H.4102, is Governor Patrick now in Favor of Profiling?

July 09, 2010

Since the beginning of Deval Patrick’s term as Governor here in the Commonwealth he has been touting the importance of his “Lawful Citizens Imprisonment Act.” The bill, H.4102, has been named that for some time as the main emphasis of the legislation is to imprison lawfully licensed citizens for exercising their civil rights.

With everything that is required of a citizen in Massachusetts to become a licensed gun owner and to actually purchase, take home, and store any kind of firearm (33 steps to accomplish that task), the Governor’s solution to crime is to put us in prison for doing it twice. This victimless, made up crime that is being proposed is bad enough, but does it represent a major policy shift for the Governor?

In his nearly four years in office, the Governor has given countless interviews regarding “profiling”. Just this past May when the state of Arizona passed a state law in an attempt to deal with the growing dangers on their border, Governor Patrick slammed Arizona for “profiling”. Most citizens in Arizona disagree with his opinion on the law, but the Governor insists it is bad law because it is a profiling law. Setting aside the debate over the Arizona law, let us take a closer look at Governor Patrick’s position on profiling.

In a May 11, 2010 Boston Globe Article by Michael Levenson it was stated:

Patrick said he appreciates public frustration about the lack of federal immigration reform but said Arizona’s law, which empowers police to arrest those suspected of being in the country illegally, is not the answer, because it raises "concern about profiling and about who gets swept up by the law."

 

The very next day in another article by the same reporter

 

Governor Deval Patrick yesterday blasted Arizona’s new immigration law, accused his gubernatorial opponents of grandstanding on the issue, and said supporters of such crackdowns were “trying to invent a villain for political purposes.’’

Just from these two articles alone, any logical person can establish that the Governor of the Commonwealth is vehemently against creating laws that profile certain groups of people because, as he says, they only “invent villains for political purposes”. Further, he is very concerned about innocent people who could get “swept up” by any such law.

Knowing the Governor’s public beliefs and concerns over profiling laws, the public needs to take another look at his own bill, H.4102. Again, the main emphasis in his proposal is to hold a certain group of innocent people suspect for the supposed actions of individuals. As such, his intentions are to place severe limitations on a designated group of innocent people and imprison them if they dare to stray outside of his arbitrary beliefs and standards he has determined for them.

The facts are clear and evident, the Governor has either quickly changed his mind on profiling or his beliefs are selective. In either case, it is quite clear to anyone who pays attention that the Governor’s “Lawful Citizen Imprisonment Act” is indeed a “profiling” bill.

 

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