AZ

[andysocial]

Originally published at BunkBlog. You can comment here or there.

Say you’re a Latino living in Arizona, who has a “contact” with the police.  They think you may be an illegal alien, and ask for your identification.  Turns out, there’s no law requiring any citizen to actually possess or carry identification with them.  What’s the next step for the police?

Oh, and by the way, police have always been allowed to check the immigration status of suspects, this just allows them to check the status of other people who have “contact” with the police.

Comments

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

I think not having ID for an illegal follows the same steps they would for a citizen without ID who has been asked to produce such a thing.

[andysocial]

I'm assuming this hypothetical person is a legal US citizen. Green card holders are required to have ID, but we citizens are not. So, how does one prove something when there's no requirement to have ID to begin with?

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

COMPUTERS!
It's not that tough.

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

Have you not ever been pulled over when you didn't have your license on you?

[andysocial]

No, I haven't.

As for "computers" - since there's no ID requirement for citizens, how would you know the person who is saying he's a citizen without ID is giving the police an accurate NAME to use for that computer search? Seems like a real difficult problem to me.

[evilegg.livejournal.com]

If you have any cop friends get them to pull you up in their computers. The ones in FL had all my DL pictures and every address I've lived at and the report related to an accident I was involved in. If a cop asked my name and I gave it and he saw my pic and it looked like me and I could varify an address or four he'd prolly believe it was me. if I had no utstanding warrants and had never been arrested for anything that resembled his original reason for stopping and asking me (like say I had an arson arrest and he stopped me in an area where an arson investigation was going on) then I would think he'd feel OK about my idetity and I'd be free to leave. FL cops can even pull up a record of everything you've pawned and who you are friends and family with if they are in the system. Cop computers have become like wikipedia. See if you area offers a Good Citizen class. It's enlightening to say the least.

[andysocial]

Wow. That's both amazingly cool and just a little bit creepy. Makes me glad to be a law-abiding citizen.

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

There is precedent for requiring a citizen to produce identification whether driving or RIDING on public roads. I had a video for awhile that showed a truck being pulled over, and the old drunk guy in the passenger seat being taken in because he refused to produce ID. Well, he was kinda belligerent, too, but not what I'd consider threatening.

[andysocial]

OK, stipulate that this Latino is walking down the street and the police talk to him about something. That counts as a "contact" for the AZ law, so now if he has a Cheech Marin accent, it's a reenactment of "Born in East L.A." hehe

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not saying it's right. The reason I held on to that video for so long is because it p*ssed me off.