ILLEGALS: They have upper hand

Lately there has been much ado over equal treatment under the law. Cases in point: gay and lesbian rights and Arizona's law regarding arrest of illegal aliens. Set the former aside for now. Let's look at the latter under a hypothetical scenario.

One Latino male, a legal U.S. citizen, used to work in the harvest fields for $10 to $12 per hour. His employer found that he could hire illegal aliens for half the cost, so our citizen friend was laid off. The job market dried up and his unemployment benefits ran out. He became discouraged and under much stress shoplifted food from a local supermarket to feed his family. He was caught on camera and subsequently charged with theft. He couldn't post bond, so he was put in jail awaiting trial.

Meanwhile another Arizona citizen noticed a minivan stop and four young Latino males exit the van and run to the adjacent building shadows, while the van raced off. The observer tells police what he has seen and where one of the four has gone. The officer assigned to follow up confronts the suspect and detains him. The illegal has been pre-briefed on what to do in just such a situation and charges the officer with discrimination asks for ACLU legal aid.

There is something wrong with this scenario. The legal citizen is arrested for stealing as defined by one law and the alien avoids jail by circumventing our immigration laws. Whose rights are being trampled - our legal friend or the illegal alien?

Equal rights should not be special rights. Have we all gone mad with our obsession with being politically correct? Both of our hypothetical persons are minority males needing work, but the legal citizen suffered for his desperate act and the illegal alien went free. To me this scenario seems to be totally unjust and could eventually lead to anarchy.

LEONARD BRANT

Rathdrum