Barletta: My Ass The Source of All Truth

Hazleton's Bigot-in-Chief testified in defense of the Hazleton anti-Hispanic ordinance in federal court in Scran'en yesterday. His testimony confirmed that all of the findings and purposes of the act came not from reasoned study of objective evidence, but from his fat, hairy ass.

When the home office of NEPA bigotry (a/k/a Hazleton) passed the anti-Hispanic ordinance, it did so after declaring certain findings, including the following:

The People of the City of Hazleton find and declare:

. . . . C. That unlawful employment, the harboring of illegal aliens in dwelling units in the City of Hazleton, and crime committed by illegal aliens harm the health, safety and welfare of authorized US workers and legal residents in the City of Hazleton. Illegal immigration leads to higher crime rates, subjects our hospitals to fiscal hardship and legal residents to substandard quality of care, contributes to other burdens on public services, increasing their cost and diminishing their availability to legal residents, and diminishes our overall quality of life.

D. That the City of Hazleton is authorized to abate public nuisances and empowered and mandated by the people of Hazleton to abate the nuisance of illegal immigration by diligently prohibiting the acts and policies that facilitate illegal immigration in a manner consistent with federal law and the objectives of Congress. . . .

F. This ordinance seeks to secure . . . the right to live in peace free of the threat crime, to enjoy the public services provided by this city without being burdened by the cost of providing goods, support and services to aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to be free of the debilitating effects on their economic and social well being imposed by the influx of illegal aliens . . . .

So, the act claims, Hazleton didn't just enact this ordinance after a bull session around the city kitchen table. They carefully examined the facts and reached certain findings which compelled the ordinance and justified it as an exercise of the state power.

Except that,

Barletta admitted he did not contact the school district to ask about alleged overcrowding, call the hospital for statistics on the treatment of illegal immigrants or seek any data to back up any of the claims. . . . ''So you had no data on hospital treatments or other health care?'' asked Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. ''No,'' Barletta said. He had no data on any other city services, from sanitation to fire calls, that could prove his contention that illegal immigrants were draining city services and the budget, Barletta said. But he claimed he didn't need statistics to point out what was obvious to him and other longtime Hazleton residents.

Oh, but he doesn't need troublesome things like facts when he has eyes that can see and ears that can hear and a fat hairy ass from which he can pull his facts:

Barletta said he assumed schools were overcrowded because classes were being held in trailers, and he read in the local newspaper that test scores had fallen. Barletta also said he relied on conversations with hospital personnel to determine that ''uninsured people'' were trying to use the emergency room . . . . Barletta, who was born and raised in Hazleton, said the city now suffers from increased crime and violence, and that street gangs have established a foothold. He said several murders involving illegal immigrants . . . cemented his belief that Hazleton had a problem. ''Our city is crumbling under the strain of illegal immigration,'' Barletta said. ''Most people in Hazleton didn't need numbers".

Well, of course they don't. All they need to know if that their Bigot-in-Chief is gonna help rid their turf of the Sharks.

You see, the "numbers" can be inconvenient, as the trial will show soon:

Not discussed (by Barletta) were crime statistics supplied by the Hazleton Police Department that were sought by the plaintiffs and obtained under a court order Monday.

Barletta said he had not seen the statistics, which covered five years beginning in 2001, and U.S. District Judge James Munley barred Walczak from questioning Barletta about them until Friday, when Barletta will return to the witness stand.

Outside court, Walczak said the statistics revealed that crime in Hazleton has not increased out of proportion to the rise in population, and that illegal immigrants were not committing a lot of crimes. Walczak said the city identified only 20 to 30 serious crimes that involved illegal immigrants out of more than 8,000 crimes.

So, Barletta admitted not only did the facts and findings come fresh out of his fat hairy ass, but the he refused to even look at the actual crime statistics gathered by his own police force.

But, apart from the false and baseless crime and health care "findings", there's the economic impact on the city of all these illegals that justify the city smacking down Hispanics. Except, those pesky facts again:

Earlier in court, Barletta and Walczak went over Hazleton's economic troubles and drop in population from 38,000 after World War II to 22,000 in 2000. By the end of the 1990s, the city was nearly $1 million in debt. Part of its resurgence, Walczak argued, had to do with the arrival of thousands of Hispanics after 2000.

The new arrivals propelled Hazleton's population and ushered in a renaissance, as Hispanics bought and rehabilitated shuttered buildings and opened roughly 60 businesses. Assessed property values rose three years in a row.

Oh well, at least the law was carefully written. Except, this week it was announced that, "[f]or the fifth time Hazleton is rewriting the Illegal Immigration Relief Act. "

Good thing I subscribe to the Morning Call, because the people in Hazleton get an entirely different picture of the trial than those in Allentown.


UPDATE: The Hazleton pretend newspaper, the Standardless Speakeasy, didn't update its website until late in the day. When it did, it became clear that the local fish wrap is continuing its blow job pieces for the City's Bigot-in-Chief. As they did yesterday, the so-called report misrepresented what really happened at the trial.



(Photo Credit: Barletta's Source, Thanks to Planet Kornerson)

NOTE:

WE ARE MOVING!!! For now, the old Blogger address will bring you to the new location -- but that can change at any time. Please update your Blogroll, Links, and Bookmarks NOW:

www.abigfatslob.com

Click Here to Blogroll A Big Fat Slob!