Scum Bucket of the Week: Meet Arizona Lawmaker Russell Pearce

By now everyone has heard of the crazy law that just passed in Arizona, SB 1070. This is the new Apartheid-like, anti-immigration law that allows police to stop you on the suspicion of not being a citizen and check for proof that you are not undocumented. Many in the Grand Canyon state fear this will lead to increased racial profiling with anyone having brown skin bearing the full brunt of this new law.

Now most people think of Arizona's controversial sheriff Joe Arpaio when it comes to stiff crackdowns on undocumented people. He's been more than outspoken and was so zealous that the department of Homeland security suspended him from participating in the Feds 287G program which allowed local law enforcement to work with and as ICE agents.

Arpaio was defiant and basically gave a middle finger to DHS and announced that he would continue to smash on folks. If anything, he said life would be easier because he wouldn't have to fill out paperwork...

So everyone knows Joe Arpaio. He's the public face for Arizona's over-the-top racist policies. Who is not as well known nationally but neverthelss just as insidious is former deputy Sheriff turned lawmaker Russell Pearce. He's the man who sponsored SB 1070 and as folks in Arizona will let you know he's a 'piece of work'.

Pearce was long rumored to be down with White Supremacist organizations. It was a charge he denied until 2006 when he 'accidentally' sent a letter from the supremacist National Alliance. The letter smashed on Jews in the media and lambasted interracial couples and race mixing. Pearce disavowed the letter. He said he had not read the contents and only skimmed the title.

One would think that Pearce after this incident would've learned his lesson and stayed far away from those types of racist people but sadly he didn't. A year or so later Pearce aligned himself and gave support to a man named J.T. Ready a man running for office with strong and very open Neo Nazi ties...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsHi6_l1XzA

If that wasn't enough, Pearce found himself embroiled in another controversy in 2008 when he sponsored SB 1108 that would prohibit students on Arizona schools from forming groups that were based in whole or in part on their race. This meant he was coming after Black student unions, Mexican American Studies program, La Raza, MeCHA, Asian Student Union etc.

It didn't matter to him, that by law none of these groups could or did discrimnate against anyone, and in fact many of these aformentioned groups have long had members from a variety of backgrounds. Many of these organizations formed as support groups and allowed folks to highlight aspects of their respective cultures.

That rationale irked Pearce who also in that bill sought to do what is being done now in Texas except on steroids. He wanted to make sure Arizona public schools would be barred from any teachings considered counter to democracy or Western civilization.

One of the provisions read; "A primary purpose of public education is to inculcate values of American citizenship. Public tax dollars used in public schools should not be used to denigrate American values and the teachings of Western Civilization."

Pearse felt that folks needed to adopt so called "American values" and if folks wanted a different culture they could leave and go back to that culture.

This is the man behind the recently passed SB 1070 the Anti-Immigration Bill in Arizona...He'd be a true American if he'd been around during slave times. Today he's a scum bucket... May you be voted out of office next election.