Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 at 11:00 am  |  139 responses

Kobe Bryant’s Wife Makes Immigration Law Statement

Kobe’s coach may not want sports teams to get politically involved, but Vanessa made sure to address the controversial immigration law in Arizona at the Lakers/Suns game last night. The OC Register has more: “The wife of Kobe Bryant wore a black t-shirt to Monday’s game with the words ‘Do I Look Legal?’, a clear reference to Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Vanessa Bryant, who is part Hispanic, wore the shirt on the game night that approximately 40 demonstrators rallied against Lakers coach Phil Jackson for refusing to criticize Arizona’s new immigration law.”

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  • http://slamonline.com J Dizzle

    Protesting against someone who won’t protest against their cause… lol. These 40 demonstrators should sit back and enjoy the Lakeshow.

  • http://slamonline.com J Dizzle

    Won’t protest FOR their cause***

  • Chris

    K its enforcing exsisting law you idiots. good old protesters tho. i love the fact that we allow that in america, but i does get old…

  • http://slamonline.com Adam Fleischer

    That’s what’s up.

  • Noel

    If an immigrant looks like her they should automatically be legal

  • http://www.slamonline.com/ niQ

    Well, according to Arizona’s laws, no one looks legal unless they’re white…

  • lupe

    Someone please explain to me what is wrong with what Arizona is trying to do. Maybe I am missing something, and I admit I have not had the time to fully research the law, but for everyone to be whining about it like they are, it must be a big deal (yeah, right). Please, could someone further explain the law for me. Thanks.

  • ben hogan

    only blacks and whites allowed in AZ?

  • http:slamonline.com Allenp

    Or you could just research the law yourself and learn about it on your own instead of expecting other people to explain it to you.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/online/category/blogs/farmer-jones/ Ryan Jones

    I think we both know that won’t work, Allen.

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    Good for Mrs. Bryant! Sounds like she hasn’t forgotten where she came from. I don’t mean in terms of nationality, cause she’s American through and through. I’m talking about her skin color, which would make her a potential target in AZ even though she was born in CA!

  • hello

    Basically, the police can stop anyone who “looks” illegal to check their status. The paradox with this policy is that these people are over here because big American businesses hire them. And they get away with anything in the name of profit.

  • Jorge

    @lupe: Arizona will publish a chart with all the elements of how someone should be harrased by the police:
    Brown skin: but not that brown, maybe like the president’s color but not that pale…see white american for tones and color chart.
    Baggy Pants: See Brown skin for details on how the baggy pants are worn consult a white american.
    Tatoos: refer to brown skin once again for details on what kind of tatoos and ask a white american.
    Short height: refer to brown skin one more time and a white american.
    Legal Brown skin: See brown skin, and if they’re legal, too late…..umm sorry for the violation of rights buddy. Be prepared to be stopped tomorrow AGAIN!

  • Beethoven

    Maybe she was referencing her age?

  • Fat Lever

    In related news, the state of AZ has hired Karl Malone to be the new version of Dog The Bounty Hunter. I think we all know The Mailman’s intended target.

  • riggs

    lmao @ fat level. Also this law doesnt enforce anything its basically giving the police carte blanche to go after non-whites

  • riggs

    lever*

  • http://www.slamonline.com Negetivekreep

    I love how sooooooo many people whom the law does NOT effect. Feel so strongly about It. But god forbid some brown people complain about something in this country.

  • http://www.hoopsvibe.com/features/overdribbling chiqo

    yes, vanessa, you look over 18. mmmhmm.

  • Kendrick is God

    @lupe you ignorant C_U_N_T

  • RV

    @Negativekreep: We all live in the same country..i think it makes perfect sense to be worried about something that’s going on in one of the states. You never know, it may affect us in the future.

  • RV

    @jdizzle: they’re not protesting the fact that Phil isn’t protesting for them, but because he’s for it. He already came out and agreed with the law, although indirectly, but it’s clear he was saying he’s cool with it. It’s not like Jax decided to decline to comment and they decided to protest because of it.

  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton

    Kobe’s drive to win revealed: a barely legal spanish sl*t

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    Hold up Anton, your Kobe-hate is one thing, but why she gotta be a slut? And she’s not Spanish. If she was she’d be white like Pau Gasol, someone else who doesn’t have to worry about this law.

  • onlyclipsfanonslam

    What’s so wrong with following the rules? Services for American citizens and LEGAL immigrants are being cut, while there is simply no reduction on spending for illegal immigrants. Why must people who follow the rules get punished for those that don’t? People who question the morals of this law are absurd. If you are an illegal immigrant you are committing a crime (it has always been a misdemeanor), should we now stop punishing criminal offenses? I’m really not going to read any of your responses as I expect most of you to be uninformed.

  • RV

    Talk about being uniformed…the feds don’t just go by looks, they collect something called EVIDENCE, so they know who they’re after and why. In theory, AZ police won’t need to do that, they can just pick out who they think may be illegal. That’s the difference.

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    Sounds like YOU’RE the one who’s misinformed, onlysorryassclipsfanonslam. Nobody is on here debating whether or not illegal immigration is right or wrong. I’m Mexican-American, and I think something needs to be done to curtail illegal immigration. The bill is BS because it allows law enforcement to question anyone’s legal status if there’s reasonable suspicion. So who do you think they’ll question? The european immigrant with a strong accent who may or may not be illegal, or the Mexican-American who’s family has been in Arizona since it belonged to freakin’ Spain? My guess is the latter. We’re talking about racial profiling here. And unless you’re dark-skinned you won’t ever know a damn thing about it in this country. And I don’t care if you read my response or not, but I know you will.

  • The Philosopher

    Shout out to The Bilderbergers.

  • Robb

    If both governments (american and mexican) had done their homework we wouldn’t be talking about this. That law is an overreaction caused by a no action, and, as usual, people from both countries are suffering the consequences.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    The Arizona Law is literally a federal law with teeth. This whole country is so misinformed. The part that should be protested is the loss in funding to legal immigrants while there is no change in spending on those who come here illegally. The law makes sense, its just the way its being enforced that is wrong. And this is the federal governments fault, being mad at Arizona Legislature doesn’t do sh*t when illegals are taking around $4BILLION out of our economy. We are a nation in financial h*ll giving money to illegals. Which is why here in Arizona we are losing HS sports and tens of millions of dollars of funding for education. While everyone outside of this state blindly hates and protests things they know nothing about.

  • http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:OzhW3M1GBSKkgM:http://fashionsensei.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/jackie-moon.jpg Jackie Moon

    Why is Anton even allowed to post his hateful drivel? … (see bottom)

    The comments section is a place to further discuss the topics in this post. Commenters who seek to accomplish any of the following may be banned: – Make derogatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation or religion. .. I think calling someone a “a barely legal spanish sl*t ” qualifies …

  • snasty10

    This law is F-ing rediculous, this is racism to a t

  • onlyclipsfanonslam

    @nbk thanks for backing up what I said. Legal immigrants are getting shafted. Current citizens are getting shafted. Yes the problem does lie with the federal government outdated policies, I do not argue this; but to say this is a racial topic BEFORE a financial topic is blasphemy. IF officers choose to abuse their powers than that is on the officers themselves, not the law that is in place. So many mindless sheep on here, get yourself educated on the origins of the law, I know Vanessa Bryant doesn’t know anything about the origin of the law.

  • ceballos

    enigmatic is right

  • http://XXXX Alex

    Whether you like it or not, this law will be overturned because it is unconstitutional. It is unbelievable how many ignorant and stupid people don’t understand the problem with this law.

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Enigmatic is not right, the law says law enforcement must have, exactly how he (enigmatic) said “it allows law enforcement to question anyone’s legal status if there’s reasonable suspicion” Reasonable suspicion. Its already in the constitution that a person must always have some form of identification on them after the age of 18. You are just plainly stupid if you think this can negatively effect a legal immigrant. If you have your papers there is nothing to worry or front about. Oh no you actually have to show them now, wtf is the point of having them in the first place if the FEDERAL LAW is not enforced?

  • lupe

    Damn there are some sensitive people on this website. I just asked someone to better explain it to me and ALLENP and KENDRICK IS GOD acted like I asked them for their ID or something. Buddhism, fellas…check it out

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    and reasonable suspicion does not permit stereotyping people or making snap judgments. It implies that if a person is acting suspiciously, or breaking a law then law enforcement has a right to ask for identification. WHICH IS WHAT HAPPENS HERE ANYWAY. I (your average white american) was asked for my identification in ARIZONA for “suspicion” of breaking curfew. I didn’t call the cop a racist for asking for ID.

  • lupe

    So if you are not doing anything wrong, you will not be asked to show your ID. Makes sense. And if you are legal, like you should be, it does not matter if someone asks for your ID b/c you are a legal citizen. WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THE CRYING ABOUT?

  • http://slamonline.com Bryan Crawford

    You guys disappoint me. All of these comments on the politics of A but regarding Vanessa Bryant’s t-shirt, not one “little Mexican girls” reference. Psssh…and you call yourselves basketball fans.

  • http://slamonline.com Bryan Crawford

    I meant, “the politics of AZ,” my bad.

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    LOL @ the mindless sheeps comment. You can go on about the financial and legal aspects of this bull, er, I mean, bill all you want but it’s really hard to see this as anything more than Jan Brewer executing some kind of racist agenda when uhh… she also passed a law saying no more ethnic studies and no more teachers with accents. WTF? Who doesn’t have an accent? And so now kids can’t learn about hispanic-American, African-American, Asian-American or anything other than European-American studies? The only good she’s done is passed that gun law which, believe it or not, I am conservative on most topics and am all about gun laws, but this chick has lost her noodles down there. BTW, bahahahahh….

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    The crying is about getting in other people’s business. California who started all of this is seeing the worst of it, because their state is doing nothing about illegal immigration. So all of the illegals that would be coming to arizona know they can find jobs, healthcare, and housing in california without worrying about papers or laws

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    * I meant all about gun rights

  • T-Money

    “reasonable suspicion” means racial profiling. simple and plain. there are no other criteria that could lead someone to believe that a given individual is not a legal immigrant. being summoned by a police officer in the streets to show your papers is an humiliating experience and can lead to harassment by overzealous cops. i’ve seen that sh-t in france. it’s not “nothing”. i’d like to think of north america as being beyond racial profiling considering that the only indigenous peoples here are the native americans. there are other, more efficient alternatives to combat illegal immigration without infringing people’s rights.

  • curbsideprophet

    Completely agree with nbk and clipsfan. Most of you people have NO IDEA about the law and it’s pathetic. If you’re not ILLEGAL then you should shut up because you don’t have anything to worry about. You have to show your papers? big f’ing deal, grow up, everybody needs identification. The police aren’t going to just randomly stop someone because they’re walking down the street, they have to have reasonable suspicion. If they do then that’s a bad officer, not a bad law.

  • http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

    Reasonable suspicion can mean any damn thing under the sun, nbk. I’m actually a Criminal Justice student, I’ve learned under, among others, the former head of the Chicago Crime Commission. And let me tell you, police officers are given an insane amount of discretion and authority. You really think a cop in AZ won’t pull over someone because their tags “might be” expired or something as vague as that? The fact of the matter is this – legal immigrants DO have something to worry about. The only ones who DON’T are American Citizens who are blond haired and blue-eyed! Sure, if I get pulled over and am asked for my legal status once or twice and I have to produce my papers, it’s an inconvenience. Do it to me multiple times though, and how the HELL is that not violating my civil rights?

  • http://www.hoopsvibe.com/features/overdribbling chiqo

    @bryan: fat lever made one at 12:20.

  • T-Money

    nbk: don’t be dumb. they didn’t need a bill to ask for your ID if they have enough ground to suspect that you’re up to no good. that’s called doing police work. / law enforcement should ALWAYS be reactive, never preemptive (unless we’re talking about national security and even then, with major caveats).

  • Ace

    To immigrants complaining about racial profiling in this country….Welcome To America. This is nothing new, how long has Blacks been talking about this….centuries. Maybe now that’s it’s affecting other minority groups people will actually pay attention to something that has been going on in this country for centuries.

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