Columnist George Will is of the opinion that Arizona’s police officers are capable of handling the task that the state’s draconian new anti-immigration law drops into their laps. That is to say, they must do a better job at enforcing illegal immigration statutes, without racial profiling, and do so effectively enough to not get sued. Will said:
Probably 30 percent of Arizona’s residents are Hispanic. Arizona police officers, like officers everywhere, have enough to do without being required to seek arrests by violating settled law with random stops of people who speak Spanish. In the practice of the complex and demanding craft of policing, good officers — the vast majority — routinely make nuanced judgments about when there is probable cause for acting on reasonable suspicions of illegality.
On the other hand, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who I am assuming is something of a master of the "complex and demanding craft of policing" seeing as how he’s been a policeman for over five decades, begs to differ. Per Amanda Terkel, Dupnik called the law "racist" and "disgusting" and "stupid" and, in his "nuanced judgment" could not be enforced without mandatory racial profiling. Dupnik’s reckoning of the legal issue is that he’s just as likely to be sued for racial profiling as he is for not doing enough racial profiling, so he’s standing pat, and will not enforce the new law.
Asked by local news station KGUN9 what he thought the solution to the law was, Dupnik replied, "The November election."
Pima County Sheriff Calls Arizona Law "Stupid," Will Not Enforce It (VIDEO)