New Google Maps Option: "Avoid Arizona" (alright, it's a joke)

Not real—yet. (thanks, Danny Sullivan)

Previously:

Arizona's "papers please" law inspires frijoles-swastikas - Boing ...

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Antinous / Moderator

Most people manage to avoid Arizona quite unintentionally.
Anonymous

Most Canadians go to Arizona for the winter: then they buy the houses that no American can afford.

Apparently Canucks are less dangerous than other immigrants, but I can’t imagine why.

Warning: my neighbour doesn’t carry a gun: he’s a retired lawyer, so he doesn’t need to!
GeekMan

As a Canadian, I have to ask: What’s so wrong with Arizona that you can’t even merely drive through it?
- IronEdithKidd
  
  They could stop any person of any color. So GeekMan, you should also consider avoiding AZ due to your Canadian-ness. That and the possibility of having to cross back into your country via Port Huron. You want to avoid that, too.
  - kevinsky
    
    No, as Canadians, Geekman and I aren’t persons of color, we’re persons of coloUr. Big difference!
zikman

if it weren’t for google, I’d probably be in arizona right now.
MrsBug

GeekMan, Arizona has a new law that basically allows the police to stop any brown person and ask them for papers proving they are in the US legally.
kaffeen

That is funny, but on the other hand, this is exactly what they want; especially the dark skinned variety of Homo Sapiens.
stanleyk

…or, I suppose, if someone looks/sounds Canadian to them. Somehow I suspect that will come up less frequently, though.
tofoomeister

Not real, you say? (Link goes to Google maps)
http://bit.ly/asjuI2
- shiva7663
  
  A better route would be north from L.A. to Vancouver, then east to Winnipeg, then it’s pretty much a straight shot south to Dallas. Just make sure you don’t have any Peter Watts novels in the trunk of your car because of the ubiquitous border searches. They hate that, you know.
ianturton

I’m a legal alien and I’ll be avoiding Arizona until they repeal this law. So no sales tax or hotel taxes or any other income from me, plus it means I’ll encourage my students to avoid Arizona based conferences as I won’t be able to see their presentation.
agraham999

My ban list is getting pretty big…

Utah
Mormons
Christianity
Whole Foods
Wal Mart
The South
Processed/GM Foods
Orange Juice
Republicans
and now Arizona…
- Anonymous
  
  Yeah, it can’t be a pull down menu then, it should really be a bunch of checkboxes for things to avoid.
Anonymous

How do I go about moving my domains and hosting from Godaddy? What’s a good company?

The law is not Godaddy’s fault, but the fees I pay them go toward paying taxes to the state of AZ so the police can demand people’s papers based on the way they look.
Boba Fett Diop

Ahem…some Canadians are persons of couleur.
- TheWillow
  
  Wouldn’t that be Canadiens?
  - Anonymous
    
    Or Canadiennes …
- Felton
  
  Thinking about Arizona’s new law makes me a person of choler.
Anonymous

ITT: People who haven’t read the law and don’t know anything about requirements that resident aliens already have to fulfill.
If you’re a resident alien, you always have to have your ‘papers’. It’s federal law that you carry them.
Under this law, illegal immigration status is not a primary offense – they have to stop you for something else first. If you produce an AZ driver’s license (or license from another state or some other official identification document), then you’re presumed to be a citizen. If you produce the papers that the federal government makes you carry around, then you’re presumed to be a legal resident alien. End of story – you get your speeding ticket and go on your way. (Or if the cop was trying to profile you for being brown, you get a ‘warning’ or a DWB/DWH.)
Of course, if you’re driving without a license, and without papers, you’re in trouble. But then, you’d be in trouble anyway for driving without a license.
Link to the law, full text: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
Also, lol at the ‘avoid Arizona’ joke.
Teller

My father was born in Mexico, I love the Arizona outdoors and I don’t care if someone asks me if I’m legal because I am. To me, all this wailing about racial profiling is just mierda de caballo. I don’t think the law will stand, but I’m glad AZ is pressing the issue – an issue ignored so long by our fearful, vote-counting elected Federal officials.
- keypontrucken
  
  So Teller, were you an anchor baby? Haha, just kidding. But seriously, you’re okay with being stopped for no other offense but the color of your skin, your walk, your talk–and being required to show proof of your legal status? Because I’m not okay with that, but I already hated Arizona anyway.
- Anonymous
  
  Are you legal and also in the habit of carrying your original birth certificate around at all times? The racial profiling and harassment is bad enough, but just showing a driver’s license or photo ID isn’t good enough.
  
  Maybe it’s all a scam to get people to lose or damage their birth certificates and then have to pay the replacement fees.
- grimc
  
  Who cares if you say you’re legal. We’re going to need some proof. Be sure to carry your passport and birth certificate (original, not copy) on you at all times. If you don’t, you can spend some time at the ICE detention center until you sort it out. Should only take a couple of hours, a few days at most.
  - Teller
    
    From the actual law:
    
    A PERSON IS PRESUMED TO NOT BE AN ALIEN WHO IS
    UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES IF THE PERSON PROVIDES TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER OR AGENCY ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
    
    1. A VALID ARIZONA DRIVER LICENSE.
    
    A driver’s license. And there are a few other IDs that work.
- Brillobreaks
  
  Will you still be OK with it after you’re arrested, jailed (maybe raped while there), and held for a few days till some family member manages to retrieve your ‘papers’ from home?
  
  Even if you are, most of us aren’t ok with that.
orangelamp

it’d actually be quite useful to have a default “Avoid USA” in google maps, especially for directions between western canada and Toronto, which always seem to route through Minnesota and Michigan. (No passport, thanks.)
- kevinsky
  
  I can’t imagine needing Google Maps to get from Toronto to Western Canada. – 1. Take Hwy400 north to the end. 2. Turn left on the Trans-Canada 3. Stock up on gas and smokes in Wawa. 4. Avoid prairie madness by looking at the clouds, not the fields.
  
  I would in fact only use Google Maps for that trip if I wanted to go through the US, so the default results are fine!
Anonymous

Don’t believe MrsBug, or me either, but instead find out for yorself at http://www.keytlaw.com/blog/2010/04/anti-illegal-immigration-law-part-1/ . I think you’ll find that the law prohibits the use of race or skin color as the sole detemination of whether a person is suspected of being an illegal alien. Even if these bigots here were right in thinking that anyone having brown skin is likely to be an illegal alien then this law wouldn’t allow them to be stopped solely because of their skin color. I have found illegal aliens to come in all varieties of race and skin color. You can’t tell if a person is an enemy of democracy by their race, skin color, or religion.
Elite Hacker

Quite a few of my friends and acquaintances here in California have decided to boycott Arizona completely. This includes buying absolutely nothing from any Arizona based businesses (FYI – GoDaddy HQ’s is in AZ) whether online or not. I’d also advise any Canadians or Mexicans to do the same. They don’t like to mingle with foreigners in that sh*t hole they call a state.
- Ernunnos
  
  Quite a few of my friends and acquaintances here in California have decided to boycott Arizona completely.
  
  That’s ok. We feel the same way about that sh*t ole California. But apparently saying so on BoingBoing is a no-no.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    No, that’s fine. The previous attempt at knee-jerk politicizing was more than a little trollish.
- nixiebunny
  
  I live in Arizona, and I don’t like what the Legislature here does any more than you do. I also have a small business, so your decision to boycott all Arizona businesses affects me personally.
  
  Boycotting every business in Arizona is not going to improve matters. My state rep, who lives two doors away from me, isn’t the type to vote for this sort of law, so my complaining to him won’t help things either.
  
  The thing that will help the most is to publicize stuff like the recent Rachel Maddow report that shows that this law was written by white supremacists. When the Legislature hears their constituents asking them why they voted for legislation written by white supremacists, things might start to change.
  - Elite Hacker
    
    Understandable….but, not a whole lot gets things moving like money does. Or a lack there of.
    
    I can’t give an opinion with regards to the comment that the law was written by white supremacists. I’ll have to do my research on that one.
- Anonymous
  
  Good luck boycotting water and power.
Anonymous

This is like the google map note that I’m told no longre occurs, in which if you want to go from, oh, 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa, Ontario to 9 Downing Street in London, it at one point instructs you to swim across the ocean.
Creeation

For any non- First Nation, Inuit or Native American to think they on this land legally is a joke.
Jvalver

“I was born in East L.A.” Cheech Marin
Anonymous

The past few days I’ve seen a lot more Arizona license plates here in Florida.
pentomino

I’ve lived in Arizona all my life, and I ask that you please give my fellow liberals some time to fight back here. I can’t guarantee anything, though, since, being in a warm climate, we attract a lot of retirees who have nothing to do but watch Fox News and vote. Indeed, I’m hoping that boycotts don’t close down the businesses that are bringing in young people who have to work for a living and pay for their health care; if those people leave, then Arizona will become the red state you all think it is.

That said, an “avoid [city/state]” feature might be a good idea for Google Maps, as there are some cities and states that make lots of money by having their highway patrol scout for out-of-state license plates.
Antinous / Moderator

Does anyone really think that there’s going to be a boycott of Arizona. Speaking as a Californian, I’m fairly sure that our short attention span, distractedness and attraction to shiny things don’t really support that notion. If New Mexico decides to boycott Arizona, would anyone be able to tell?
- Elite Hacker
  
  I’m a programmer & at least 3 of my clients are moving their sites from GoDaddy (Based in AZ…g-d knows why on earth they were there to begin with!). We Americans due tend to have short-attention spans but, I’m sure this isn’t one that’s going to go away that easily. One of my friends in San Diego buys supplies for his business from a company in Phoenix and has already dropped them. So yes….some have already begun the boycotts.
Anonymous

Wow. I’ve misplaced my driver’s license once or twice in my life. Imagine having to be handcuffed, detained, interrogated, etc, etc just because your license is in your other pair of pants. Sheesh!
ultranaut

On NPR last night there was an interview with the police chief in Tucson, he explicitly said that his understanding of the law is that any interaction with the police is sufficient to trigger this law. If you are a witness to a crime and the police interview you they can demand you prove your citizenship to them if they think you may not be one. If you can’t prove it they have to hand you over to ICE for deportation.
Anonymous

My piggy back design idea. Now for real estate! Uggggh.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensmithson/4559117128/
Elite Hacker

Interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/04/27/arizona.law.tourism.impact/index.html?hpt=C1

Also, typos in my last post. Meh…
Anonymous

I won’t be avoiding arizona. I’ll be the one wearing the t-shirt that says “arrest me, ’cause you never know if I am illegal”
Anonymous

“Gov. Napolitano’s [yeah, the same lady who works for B.O. now] has estimated that the federal government owes Arizona $350 million for the cost of holding illegal immigrants in jail. That kind of money, Napolitano claims ‘could pay for all-day kindergarten for every 5-year-old in the state.’ ” (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/163645/illegal_immigration_and_arizona_gov.html)

So Arizona should be punished for trying to strong-arm Washington into enforcing federal laws so that state tax dollars can be used to better the state?
- ultranaut
  
  Strong-arm Washington? I haven’t heard anyone mention punishing Arizona for that, it seems to be the idiocy and mean-spiritedness of the law that’s got everyone pissed off.
jso

Abdon was told he did not have enough paperwork on him when he pulled into a weigh station to have his commercial truck checked. He provided his commercial driverâ€™s license and a social security number but ended up handcuffed.

Both were born in the United States and say they are now both infuriated that keeping important documents safely at home is no longer an option

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/az-truck-driver-forced-show-birth-certifica
- Anonymous
  
  Interesting, the story you posed about Abdon… He wasn’t picked up by State Police. The law isn’t in effect yet, so their still not allowed to do anything immigration related. He was picked up by ICE, the Feds, the people everyone keeps saying we need to leave all this up to.
  
  The story says his drivers license and SS card wasn’t enough for ICE they wanted his birth certificate. The Arizona law specifically says if they produce a drivers license that’s enough evidence to prove they are here legally. So this law actually seems LESS restrictive than Federal procedures and guidelines.
  
  I also think beat cops would be much more understanding, reasonable and realistic when dealing with these situations than a ICE agent. They deal with people all day on all types of situations, ICE agents do nothing but look for illegals and probably get carried away at times.
stanleyk

A couple of people have stated or suggested that the law isn’t really that bad, prohibits using appearance as the sole purpose for demanding papers, etc.

Can you maybe excerpt the part that makes you think these things? I read the beginning and skimmed the rest, and it sure looks to me like the framing of it as a racial-profiling law is spot on. From the very beginning:

“FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL OR AGENCY OF THIS STATE OR A COUNTY, CITY, TOWN OR OTHER POLITICAL SUBDIVISION OF THIS STATE WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES, A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE, WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON.”

The word “reasonable” leaves a lot of room for discretion. Some officers will not construe appearance or accent as reasonable cause for suspicion re: citizenship. But some obviously will…and the way this reads, they would be OBLIGATED to demand documentation if some one looks/sounds Mexican to them.
- Anonymous
  
  StanlyK, the proof is in the part you just posted:
  
  “”FOR ANY LAWFUL CONTACT MADE BY A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL”
  
  Stopping someone because their brown would be an “unlawful contact.”
  
  “WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES”
  
  That would go something like this, their stopped for a traffic violation, have no drivers license, insurance and can’t speak English. That would give “reasonable Suspicion” they were here illegally.
  
  “A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE, WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON.”
  
  ie. asking them if they have a Visa, Passport etc.
  
  “and the way this reads, they would be OBLIGATED to demand documentation if some one looks/sounds Mexican to them”
  
  You must live in a pretty white area of the Country. I live in South Texas, people that actually live in non-racially-homogeneous parts of the country know, “looking Mexican” doesn’t mean or cause a “reasonable suspicion” your from Mexico. See, we actually work, play, live next to and interact with people of various races all day. Hispanic Americans are our friends, neighbors, coworkers, hell I’m married to a Hispanic. Just because their skin is a bit darker doesn’t mean we automatically think their an illegal immigrant.
  
  That seems to be a bit of bigotry on your part, thinking the color of your scan would cause “reasonable suspicion” of being an illegal immigrant.
Elite Hacker

One positive in all this, is that this will undoubtedly kill the GOP come 2012 among Hispanics and other minorities.
Anonymous

Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws, pass no permit conceal weapons laws and the state boycotted Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Letâ€™s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of â€œbirthers, baggers and blowhardsâ€ to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing â€œFollow the Leaderâ€ by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, Oâ€™Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like â€œThis time we came unarmedâ€, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who donâ€™t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now itâ€™s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called â€œfactsâ€. Letâ€™s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the â€œRepublican 2009 Summer of Loveâ€ list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, thatâ€™s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.