Arizona's First Political Blog

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By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.

 
The No Look Pass... Again

I shamelessly stole the title of this post from Espresso Pundit who used it describe how enforcement agencies give people of certain persuasions the benefit of the doubt (and then some) when it comes to enforcing the law. Greg wrote:

So what's wrong with the No Look Pass? The problem is that if you aren't a sympathetic character, the enforcement agency will decide not to pass and the newspapers will decide to look.

Let's go back to my post last week regarding Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard's statement regarding the polygamists up in Colorado City.

The attorneys general of Utah and Arizona said in separate interviews they had no intention of prosecuting polygamists unless they commit other crimes such as taking underage brides -- a practice authorities said was rampant in a Utah-Arizona border community run by Warren Jeffs before his arrest in August."We are not going to go out there and persecute people for their beliefs," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

In one sense I guess should be grateful for Mr. Goddard's candor. Prosecutors have a lot of discretion as there are always more crimes to pursue then there are resources. Goddard, when asked how he would deal with the issue, could have just said he had more important crimes to pursue.

However he didn't say that... he said to go after polygamists was "persecution" and he wasn't going to do it. That's way more than just looking the other way or sweeping it under the rug, which I think about every Arizona AG has done with it since Short Creek. Somebody should let Mr. Goddard know that he isn't Louis "l'etat c'est moi" XIV

I guess in comparison he does look a lot better than the Attorney General of Utah, after all as a condition of statehood Utah had to insert a ban on polygamy.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 8:56 PM