) in the old days, it helps to see how really unattractive and unacceptable this article is in mainstream media.
Unless Mr. Shannon has a special way to detect someone’s status, he is on mighty thin ice. The paper is on even thinner ice since it must rely on readers. I expect more than a few will cancel their subscription. Mr. Shannon could have stuck with describing how he feels illegal immigration harms the community. He did not have demean, insert spanish expressions, make fun of names.
@Elena The problem is in the medium. The News and Messenger is written at (barely) a fifth-grade level. Very often even the main editorial is confused or overly simplistic, and the typos and grammatical errors undermine whatever the message is supposed to be. I liked it better years ago when it was truly a community newspaper. The staff is too sloppy to ever be credibly “cutting edge,” and often they just come off as being completely out of touch with the community they are supposed to be covering.
Well, the News and Messenger still has a ways to go before anyone actually buys a copy.
Hah Emma, good point! My son is in second grade and working on grammer, I think fifth-grade level is might generous of you 🙂
Forget handing Mr. Shannons piece in when I was in college, my middle school teacher would have handed it back to me with an F!
I think the paper assumes that the columnists will ‘shake things up’ everyonce in awhile and cause ‘traffic’ to the paper by virtue of the many rebutals it’ll get. Ever notice that when things seem bland on the N&M that they’ll bring up a wedge issue? They run a story about guns and you’ll see 70 online comments and weeks of rebuttal editorials.
Something like the 1st Amendment ruling against the Federal Elections Commission and that’s yesterdays news [my editorial on the point wasn’t printed 🙁 ]
Sure as a latino it isn’t a pleasure to see those words in print. But, words by themselves can’t hurt you without your permission. So, I tend not to get riled up in them.
If nothing else by printing his opinion the dialogue is open. People will speak for and against his ideas and democracy happens. When the dialogue is controlled or opinions aren’t aired – thats when we have problems as a society.
When we stop having the freedom of being boneheads we really have lost our freedom. As a customer of the paper you can also excercise your right to cancel your subscription. Or, just ignore him. 🙂
Or give him a good blogging as is happening here.
And you have made some good points. I feel a newspaper ought to avoid inflammatory rhetoric. Maybe it’s just me….
Slow, Elena called me and said you and Al were both having trouble with moderation. I don’t now why it is happening. Email me if it keeps happening and no one is rescuing you. I will take a look. Meanwhile, I am sorry. It isn’t intentional.
I’ve read that article a couple of times. My response is this: ??????????????