B-rock's recent visit to Mesa garnered loads of local coverage, some of which mentioned those who showed up to protest the President's stimulus package. But not much was said of the more than 100 there demanding that Obama do something about Sheriff Joe Arpaio's misuse of the federal government's 287(g) program, as well as Arpaio's persistent violations of individuals' civil and human rights.
Fortunately, Dennis Gilman was in Mesa with his camera, and produced this mini-documentary of those demonstrating outside of Dobson High School. This one starts out a little slow, but I urge you to stick with it, because there's some good stuff in there, especially the clips Gilman culled from Obama's presidential campaign, where he criticizes the nativists and urges justice and common sense for the 12 million-plus undocumented in the U.S.
The demonstrators are appealing to the better angels of Obama's nature, to borrow a line from another great Prez from Illinois. I'm glad that the pro-immigrant side of things realizes the need to pressure friends as well as enemies when it comes to Arpaio's rampant abuses of power.
