"Stop Hate. No SB 1070. No 287g."
Phoenix, AZ. July 28, 2010.
Hours before the Arizona racial profiling law, sb 1070, is to go into effect, a group calling itself "Stop the Hate" scaled a construction crane in downtown Phoenix in order to display their message. The group of four unfurled a banner that says "Stop Hate. No SB 1070. No 287g." Two of the people hung hundreds of feet in the air hanging from the banner.
The group shared this statement:
"SB 1070 and the federal program 287g are hateful laws. President Obama has the power to immediately stop them both.
We came to Arizona to support those at the epicenter of one of the largest human rights crises of our time. We join Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Cardinal Mahoney, and an outraged global community in denouncing SB 1070 in its entirety.
We know a partial injunction is not a solution for the people already living under Sheriff Arpaio's terror, the day laborers who will be treated as criminals, or the communities soon to see their police enforcing immigration laws.
We say 'stop hate' because SB 1070 is not immigration policy. Like the experience of the Irish, Italian, Chinese or others, SB 1070 is simply scapegoating and targeting of the most vulnerable among us in these uncertain times; times that should call us to stand together as a people. Within days of SB 1070 passing, we witnessed vicious hate crimes against Latinos in the Southwest. We know that hateful laws legitimize hateful acts and that tolerating their passage signals a dangerous direction for the country.
We call on President Obama to do more than sue the state. Actions speak louder than lawyers. President Obama could solve the human rights crisis in Arizona with the stroke of a pen. Obama's 287g program is what gave birth to the monster in Arizona he is now trying to slay. Stopping the hate means not just stopping SB 1070 and Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona but stopping all the Arpaios that the president's ice access program is creating all across the country."
more photos can be found at http://bit.ly/azbannerdrop