by John Corry

About the author: John Corry is a senior correspondent for the American Spectator, a conservative monthly magazine.

It was Rodney King all over again, with a reminder of O.J. Simpson. An 80mile chase on California freeways in April 1996 ended when a truck carrying twenty-one illegal Mexican immigrants finally stopped. Videotape shot by a helicopter news crew caught two sheriff’s deputies clubbing the driver of the truck and a passenger with nightsticks. The videotape was shown over and over on CNN, and it made all the evening news programs. Cries of outrage immediately followed. The Mexican government charged racism, while the White House expressed concern, and civil rights and immigration groups held demonstrations. Hypocrisy lay thick on the ground, along with intrusions into domestic politics. Republican rhetoric, apparently, had led to the...