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Illegal painters target Santa Barbara newspaper

January 9, 2015

B62144xCEAAIjeJThe Santa Barbara News-Press offices became a target this week for protesters and vandals who objected to the newspaper’s use of the word “illegals” in a front-page headline.

On Saturday, the News-Press published a headline stating, “Illegals line up for driver’s licenses.” The headline referred to long lines that had begun to form at the California Department of Motor Vehicles following the implementation of a law allowing illegal immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses.

Critics responded to the headline with an online petition calling for a retraction, and on Thursday, graffiti appeared on the News-Press building and nearby sidewalks. Vandals painted “fight back” and “the border is illegal not the people who cross it” next to the News-Press office entrance. [KEYT]

They also fired paintballs at the building. The damage totaled nearly $1,500, according to Santa Barbara Police.

Officers have not yet caught any suspects. They say the amount of damage to the building and sidewalks could amount to a felony.

On Thursday night, about 100 protesters gathered outside the News-Press offices. Demonstrators threatened to return on Jan. 19 if the newspaper did not issue a retraction or make a change in editorial policy.

Earlier in the day, News-Press Director of News Operations Don Katich released a statement defending the use of the word “illegals” in the headline and saying it appropriately describes people who are in the country illegally.

“You have to look no further than the White House website to see the term ‘illegal’ used when describing the 2,000,000 illegal immigrants President Obama has deported since taking office for being in the U.S. illegally,” Katich said in the statement.”

The vandalism of the News-Press office followed a fatal attack on the offices of a French satirical magazine by less than one day. Gunmen opened fire at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris on Wednesday, killing 12 people and injuring several others, in apparent revenge for the publication’s satirical depiction of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Many individuals and governments across the world, in turn, have rushed to the defense of freedom of the press over the past two days. While the protest against the News-Press was occurring, other demonstrations were taking place in honor of the murdered Charlie Hebdo journalists.


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To call them “Undocumented Aliens” is like calling my nephew an “Undocumented Pharmacist”. BS! He’s a drug dealer! …and they are “Illegal Aliens”.


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Isn’t “illegal” an official word in US Federal Law?


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Entitled and emboldened by our current leadership in our country; illegal residents toss paint on private property because they want to silence the truth from being stated…just! the kind of good folk we want as new Americans. AAAHAHAHA In with the good air out with the bad. You all voted for this…Open Border Brown won again Obama has a second term to stack the voting deck with simpatico illegals/Dreamers. And don’t tell me illegal aliens don’t vote and receive benefits because we all know they do. It’s over. California has finally fell off of the cliff and the earth didn’t even need to move.

Ones you relax a regulation or a law it is very difficult to tighten it back up. So get used to it. For good or for bad. We are living in a transformed America.


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I can only shake my head. 40 likes so far on this nonsense. First of all, I despise Obama. But nonetheless, this has nothing to do with Obama. In fact Bush and a good portion of the economic conservatives in the Republican party were and are extremely pro-immigration and Reagan was the guy who signed the huge amnesty bill. So this is just cereal box nonsense you are spouting.


Illegals do NOT vote nor receive benefits beyond emergent healthcare. Their children that are born in this country are U.S. citizens and therefore may receive benefits. But they will also pay taxes when they grow up (but don’t as children, just like children whose parents are citizens). Yes, they broke a law (a civil offense, not a criminal offense) by crossing the border. We all benefited from this. The truth is that illegals pay more in taxes through withholding (and receive no tax return) than any services they wind up using.


The laws are tighter now than they have been in the past. It used to be much easier for Mexicans to come here under the Bracero program. Between 1942 and 1964 4 million people were able to come legally.


If you want to blame someone for the state of the economy in California, look no further than the bureaucrats siphoning the money from hard working people and businesses. These people are the ones who are managing to rob you blind and do so with the veil of legality.


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“Illegals do NOT vote nor receive benefits beyond emergent healthcare”

Not true…All one needs to do is birth a child on American soil and she can apply for benefits for her entire family.

A very large number of illegals do vote and will openly admit it.


http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/04/most-illegal-immigrant-families-collect-welfare/


http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/391134/jaw-dropping-study-claims-large-numbers-non-citizens-vote-us-jim-geraghty


I can find more nonsense for you if you have the courage to believe…


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Washington Post By Jesse Richman and David Earnest October 24, 2014


“Because non-citizens tended to favor Democrats (Obama won more than 80 percent of the votes of non-citizens in the 2008 CCES sample), we find that this participation was large enough to plausibly account for Democratic victories in a few close elections. Non-citizen votes could have given Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health-care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) won election in 2008 with a victory margin of 312 votes. Votes cast by just 0.65 percent of Minnesota non-citizens could account for this margin. It is also possible that non-citizen votes were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina. Obama won the state by 14,177 votes, so a turnout by 5.1 percent of North Carolina’s adult non-citizens would have provided this victory margin.”


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All Obama! all the time!


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My first instinct is that the “vandals” were spoiled, rich, white kids attending a school of “higher learning” (emphasis on “high”) while others foot the bill…


I might be wrong, but that was my first thought. Illegals often do not have the luxury nor the time to do this; rather, the self-appointed “champions” who fill their vacuous lives with anything popular enough to garner a hashtag are usually the ones doing this… just try not to notice the people “behind” the protesting.


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The only justice here is an illegal-coddling county is the target illegal mischief.


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People ARE NOT, CANNOT be ‘illegal’.


With the USA’s horrid history in how it has treated and regarded those of different or minority status ( Blacks who were only ‘legal tender’ as property, the aboriginal inhabitants that were called ‘savages’, first generation immigrants such as the Irish and Italians … ) it has infected the hideous education of the mainstream ‘white’ morons …their language and ‘culture’ based on myth, superiority, and false entitlement.


It is no surprise that they have no idea how insulting and offensive they are.


They may not say ‘n*gger’ or ‘redskin or ‘wetback’ whilst among polite company anymore ( well …most of them ), but they are just as racist and ignorant as their forebears; and they’re too stupid to realize that the enlightened among us see them for exactly what they are.


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I am in my late forties, and all my grandparents came through Ellis Island. Given the large families and longer time frame for having children (my parents were in their forties when I was born) I am second generation American. And I and all my relatives are completely disgusted with the current crop of “immigrants”. I use that term loosely, because sneaking into a country illegally is not immigration, it is a crime. There was no “Press two for Italian” when my grandfather came here legally at age 16. He was proud to learn English. When politicians try to conflate the Ellis Island immigrants who played by the rules with these lawbreakers, it is a grave insult to my grandparents. We have been proud to assimilate into American culture; the thought of throwing violent tantrums because not enough people catered to our every whim is anathema to us. The “Dreamers” and other non-hackers are nowhere near to playing on our level, and they never will be. And all your Blame America First BS means nothing to me at my age; I endured the educational system of the 1970s with my teachers doing their best to make me hate my country, and I came out the other side. I’ve done quite a bit of travelling and I know that, with all our faults, we are still the best thing going. If you can document for me thousands of people converting old cars into boats in order to escape the U.S., please do so.


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Spare us your “my relatives came here legally” diatribe. It is far more difficult, in fact nearly impossible, for an impoverished hispanic to be allowed legal entry into the United Sates than it was for your white family to come over from Europe. And incidentally, it was quite common for the first generation that came to America to not learn English.


When the United States takes half a country in a war, and later continues to incite violence in what’s left of that country through its drug war, then we ought to expect to have to deal with some consequences like mass immigration..


You have no more RIGHT to be here than anyone else. Do you really feel that you earned some special right because men with guns came here and cleared the land of undesirable for you?


But here’s the bottom line.. you’re not going to stop this from happening. The movement of people due to economic, political, and environmental conditions has been happening for millions of years. You can complicate it, you can use violence to slow it down, but you’re never going to stop it. So why not learn to live with it and give these people a reason to be part of your community rather than make the situation worse and be hateful.


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I take offence to the first generation not learning English,My Grandfather came here by himself it 1918 from the Azores and passed thru Ellis Island and ended up on the Sinshimer Bros steps with a note looking for a brother that had been here,he learned English,just as his brother did. My Great Grandmother and her 3 sisters passed thru Ellis Island and landed here in San Luis also and they also learned to speak English,That side of the family did well in the lumber and concrete business in SLO for themselves and my Grandfather did well in the dairy and farming industry.

The illegals come here and don’t want to learn English but yet want all the benifits,there is one here that runs a fruit picking gang and refuses to speak English has been here for years.


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Why would you take offense to a fact, merely because of your anecdotal experience? You can find thousands of Mexicans who will tell you the same story about their immigrant parents and grandparents.


How about trying to educate yourself rather than being self-riohteous?


http://www.news.wisc.edu/15801


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i’ve worked in four countries. not all were english speaking. the one thing i learned was was to immerse one’self by turning on the TV and giving it a try. the funniest thing i saw was Montreal shutting down a dépanneur for not being able to speak french or english.


“self-riohteous?”


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You’re right, and you’re talking about personal responsibility and the wisest way to go about things. What I’m calling self righteous is the implication that “Myself”‘s relatives are representative of a stock of immigrants that exhibit more personal responsibility and were more willing to integrate. That may be the case for his ancestors, but it has nothing to do with him and it no ways serves as evidence that today’s immigrants are less likely to learn English.


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but their actions can be illegal


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Well sure. That applies to anybody. My point…..illegal acts, never illegal people.


If a skinhead robs a bank, he’s broken the law, done something illegal. He still is a person, not illegal.


When the nativists and bigots use this word the way they do, they are indicating that the group of people that they apply it towards are less than human; and we all know why they do it.


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If you want to piss off a conservative tell them a lie. If you want to piss off a leftist tell them the truth. Looks like it worked.


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One can tell a conservative ANYTHING, if you say that Rush Limpaw, O’Really, or Shammity said it …and they’ll believe you.


‘Liberals’ are no less doltish. They still accept phony memes such as ‘ the American Dream’ and that Americans are somehow smarter than the rest of the world.


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This won’t stop me from calling them “illegals”.

I really don’t care who this offends.


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You might not care, but it offends me.

Would it offend you if someone said that you’re a numbskull ?


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apples and oranges


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It is FACT they are ILLEGAL ALIENS. Calling someone a numbskull… well, The Dude said it best: http://youtu.be/pWdd6_ZxX8c


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Personally I would rather be an illegal than a numbskull.


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The Dude is correct….Thanks, Kevin, made me laugh.


And, you are correct; the accurate term is “illegal alien”.. fact…


No question “illegal” is not a complimentary term, but it is accurate, and someone gets pushed out of shape by it needs to get over it. Some folks are surely racist, but i would call a white Canadian illegal alien an “illegal”… If the foo shits…


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It’s the racists that will have to ‘get over it’.


They think they’re being cute or smart, but they are neither.

They’re haters. They’re not trying to be ‘accurate’ and they just don’t care.They’re only fools and pretenders.


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So if they don’t like the term “Illegals” then DON’T break our Immigration laws by coming here ILLEGALLY!!! It’s not like many just “forgot to fill out the documents” – they purposefully came here ILLEGALLY – knowingly BREAKING OUR LAWS. Undocumented is just a kinder way of saying it and so they can feel better about be LAW BREAKERS! I’m so sick and tired of people giving away the farm to the people who come here with NO REGARD TO our laws and then DEMAND that we respect them and honor them????? And all the time President BO has said that Illegals are doing the jobs that Americans won’t. Hmmmm, interesting that a TV Station reported that the Farming Industry is having a shortage of farmworkers because the ones that came here are NOW doing jobs in other industries like CONSTRUCTION and the HOSPITALITY industry…and I would say those ARE and SHOULD BE AMERICAN JOBS!! Another LIE by our beloved leader – besides his disgusting ObamaCare. Additionally, rather than amending our laws to award law breakers WHY don’t we make people who get FEDERAL OR STATE AID do some work???? Many of the people receiving aid could work on a conveyor belt or pick lettuce or grapes. I know I HAVE – used to work in the fields in the summer as a teenager before all the stupid Unions and gov’t regulations. Yes, teenagers could earn a decent summer wage working and helping the farmers!!! I have to quit because this just makes me so anger and I won’t even get started on the damn driver’s licenses!!


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Why should they care about our laws when we don’t?


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Who’s we? Speak for yourself, most people are law abiding.

Others have no regard for our laws and choose to enter this country illegally.


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I follow the rules because I have integrity and as far as the ones I don’t agree with, I just don’t want the hassle. But If we had respect for our laws then we would focus our attention on making sure that bureaucrats in government and Wall Street crooks weren’t robbing us blind under the veil of legality. It is painfully obvious to me that a large number of people in positions of responsibility do NOT truly respect the rule of law in this country, rather they do whatever they think they can get away with because of a justice system that is far from blind.


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