There is so much to comment on this video! Besides the dobermans and machine guns as your companions for a night time stroll in the neighborhood, besides the disclosure that ICE is actually NOT detaining all illegal immigrants just because we turn them over, what caught my attention was Corey’s outright ethnic profiling! Why would Corey ask if only the “Spanish speakers were asked if they were legal or illegal immigrants?” I thought that illegal immigration was not about Hispanics, but about ALL immigrants ? What does this say about our chairman that insinuates the satisfaction survey was not valid because “Spanish speakers” who may be “illegal immigrants” nullify the results. At least that was my impression.
Please, I invite everyone to comment on what stood out to them in this video.
SA, larger houses will bring an increase in the tax base but residential construction is usually still a loser when it comes to paying its share. PWC made a good move in trying to get away from its reputation as a bedroom-community filled with low-priced townhouses. However, with a more affluent population, residents expect a higher level of services. Some of those services are reflected in the passed bond referenda. Squandering money on a resolution does not go toward providing those services…particularly in a tight economy.
As for workers, I’m not an ardent shopper and don’t visit too many fast-food restaurants so I don’t know how hard or easy it is to fill jobs. I do notice that the large boxstores are emptier so I would expect fewer clerks. I’ve noticed that Target, which used to have adequate clerks to cover check-out, now seems to have developed a K-Mart mentality – let the customers simmer in line.
Maybe that’s the biggest rub. As the population was becoming more affluent all of a sudden thousands of totally non-affluent people were moving in next door. Back in the day they were located in areas of less affluence as they couldn’t afford to live in the more affluent neighborhoods. Now with the mortgage idiots handing loans to everyone regardless of income they were appearing in communities that have never had to deal with the non-affluent families much less people straight from the ghettos of Mexico. Vastly different life styles collided as would be expected.
SA, that collision – given the loose mortgage money – would have occured regardless of the immigration status of the people. Poorer people have less money to spend on the upkeep of their houses. Many of them have grown up in vastly different cultures whether they’re immigrants or native residents. Older neighborhoods, because they’re often more affordable, are usually where these differences play out.
You’re right. It’s just that the majority of those poor people arriving here were directly from Latin America. I still say it wouldn’t have been the problem it was had they not brought attention to themselves and the fact that many were here illegally. That was the wake up call for me. To think we had people marching in the streets making demands about their ‘rights’ and they weren’t even in this country legally. That to me was totally un-American and unacceptable. Next the details of the day labor sites and impacts of overcrowding and non payment for certain services surfaced which just added to the resentment. Most here will say that none of that was true, but common sense says otherwise.
Mr. Kopko, a “wake up call” for you is merely an opportunity to exploit generations-old tradition of racial intolerance for political gain.
I was at those marches and I’m not Hispanic. More over, my family has been in America longer than most Caucasian families I know.
NGL,
There we go with the racial thing again. I could care less where the heck these people came from. Non Americans have no right marching in our streets and making demands on the citizens of this country. Get over it! Only the citizens have the ‘right’ to demonstrate as far as I’m concerned. The rest can kiss my butt, and go back to their own country to complain. As a matter of fact that would be the best thing they could do for their future is to work on improving their own country instead of bringing ours down to their familiar level.
SA,
You just made no sense. On one hand you say you don’t “care where the heck these people came from” and they you say “non americans have no right to march”. NGL just said that they were there marching and furthermore, how do you know the make up of the status of those that did march? EVEN Corey admits the focus is all about lantino’s you admit the focus is all about latino’s, but then you have the audacity to wonder why latino’s would take issue with a police that clearly would profile their segment of society?! GET REAL Tom!
SA, overcrowded residences – though they obviously affect the immediate neighbors – are a miniscule percentage of the housing stock in both the City and County. In my neighborhood the “overcrowders” were white natives so immigration status doesn’t impact the problem. Neighborhood Services addresses it.
Localities probably bear the brunt of this country’s immigration problems. I’d prefer to pressure the federal government for solutions instead of paying twice, once locally and again federally. We all pay for services that we don’t use or wouldn’t support voluntarily. In the end, does it do us more good than harm to have people educated and kept healthy?
I think that you can’t look at those large rallies (LA, etc.) and assume that the participants are here illegally. Some/many may not be citizens but they could be legally here and have all their paperwork in order. I don’t think I’ve seen any break down on the participants’ status. I’m not going to assume they’re all here illegally. Their big mistake, IMO, was flying the Mexican flag. It was a mistake because the media picked it up and replayed it often. I don’t know what percentage of the crowd did that. It could have been large or it could have been tiny. But it made those opposed to immigration irate at all the “ingrates”.
Does the group ‘M-E-X-I-C-A-N-S Without B-0-R-D-E-R-S’ ring a bell. Certainly doesn’t sound like an organization made up of American Citizens now does it! Anyone who marched with those folks, citizens or not, were advocating the intrusion into our sovereign borders without consequence. Enough said!
If several hundred Canadians had marched in PWC demanding their ‘rights’ I’m sure you’d be scratching your head as to what the heck are a bunch of people who aren’t even citizens doing marching in our streets. You’d probably tell them to get back on the bus and go back to Canada even though they were in this country legally. If you didn’t then you’d be the biggest do nothings that ever existed.
SA, using your logic, anyone associated with HSM or Letiecq belongs on SPLC’s list. Groups don’t have to be homogeneous in every respect. You post here. Are all the posters here the same? Don’t forget that you, Emma, Mando, and others are Anti-BVBL posters.
Oh gee. I thought I was Tom Kopko remember? Something that WHWN dreamed up and can’t let go of.
SA,
We aren’t Mexicans without Borders.
Tom, I know it’s you. And I think you probably know who I am as well.
The fact that you are ashamed of the things you’ve written as “Second Alamo” says a lot about the seed change we are seeing in the county. Not long ago, you were quite proud to attach your name to anti-immigrant talking points, many of which were racist. When you got outed, you didn’t deny it. You even confirmed it in a codified way.
Recently, your rhetoric is shifting. It no longer sounds like you. It sounds dumber than you, which is very clever. You sound like a caricature of an anti-immigrant clone. As if you are trying to create the impression there are more than a few still out there.
I can see why you are trying to do this. To defend Corey who sadly took your advice to use this issue for political purposes. I’ll bet you didn’t guess he’d still be campaigning on “Fighting Illegal Immigration” almost a year after his reelection … I didn’t either. I can also sympathize with your desire to defend your own failed strategy.
But the atmosphere has changed, and you’re embarrassed to own the racist stereotypes and assumptions you’ve written as Second Alamo. This is a good sign.
The public that is turning against racial scapegoating as a political tactic, yet you are dumbing down your comments instead of shifting them toward the middle where most of the party is going. All the more reason to separate your good name from Second Alamo.
SA, You do not know who was here legally and who was not. Furthermore, had our BOCS not passed a resolution which at that time, before its neutering job, was pretty far reaching, those people you are saying were illegal would not have risen up in the streets.
People don’t just rise up if things are going well. They do when they feel threatened.
I will agree with you that the name Mexicans Without Borders is off-putting. However, most of the marchers you complain about are not members of that organization. That organization was just the only voice many of our residents had.
Elena is correct. We are not Mexicans Without Borders.
WHWN,
I (not Tom Kopko) am not ashamed of one thing I have ever written on this blog. As a matter of fact I’m rather proud to stand up for the legal citizens of this country and all those who want to support this country instead of handing it over piece meal to whomever chooses to demand it from us. For people to spend so much time and effort supporting those whose only accomplishment is to steal across our borders is a waste of energy. There are also those who waste great deals of time supporting cold blooded murderers who are in prison facing the death sentence. I get the feeling that many here are of those type. They would rather rally around a hopeless case than support others who would become productive members of society. They refuse to clearly see any negative in anyone or their actions no matter how it may affect others. I believe that if you are going to support a group of people, then make damn sure that they deserve that support, because there are many poor US citizens who deserve our support and assistance FIRST before we turn our attention to illegals.
Escalation to where?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66rGjsla1cg&feature=related
Right. The problem is each time you deny it, you make it more obvious how desperate you are not to be held responsible for pages and pages of anti-immigrant comments, many of which are laced with prejudice.
I’m glad you see that. Really I am. You need to see it and acknowledge it and show some leadership in this party.
I know you are too smart not to realize that the ill-fated Immigration Resolution has not only affected the Hispanic community; it has affected the entire community, and quite drastically.
Our public safety, our local economy, our real estate market, the value of our homes, the tax revenue we take in, and the quality of life we are able to offer through our schools, roads, and human services have all been damaged tremendously by Stirrup’s Immigration Resolution, which was written for him by DC lobbyist who have no investment in this county’s future other than as a “laboratory or a field study” for anti-immigrant legislation.
This incredible waste of money and long-lasting stain on our reputation as a county was not necessary for Corey to win reelection.
You calculated that it was necessary to win the White House in 2008. Again, you were wrong. You panicked when the nation figured out Bush was a liar. But the voters didn’t panic. They rejected you anti-immigrant or nothing strategy because it was bad policy, as well as being racist and immoral.
Now, I know it wasn’t your idea alone. And no one could have predicted a nice guy like Corey would become so personally invested in this diseased agenda that a year later he’d still be wearing the blinders and yapping like some kind of auctioneer telling more lies per second than any man I’ve seen pick up a microphone.
You’re the one who started him on this shameless parade of lies. Again, it was not necessary to win that election. Now we have him going on tour with the Anti-Immigrant Lobby and “warning” John McCain that he isn’t anti-immigrant enough to win. The people in this region know what he has become. And he just won’t shut his mouth. He’ll be a liability until the day he is voted out of office.
Tom, are you ashamed or not ashamed? I’m getting confused here.
My God people! I swear to you I am NOT Tom Kopko. I’ve never met the person, and don’t know a thing about him. I’m getting the feeling though that there must be a lot of Tom Kopko well wishers in PWC. And NGL, can’t you read? I clearly stated I’m NOT ashamed of anything I’ve written. So you folks honestly believe that are communities were NOT going down hill prior to the Resolution? I saw Woodbridge rapidly turning into a third world bevy of street vendors and day labor hang outs with a side helping of good old MS-13 activity. That was a scary de-evolution process to observe, and by no means did I want to see my children having to grow up in a similar environment. If I wanted them to live in a Mexican border town I would have moved them to one!
“Even illegal immigrants are residents. ”
Maybe semantically. I don;t accept they have all the same rights or that they should. I think they have the right to be deported and that right supercedes any right to fill out satisfaction surveys.