NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Don Lemon Encourages People of Color to Arm Up and Shoot ICE Agents.
“Black people, brown people of all stripes whether you’re Indian-American or Mexican-American or whoever you are, go out in your place where you live and get a gun legally. Get a license to carry legally. Because when you have people knocking on your door and taking you away without due process as a citizen, isn’t that what the Second Amendment was written for?
Go back and read what the Second Amendment says and perhaps it will knock some sense in the heads of these people who are saying, ‘Well it’s all great. I don’t believe they’re doing it without due process. They’re asking people for papers. They’re not really beating people up. These people are doing things that are illegal.’
Nobody is illegal. It is a misdemeanor to cross the border.
Flashback to January 10th, 2011:
[KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR]: Well, that was Arizona governor Jan Brewer answering a question about her state’s reputation. The shootings in Tucson Saturday definitely won’t help. We’ve seen big national issues like immigration, health care, gun laws, through the Arizona prism and much of the light has been very negative.
“The Arizona Republic” worries about it in an editorial, talking about the shooting right here, quote, “This incident will be used to stigmatize Arizona. It will fit into a narrative of the state as a place of hatred and rampant violence.” CNN’s Don Lemon has more on that negative narrative and how it all got started.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These words caused a firestorm.
CLARENCE W. DUPNIK, SHERIFF, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA: Arizona, I think, has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.
LEMON: The Pima County sheriff and Arizonians have had one bumpy year.
(CROWD SCREAMING)
LEMON: In August, the state enacted a highly controversial immigration policy, the toughest in the nation, requiring police to check the immigration status of people suspected of crimes or pulled over for driving infractions. Critics called it racial profiling, and the governor took heat for backing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does an illegal immigrant look like?
BREWER: I —
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does it look like me?
BREWER: I do not know.
LEMON: Even though Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ district borders Mexico, she strongly opposed the immigration law. But after she backed President Obama’s health care reform law, her Tucson office door was smashed.
Giffords’ support also earned her a spot on a list of lawmakers that Sarah Palin wanted ousted. Giffords’ district was marked on Palin’s website with crosshairs. She spoke about it in March on MSNBC.
REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS (R), ARIZONA: The thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.
Consequences aren’t much of a concern for Democratic Party operatives with bylines.