ACLU probes NC sheriff who said Hispanics "trashy"

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: AP

A civil rights group said Tuesday it will investigate a North Carolina sheriff's office for possible racial profiling after the sheriff said in published comments that "Mexicans are trashy," and later apologized for making broad statements.

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina said its first step was to file a public records request with the Johnston County Sheriff's Office for documents of traffic checkpoints and arrests. The group wants the paperwork by Sept. 19.
Executive Director Jennifer Rudinger said the request seeks county arrest records since January 2004, jail records, and documents from traffic checkpoints. Eight other groups also joined in the request.

The action comes after Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell apologized for comments he made in an article published Sunday in The News & Observer of Raleigh. Bizzell didn't respond immediately to messages left at his office Tuesday.

In the article, the newspaper said Bizzell drove slowly through a neighborhood, pointing out piles of garbage and cars with no license plates and remarking, "Mexicans are trashy." He was quoted as saying illegal immigrants living in his county were "breeding like rabbits" and spreading a culture of drunkenness and violence.



Read more: http://www.fayobserver.com/article_ap?id=129367

[firedupdem]

1. Come on Sheriff!

You can't spout off the stuff you discuss at your dinner table to reporters! What an ass!

[hedgehog]

2. Yes, but are they white trashy, trailer trashy, or what? Be specific, sheriff!

:sarcasm:

[bowens43]

3. This is my county , take the bastard out!!! nt

[offog]

4. Kinda creepy, eh?

Every once in awhile conservatives show their true colors. What's really scary is that Bizzell made these remarks casually, off-the-cuff, as if everybody thinks that way. In Canada, the racism is mostly against the Aboriginals. I've heard casual racist remarks from people that I had considered to be relatively okay. Eg. "He's a pretty good guy for an Indian." Once, back around 1987, I was talking with a boss about a report in the news that Saskatchewan has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Canada. He said something about how it's because of all those Indian girls.

[TalkingDog]

8. In a B&B in England once and was at the table with

a woman from Australia who had lived in the US for a bit and was appalled when I noted that Johnson wanted to create a separate state out of the Appalachian region. Ostensibly in order to provide aide to one of the more poverty stricken regions of the US.

She looked disgusted and said, "Wouldn't that increase the inbreeding?"

This was after her pronouncement that the "hillbillies" from Ohio were ignorant, illiterate and, well, practically Neanderthals. Hell, I didn't even know Ohio had hillbillies.

I replied, "Well, inbreeding was good enough for Egyptian Royalty and seems to be good enough for the British Monarchy. Based on that, I'm not sure I see the problem."

I was boiling mad, but held my public tongue beyond that snark.

Later, I went to her room and told her the difference between a bigoted asshole who suggests that all people from Appalachia are backward, inbred "hillbillies" and a bigoted asshole who freely calls a black person a "n*****" is that the latter at least has the comfort of being able to check to see if the subject of their bias is at hand.

Major hatin' on the bigots....

[provis99]

12. Saskatchewan is the Mississippi of Canada

In Nova Scotia, they beat on the blacks, in B.C. and Alberta, its the Asians. Racism is worldwide.

[Lost-in-FL]

5. Breeding like rabbits?

Spreading a culture of drunkness and violence?

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/12/12/sydney_riots_wideweb__470x313,0.jpg
http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5316304,00.jpg

[RedLetterRev]

6. Usually NC is a pretty progressive place

but every once in a while, some bubba rears his ignernt head and reminds me that my home state still needs some work. (sigh) No place is perfect, and I've been in a lot worse. But this one could still be better. Unfortunately, most of the idiots we've got left somehow made it into positions of being sheriffs. To wit: the NC Sheriffs Association is supporting Biddy Dole. That tells you a lot right there. Sad, idnit, when we take the least educated, least motivated segment of the population -- and give them a badge and a gun.

[mattfromnossa]

9. It is very sad

Sad, idnit, when we take the least educated, least motivated segment of the population -- and give them a badge and a gun.

Unfortunately, that is par for the course in my neck of the woods.

[yellowcanine]

7. Kind of like those trashy Irish immigrants the latter half of the 19th century?

I remember my mother telling my brother to pick up the front yard because it looked too "Irish". Now where do you think my sweet German Swiss mother got a notion like that?

[Festivito]

10. Pretty darn accurate projection, if you ask me.

A clean uniform on that guy is like lipstick on a pig.

[alstephenson]

11. Ha! Sheriff Joe will be jealous...

of all the attention Sheriff Bizzell is getting! Bizzell sounds bad, but he's nothing compared to Sheriff Joe and his racist profiling here in Maricopa County (Arizona).