The city of Boulder, it seems, is not immune to the rampant hypocrisy that infects the rest of Colorado, the self proclaimed Rocky Mountain Empire.
Last week, Boulder officials asked the city's Human Relations Commission to draft a resolution condemning Arizona's illegal immigration law. According to an article written for the Daily Camera by Heath Urge, the commission stated that Arizona's law threatens the, ''basic notions of decency, justice and fairness.''
The resolution continues by saying that Boulder, in contrast to Arizona, is ''committed to the protection of civil rights for all people '' and that the city, ''firmly adheres to the principle that no law enforcement agency or other city agency may profile, harass, or discriminate against any person.” Boulder's stance on civil liberty is commendable - too bad they don't practice the civil liberty that they preach.
The same week city officials were lecturing Arizona, they were making their own plans to search all bags and coolers - and by default persons, entering public spaces during the July Forth weekend. Steve Mertz, a city spokesman said, “If you don't want to be searched, you cannot come in.” Does Mert’s comment and Boulder's policy sound similar to Arizona's - if you don't want to show your papers and be harassed, don't come to Arizona?
The Boulder chapter of the ACLU protested the city’s policy and stated, “Invoking ‘public safety’ to justify the suspicion-less search of all bags and coolers in Boulder mountain parks and open space for contraband...is contrary to the language and spirit of the Bill of Rights.'' The ACLU contends that, “The vast majority of people who go onto this space are going to be bringing their cooler - will (the city) select out those people who look like they might be firework carriers?”
My guess, and state arrest records show, that the majority of those who will be searched by Boulder's mostly white police force and city officials will be minorities; blacks and Hispanics who look ''suspicious'' because they ''look'' different than everyone else in the white community.
The people and politicians of Arizona are biased and bigoted, there is no question, but at least they don't hide their bigotry behind hollow self-righteous hypocritical condemnation like the city of Boulder and most of Colorado. I would much rather be told to my face that I am hated than to find out when I take my family for a picnic at a park in Boulder. It is time to take off the rose colored glasses Colorado, and admit to being the bigots you really are.
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