Scary propaganda

NO on 6 is the website that obviously advocates against the proposition.
Unfortunately, the website does not contain crafty videos from an older nice man. In fact, it does not have any videos that would be neat to spread around.

I have thus resorted to trusty YouTube videos I found on google video search. I have found a few interesting ones, but the one that I enjoyed most was a video created by the South Bay Coalition. According to their website, the South Bay Coalition formed in 1987 in order to address substance abuse among youth in the South Bay. So while they endorse the movement against the act, they are not the actual No on 6 organization.

What I found so special about this two minute and thirty-three second video is that while I also thought it was as wonderful as the videos on the Safe Neighborhood website, it made an error that is unfair to the opposing team.

No On Prop 6 Commercial


First off, the music was not as great. When you watched the short videos on the Safe Neighborhood website, the music was a little funny and clearly intended to create happiness and fear. This new video did not match up, but this really isn’t the point. What I found misleading and a little freighting was the fact that the advertisement said that the proposition would deport illegal aliens.

The proposition is clear that illegal immigrants charged with a gang or violent crime will not be released on bail (as stated in the Official Voter Information Guide, available online at http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/argu-rebut/argu-rebutt6.htm). This means that everyone charged will be subject to a background check and this will then lead to the deportation of illegal immigrants.

This proposition does not specify any sort new form of retaining people based on their immigration status as I understood from the short clip. Still, I do not really understand how a person’s immigration status has anything with crime prevention and why it's even a part of this proposition in the first place.

So far there is no evidence that immigration status has a negative correlation with crime rate. In fact, economists Kristin F. Butcher and Anne Morrison Piehl found that immigrants (both legal and illegal) are far less likely to commit crime than those born in the United States (Boston Globe). The issue of immigration in this bill is then not appropriate and irrelevant for the purpose of maintaining safe neighborhoods. The intentions of this bill appear to be multiple, and that too is misleading. It assumes that illegal immigrants are directly related to violent crimes which is misleading and a deceptive manner of passing this bill.

While I do not approve of the South Bay Coalition video, I also do not find this portion of the bill necessary or important in any way relating to crime reduction.

South Bay Coalition
http://www.sbcoalition.com/

Jacoby, Jeff. "Immigration and crime." The Boston Globe March 5, 2008: A15.