With a re-election coming up, Rick Perry is scrambling for a victory in November. Gov. Perry has decided to pander to the fringe in order to show he knows how to protect the Texas’ border. Last Thursday, as Gov. Perry signed the agreement that would officially allow the National Guard to set up shop in Texas, Perry decided he might as well add in his two cents. He announced the state would allocate an additional $5 million to a “virtual border watch program” which will be part of the state’s “Operation Rio Grande” program, the state-level program that is meant to detect, track and deter criminal activity, which is also part of another program, “Operation Linebacker.” A program that was started by the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition.
Gov. Rick Perry vowed Thursday to counter rising border violence, drug activity and illegal migrant crossings by placing a “virtual” wall of Web cameras on ranch land in South Texas.
These cameras will not just be placed in any ole public spot, they will be placed on private property and neither the state or the property owner will monitor the cameras. This will be left up to the public. In other words, somebody in Maine can be part of the team to fortify the border.
Perry said the state would pay $5 million for a Virtual Border Watch Program, installing hundreds of surveillance cameras with the permission of farmers and ranchers who own land along the border. The first cameras are expected to begin transmission in the next 30 days.
The cameras, he said, will be placed in known hot spots for criminal activity. They will be equipped with night vision and will not be placed in neighborhoods where families expect privacy, Perry said.
Landowners, neighbors and state, local and federal law enforcement agencies will be able to monitor the cameras 24 hours a day. An 800 number will route reports of crimes caught on camera to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
“Landowners will be able to monitor and defend their property from those who might endanger their families,” Perry said.
Bill Lovelady owns a 1,000-acre cotton farm along the border in Tornillo, and migrants used to trek through his fields daily.
He welcomed Perry’s surveillance plan and said he would be willing to have a camera on his land.
This program not only is a waste of money, which could go to better use, say health care, since Texas ranks high on the number of uninsured. But that doesn’t seem to matter to the Texas GOP. This nothing more than the MinuteKlans’ dream come true – open season on immigrants.
In Texas, allowing wingnuts to play with their toys is nothing but trouble. But what Perry has done is give every Cheeto eating member of 101st Fighting Keyboarders more reason to sit on their lazy fat asses and monitor their computer screens playing border patrol while they call in the location to every member of the all-American MinuteKlan. Think Gilcrest and his Klan are morally balanced? Think again. Their view on morality and humanity is nothing but outright biogottry and those who defend are either a fool or down right racist themselves. More frightening, Texas allows the use of deadly force to defend property. Texas law (secs. 9.41-9.43), allows any rancher (and any property owner) the right to use deadly force to defend both their property and their neighbors’ property. Any person who actually thinks each rich white rancher is actually patrolling their own grounds better have wake up from their utopian fantasy world. They have somebody else do their dirty work from them, just like their counter-parts in Arizona. They have contracted with the Minutemen to do it for them.
Members of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps can continue patrolling on state trust lands without permits because they’ve been invited by ranchers leasing the land and agreed to do ranch work…
It doesn’t matter if the Southern Poverty Law Center has provided evidence that the Minutemen are connected to racist, White Supremacist groups. As long as these jackbooted neo-Nazi wingnuts have taken care of the “problem” the only problem that exist cover with bullets.
Think they would even shed a tear as one of their neo-Nazi henchmen brutally kills Juan, their favorite ranch hand, in cold blood? Not chance! A spic is a dime a dozen for these rich white bastards. And how will theses rich white racist ranchers explain it to the authorities? The answer obvious, – all Mexicans look the same, so it must have been an “illegal.”
Perry claims to be a friend to the Hispanic community, well, friends like him – who the fuck needs enemies.
