Readshaw teams up with Metcalfe and the brownshirts

Alfonso Barquera of Beechview has lived in Pittsburgh for over 10 years. Mr. Barquera is originally from Mexico. Last June, he was riding in a car driven by a woman who was also from Latin America and who had an international driver's license. The Pittsburgh cops pulled them over on the North Side and proceeded to berate the occupants of the car as "illegals," even though all of the passengers were in the country legally.

Even if you think that US immigration law as it stands is something good, needing only tougher enforcement -- in which case you don't know what the hell you're talking about, but that's for another day -- then you still have to recognize that empowering local police departments to enforce Federal immigration law is a recipe for racial profiling. That is what Hazleton mayor Lou Barletta's measures have done. Barletta's ordinance targeted undocumented immigrants by making it a local offense to rent to them or hire them. In reality, while Barletta's White Citizens Council-style "respectable" racism did in fact make life even more difficult for Luzerne County's thousands of undocumented agricultural and other workers from Mexico and other locations, it also led to the racial profiling and targeting of (1) Puerto Ricans, who are numerous in the Hazleton area, and who are US citizens; and (2) Dominicans of longstanding residence in the area, most of whom are in the country legally and many of whom have long since become citizens. This effect of Barletta's actions was entirely predictable, and we can only conclude that it was intentional, since Barletta is eager to stomp on brown bodies if it means he gets a shot at Congress.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl -- along with the mayors of York, Lancaster, Meadville, Titusville, Allentown, Lock Haven, and Scranton -- announced last June that immigration enforcement at the local level is inappropriate, and opposed local anti-immigration ordinances. It turns out that there are a lot of places, even in remote parts of the state, where the local mayor deems it sensible not to dress up in a white sheet.

But leave it to the worst member of the legislature to put a stop to that. Daryle Metcalfe (of Cranberry) has long been on an anti-immigrant rampage, including the release of a lurid Julius Streicher-style propaganda piece about an "illegal alien invasion," complete with a map of the state with color-coded "alien" footprints marking the scene of supposed crimes perpetrated by the Brown Peril. Today, he added a new front to his one-sided race war by introducing two new bills targeting so-called "sanctuary" municipalities. Both bills would target any municipality that adopts "ordinances, policies or procedures" that restrict cops or other municipal employees from tracking people's immigration status or from asking individuals about their status, as well as any municipality that provides "public benefits" to "unauthorized aliens." One of these bills (HB 2627) would make any such municipality liable to pay damages if any undocumented immigrant living in the municipality is convicted of a crime. The other bill (HB 2628) would withold Commonwealth appropriations to any designated "sanctuary" municipality.

One hopes that neither of these bills has a chance of passage, although it should be noted that Harry Readshaw of Carrick is the token Democrat on Metcalfe's press release. Some of Readshaw's more progressive-minded constituents might want to pay a visit to his office at 1917 Brownsville Road, or at least should be advised that his local number is (412) 881-4208 and his Harrisburg number is (717) 783-0411, if they're wondering why he's giving "bipartisan" cover to Metcalfe's racist stunts.












Harry Readshaw: What the hell is he doing?


In Allegheny County, Mark Mustio of Moon is also on these bills, and while it's understandable to expect this sort of thing from a suburban Republican shitbag like him as opposed to a city Democrat like Readshaw, it is of some interest that Mustio keeps offices at 937 Beaver Grade Road in Moon Township (phone 412-262-3780) and 519 Broad Street in Sewickley (phone 412-749-4727), and that his Harrisburg phone number is (717) 787-6651.

Do these guys realize who they're consorting with? We know who Metcalfe hangs out with, because the "respectable" White Citizens Council or "uptown Klan" always had an alliance with its grubbier counterparts, and Metcalfe carries on that tradition. For proof, you can have a look at some photos posted on Flickr by a DC-based alternative photojournalist. The photos were taken at an anti-immigrant rally last September 1 put on by an organization from Lou Barletta's Hazleton. Metcalfe was one of the featured speakers at the rally:

























There are a few photos in the set of some honorable union-backed counterprotestors and people like Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the One People's Project who were there to document the presence of hate groups. But the following photo of the rally says it all:
















Just about everyone in this photo is readily identifable as a neo-Nazi skinhead. (There are also some Ron Paul supporters, and of course there is a good deal of overlap there.) There is one guy near the left edge and in the back who has long hair, but he is wearing a black T-shirt with the number "88," which is widely-recognized white supremacist code for "Heil Hitler" (since H is the eighth letter of the alphabet). The people up front are holding signs saying "End Slavery - Deport Mexicans," and which advertise a website called newsnet14.com, where the 14 obviously refers to the "14 words" of David Lane, the leader of a group called The Order, which assassinated Denver radio talk show host Alan Berg in 1984. (Lane's "14 words," in case you're wondering, are "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children.") If you actually go to newsnet14.com, it describes itself as "Global and Local News for Europeans Everywhere," and declares as part of its principles that "Our Race is Our Nation"; among its "featured videos" is "Did 6 Million Really Die?" referring to the Holocaust (and in case you're wondering, they answer No).

These are the people Daryl Metcalfe hangs out with. Do you want your state legislator hanging out with him?