By Dennis Austin

Midtown Reporter

The new Arizona immigration law is not getting a fair shake.

MSNBC’s conservative host Joe Scarborough calls it “un- American,” while liberal colleague Keith Olbermann said the legislation is “racist.”

Fox News host Mike Huckabee calls it “misguided”.

President Barack Obama said getting ice cream could be a hassle.

The fact our government cannot tackle this crisis is un-American.

A person does not need papers for proof of identification, and Arizona’s newest approach is not misguided, but tackles a large threat to our national security.

Due to our national security, illegal immigration is a serious threat. According to the Justice Department’s latest National Drug Threat Assessment says there were 267 kidnappings last year and 299 in 2008. The report mentions most of these crimes have a connection to immigrant smuggling groups or drug trafficking.

The report also stated that assaults against Southwestern U.S. law enforcement are on the rise. Amazingly, 1,097 Border Patrol agents (more than three a day) were attacked in fiscal 2008.

National security is needed for citizens and officers alike, but that has not stopped political pundits from maligning the bill.

Olbermann was way off saying it would poison Americans with the debilitating effects of racial profiling. The bill itself states, “Race, religion, or sex will not be a factor in determining one’s immigration status.” Keith, what are you talking about?

To the subject of ice cream, President Obama exclaimed a not so sweet scenario.

“Now suddenly, if you don’t have your papers, and you took your kid out to get some ice cream, you’re going to get harassed— that’s something that could potentially happen,” Obama said to a crowd in Ottumwa, Ohio. “That’s not the right way to go.”

If only it was true, Barack…If only it was true.

Here is the bottom line. Citizens are not required to carry their papers. As stated under federal law, the only citizens required to carry papers are those lacking legal presence in this country.

Though, if one is a legal citizen of the state, carrying papers is not required. One can get some ice cream for his or her kid, but if it turns out he or she is not here legally, ‘Bye Bye Baskin Robbins’ and ‘Hello ICE’ (Immigration Customs Enforcement)

Another lie notoriously mentioned throughout this whole ordeal is probable cause. The media spews this as a police officer has power to arrest and possibly deport a citizen if he or she suspects the citizen as an illegal alien without any evidence needed.

Wrong.

As my mother always told me, ‘Dennis, don’t believe the hype.’ Now I am saying this. ‘Readers, don’t believe the hype.’

The only probable cause an officer has to determine one’s immigration status is by previous unlawful contact such as running a stop/red light, speeding, robbery, murder, etc.

So if Alex, a Latino male, was driving 40 mph in an 80-mph lane, he would be pulled over and required to show his proof of identification, such as a drivers’ license, proof of insurance, and or state ID.

If he fails to present those documents, he would be taken downtown as authorities check his immigration status. If after going through that process and everything turned out right, Alex can go home and have fun. But if it turned a different direction, the police would be flaggin’ him a cab back to the nearest deportation center.

Now that we cleared that up, this is the biggest load of bull both

Democrats and Republicans have done to spin Arizona Gov. Jan Brewers proposal to confront the growing threat of illegal immigration.

Liberals are pointing out conservatives as racists and bigoted because they perceive this law to be unfair and unjust to those of Mexican and Latino descent. And the conservatives are supporting the opposition of S.B 1070 because they want to seem more diverse and to erase years of false claims of racism.

Sadly, our politicians are appealing more, governing less. They worry about how to appease the Latino community than about our national security.

Listening to everybody is important, but if their argument is only based on inaccurate talking points and presidential ignorance, does it mean anything?

No.

Which is why our politicians should look out for our national security instead of suppressing this reasonable legislation.

BUCKTOWN—Three officers specializing in gang activity from the Chicago Police Department paid a visit to the Journalism Apprentices July 6 at Midtown Education Center.

Danny Rojas, Ronny Rodriguez, and Scott Morrison talked about Chicago gang violence and how they functioned.

“Gangs are everywhere,” Morrison said.

Scott Morrison talks to student Rajeem Muhammad

The officers said Chicago gangs are on the streets doing illegal activity for profit. One of these activities is selling drugs.

Drugs, playing a big role in a gang affiliation, the police officers revealed. Taking drug dealers and their paraphernalia off the street is major goal of the gang task force.

On November 2008, Rodriguez said his biggest drug bust in his career was from Texas, holding 20 kilos of cocaine. Each brick-sized kilo was worth $31,500 and added up to $630, 000.

If a gang member has drug money, he is perceived as powerful. Gangs today seem to notice that very well, because drugs generate fast revenue.

Gang recruitment is sinister, Morrison said. The older men in the gangs have to find young blood to follow their ways.

“Older guys are charismatic in the wrong way,” Morrison said.

Morrison said a charismatic mentor is how most young guys find themselves in the actual gang. Mind games can also fall into this charismatic attitude. The older men may promise them things they may never have. The younger guys then think they will gain those things. That is how the recruits begin to believe the older men.

Even though the city is already working on putting up a law that restricts one handgun per person per residence, there are many ways to get guns. Rodriguez said it is easier for gang members to get hold of guns than residents.

“Bad guys will have guns anyway,” Rodriguez said.

Gangs have “hook ups” which gives them an advantage to the things they want. Two resources are guns and drugs. Gangs have the easy ways of obtaining them to increase their power.

Derrion Albert, who was beaten to death in the middle of a gang fight right outside Fenger High School, The guy was 16-years-old in his sophomore year.

News reports show there was a cop car with two officers watching the whole thing and not doing anything. The officers said most likely the cops waiting for back up, but if they would have done something earlier, they might have prevented Albert’s death.

Rojas said the Chicago police could also learn from the tragedy and hopefully prevent it from happening again.

By Andrew Avalos

As the first draft pick in 2003 he is now reunited with his top draft class picks with Dwayne Wade, who was the fifth draft pick, and Chris Bosh, who was the fourth draft pick. What if LeBron thought, “Hey, I’m going to go with my buddy’s in Miami to play”? That doesn’t seem too bad because that was his final decision on July 8^th, 2010 but what if he knew this since he lost against the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs? He built up all this hype the past few months just to tell us an answer that he already decided behind his fans backs, then used his answer for publicity. But, the truth is, he didn’t even know where he was going until probably Monday of that week because there was a lot to consider.

This free agent period was one of the biggest in the history of the NBA, even Michael Jordan wouldn’t have created this much hype, and any team who was after LeBron James and didn’t get him would have been mad. So why should Cleveland feel the most pain and not the Bulls or the Knicks? Well, besides the fact that the Cavaliers have been with LeBron since the beginning of his career, Cleveland has absolutely no hope of winning now that their player that has carried them is gone. In retaliation to where LeBron is signing some Cleveland fans burned his jersey and the president of he Cavaliers made a reckless promise, to win a championship before LeBron. But yet they still say this hate is because Lebron knew where he was going and decided to hurt his fans in the process, but how did LeBron know Bosh and Wade were going to sign with each other, or if they were going to sign with Miami? He didn’t so why say that’s the reason you hate him? The truth is because an organization will crumble at the hands of its cornerstone, no it’s whole team.

Although he might have been thinking of going to a different team for the past year he had to consider a few things that he might not have known before that the people of different cities brought up, like can he share the ball with two other all-stars? What if it doesn’t work? One of the most recent problems, what if their roster isn’t filled and one of their players gets injured? This will most likely happen to Dwayne Wade because he is the most injury prone since he missed all of 2007 due to injuries, so LeBron had to consider that with no backup. He had to make his own decision and invest time in his thought, plus he had to think if he got less money. Of course he isn’t because he is getting an estimated ninety-six million for five years but he would have had more money with Cleveland, so he had to be deep in thought of where to go.

What was he suppose to do? Play for all the teams that were in the running for him for all his life? He had to pick a team to play with and he wanted to win a championship to prove he is one of the best to step foot on the court. He could have gone to The Bulls where the team is young and very talented but had to be compared to Michael Jordan for everything he does on and off the court. If he were to go to any other team that had cap room there it would have taken to long to get a championship. He wants to be able to win now and in the future to be said to be the new G.O.A.T, Greatest of All Time.

By Alexander Murillo

Midtown Voices Reporter

BUCKTOWN—Three police officers, Scott Morrison, Ronny Rodriguez and Danny Rojas held a press conference with the Midtown Education Center journalism class July 6.

They shared their experiences dealing with Chicago’s street gangs, drug traffickers and negative media attention.

First, the officers described gangs and their differences. Interestingly, gangs are not the same. Gang culture is usually dictated by race.

Morrison & Rodriguez explaining the life of a gang specialist

“It’s a different culture between Hispanic, African-American, or any other diverse gang,” Morrison said. “The Hispanic gangs just do it for the sake of gangbanging, as opposed to African-American gangs, who seem to be in it just for the money.”

Rodriguez went on to explain how not all gang members are “recruited.”

“Some kids are born into this life,” Rodriguez said. “They could have parents or older brothers in the gang life.”

Many people wonder exactly who leads these gangs and how are they structured? But more importantly, what is the police department doing about it? Rodriguez would explain these questions went hand-in-hand.

“The older guys are typically the ones in charge,” Rodriguez said. “They manipulate the younger guys who are out to make a name for themselves on the street. That’s why we go after the leaders. I believe that if you cut off the head the body will fall.”

Dismantling gangs is a good strategy, Morrison said, but it takes significant work to determine the leaders.

“We have informants all over the place!” Morrison said enthusiastically. “We have guys who will rat out their moms and dads, they’re getting paid for what they do.” It does seem a bit brutal, but the officers said they must do whatever it takes to keep the city safe.

With Chicago’s new gun laws, guns are more likely to be found in the common household. This means gangs will have access to more guns.

“Bad guys are always going to have guns,” Morrison said. “I think it’s going to be the same.”

But Rojas could beg to differ.

“You’re going to have guys who don’t necessarily have a ‘killer mentality’ pulling out guns on a guy who’s trying to rob them of their twenty bucks,” Rojas said. “Now he’s going to start a shoot-out with a criminal where eight out of ten times he’s going to lose.” Lately, there have been many media comments that the police are not doing their jobs well.

“Policemen are becoming afraid to do their jobs for fear of suspension,” Rodriguez said. “If we were on the verge of a bust and we make a mistake, the media gets on us.”

“A lot of times, the media just does what it takes to make a story,” Rojas exclaimed.

“Today, everyone is talking about thirty-six CPS students being killed a year. But the numbers haven’t changed in the past twenty years.

“The media just figured out that they can make a story by calling them ‘students’ rather than teenagers or gang members. Kids shot three years ago weren’t called high school students.”

Citizens have also been complaining that police officers are never around when violence breaks out in a neighborhood.

“Well, these past years, we have been short three or four thousand cops due to lack of funds,” Morrison said.

This may lead others to believe citizen tax dollars may not be used for all the right reasons.

The whole idea of a lack of police men leads city residents to question exactly how bad gangs have become, Rodriguez added.

“I remember a bust a while back,” he said. “We busted a car owned by the Four Corner Hustlers, which had a Rocket Propelled Grenade in the trunk… In another car bust, we found twenty brick sized kilos of cocaine coming in from Texas.”

According to Rodriguez, a kilo (about two pounds) is worth $31,500.

As the war on gangs wages on and Chicago schools struggle to encourage children to avoid gang affiliation, Chicago police officers struggle to keep gangs under

control without the media hindering their work.

–Thursday July 15, 2010, 18 Midtown Journalists visited the Chicago Tribune offices and attended an editorial board meeting. – A. Murillo

‘A War Out Here’

Three of Chicago’s finest, shot to death in the space of two months. This time it was Officer Michael Bailey, a 20-year veteran just weeks shy of retirement, gunned down in front of his Park Manor home while shining up his new Buick Regal with a bottle of Windex.

Check out Midtown’s special report on the dropout problem in Chicago schools!

The owner of Felony Franks a hot dog stand on the West side is giving the opportunity to ex-felons to get jobs.

Pilsen is full of great public art–murals. Check it out!