Fox host Bill O’Reilly continued his efforts to link Arizona’s harsh immigration law to the non-existent immigrant crime wave. Last night (5/18/10), with Cathy Areu of Catalina magazine:
O’REILLY: OK, so you would just sit there and just status quo it? Status quo?
AREU: Immigration is down, actually, in Arizona. Status quo’s working beautifully.
O’REILLY: Down everywhere.
AREU: Well, crime is down and immigration is down. So, actually, things are better.
O’REILLY: Crime in Arizona is up. Immigration’s down because of the economy.
As we pointed in our Action Alert— and has been pointed out elsewhere by actual journalists–crime is down in Arizona.
Later in the segment:
AREU: El Paso is one of the safest cities in the United States.
O’REILLY: That’s a bunch of baloney.
If by “bunch of baloney” O’Reillymeans “true,” then he’s got a point. El Paso has long been one of the country’s safest big cities, a point made recently in the L.A. Times (5/13/10):
The Mexican border metropolis of Ciudad Juarez now has a higher murder rate than Baghdad as drug cartels battle for turf. Its neighbor on the U.S. side, El Paso, has long been one of the nation’s safest big cities, with more than 600,000 people. Last year it was ranked second-safest behind Honolulu.
“Life in El Paso is good,” said police spokesman Michael Baranyay, citing the one homicide the city has logged this year.
If you wantto help push O’Reilly to stop these slurs, sign FAIR’s petition to Fox.
Well, I couldn’t get the damn form to work – likely due to my use of an “internet appliance” – but here’s what I would have sent:
History is a repeating rifle.
This is the same sort of attempt at inciting fear and loathing that has historically greeted immigrants – recall “The Yellow Menace”.
Of course, with the exception of the folks who were already here, we’re all immigrants – and, of course, the white Europeans we hail as “freedom seekers” unleashed a tsunami of a crime wave of murder and destruction, and the folks making the deadly desert journey today do so to escape the crimes of the US gummint and corporations in their homelands.
So there is a crime wave – flowing in the other direction.
And hypocritical hatemongers like O’Reilly are the crime bosses’ mouthpieces.
I have no problem saying O’Reilly goes over board but this post is just misleading. Has crime dropped in Arizona? We aren’t sure from this post because they quote how life is good in El Paso Texas. Doesn’t El Paso have a wall?
Aren’t the people of Arizona responding to the lack of action by the federal government? BTW. I blame all the former administrations going back to Reagan.
O’Reilly is nothing but a hypocritical, egotistical blowhard. I wouldn’t waste my time watching his program.
Well, guynstl, the following is a direct quote from the post,
“As we pointed in our Action Alert– and has been pointed out elsewhere by actual journalists–crime is down in Arizona.”
Puny mortals, your feeble “facts” mean nothing before the power of THE O’REILLY FACTOR!
“I have no problem saying O’Reilly goes overboard but this post is just misleading.”
How is it misleading? It doesn’t claim to be the only source of information on the subject, and actually links to information detailing recent drops in crime in Arizona.
“Has crime dropped in Arizona?”
Yes, see above.
“Doesn’t El Paso have a wall?”
Not yet, though it does have lots of immigrants.
“Aren’t the people of Arizona responding to the lack of action by the federal government?”
No, they are responding to their own racist impulses and the fear-mongering of the likes of O’Reilly. The federal government detains and deports attempted unsanctioned border crossers all the time.