Despite the fact that District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton ripped out most of SB 1070's spine on July 28, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's still doing his anti-Hispanic dragnets. And if other law enforcement agencies in Sand Land don't have the carte blanche they would have had under an un-enjoined 1070, this recent video of a Tucson Police Department turnover to the U.S. Border Patrol demonstrates that Latinos are still being pulled over and transferred to federal gendarmes.
Plus, 1070 remains very much alive, kind of like Jason in the Friday the 13th film series. Just can't kill that monster, even when you lop off crucial body parts.
Which is one reason the California non-profit Brave New Foundation has just put up this billboard at Camelback Road and Third Street, near by SunUp Brewery, on the north side of the street.
I've yet to swing by and eyeball it myself, as it was posted this morning, but BNF sent along the above pic, and folks are telling me they've already driven past the stark message, which reads, "Have your papers ready -- Racial profiling just ahead."
BFN's communications director Martha de Hoyos tells me the ad cost around $4,000, and will be up for around four weeks. After that, BFN will decide whether or not to maintain the billboard.
BFN is a non-profit producer of social justice films, headed up by Robert Greenwald, the maker of such documentaries as Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.
De Hoyos says the billboard was designed and funded through BFN's project Cuentame, which has close to 40,000 members on Facebook.
Kudos to BFN and Cuentame on the billboard. Not only will it get drivers thinking, it's also sure to tick off the nativists in town. You know like neo-Nazi hugging state Senator Russell Pearce, SB 1070's primary pimp. And that alone is worth the some $4K spent.
