12/24/2010
Walter Olson writes
"Youâve probably seen the ongoing scandal about how local officials used the southern California city of Bell to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense. A Los Angeles Times investigation finds that the city was milking small tradespeople too: âLegal experts point to a lack of due process and judicial oversight in hundreds of âcivil compromises,â in which plumbers, carpet cleaners and bottle-gatherers paid up to $1,000 for alleged code violations.â
What you wonât be reading much in the press is that Bell is a small Hispanic town, (90.9 % Hispanic) with a Hispanic mayor and a largely Hispanic city council, which has been largely arrested. That makes the shakedowns of the local small businesses very familiar â itâs the traditional corruption that the Mexicans call la mordida,which translates as "little bite" in English, and means that a citizen canât do anything without paying off an official. One thing that immigrants who come to America for a "better life" are coming for is to escape this system. But if they all come at once, itâs coming with them.