North Carolina Sheriff Spouts Off About “Mexicans” to the Media

September 18th, 2008

In a recent article in Raleigh's The News & Observer, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell was quoted calling Mexicans "trashy," accusing Latinos of "breeding like rabbits," and stating, "When people think about illegal Mexicans, you know the first thing they think of?  Driving drunk and shooting."

These are just snippets from Bizzell's interview.  It's difficult to decide what's worse:

• That Bizzell had absolutely no problem engaging in massive stereotyping and Latino-bashing for days on end in front of a reporter?.
• That Bizzell clearly doesn't know, is deliberately ignoring, or is blatantly fibbing about an important fact-that crime rates in his county have actually gone down since immigrants have been migrating to the area. According to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the rate of violent crime has dropped by half, and property crimes have also fallen.
• Or that every possible rationale for Bizzell's statements is disturbing. He either actually believes what he is saying or he is pandering to voters. Either way, he is stoking intolerance and hatred against a group of his constituents (11% of them, in fact) in a state already experiencing the consequences of anti-immigrant sentiment.

Most astonishingly, Bizzell claims at the end of the article that he wanted to "build trust" in the growing immigrant community.  Way to outreach, Steve.

You can read the full story here:  http://www.newsobserver.com/news/immigration/story/1209646.html