Saturday, July 31, 2010

POLITICS: Information Misinterpretation.

Despite what the title may make you believe, this won't really deal much with politics itself or the media. Yet both will be key players in this post, particularly because I will be mentioning a hotly-debated topic here.

So, I was discussing with a friend something about Arizona's proposed sb1070 immigration law that has been everywhere in the news. Anyway, this discussion went on after a judge blocked portions of the law from going into effect, one of which essentially read, "If an individual is stopped for a violation, and the officer has probable cause to believe the individual is an illegal immigrant, the officer may ask for papers" (poor summary, I know, but you get the idea). However, my friend interpreted that part of the law as meaning, "An officer may stop anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant."

Thus, I promised to look it up online. A Google search and several re-reads of a tightly-worded legal document later, I find that what I heard was correct, meaning a person had to be stopped for another violation before immigration status could be checked.

Admittedly, he wasn't concerned one way or the other, but I can imagine a simple interpretation like this being the focal point for someone who wouldn't ordinarily be concerned about the actual wording to go up-in-arms over a misinterpretation.

Definitely something to keep in mind, especially since there are rumors that even certain politicians didn't read the actual proposed-law in full before they decided whether or not to attack it.

For reference, look up the original text at www.azleg.gov. sb1070 is the original bill, and hb2162 is a revising of that bill (supposedly the revision came April 30th, which seems to be after it hit the media).

Best to study an issue at its source before deciding whether you support it or are against it, so as to avoid letting hysteria engulf your thinking first.

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