So the LAPD is going to order 6,000 more of these?
Posted on 04/12/2008 11:49:19 PM PDT by L.A.Justice
Calling it a response to public outrage over gang crime in Los Angeles, Councilman Dennis Zine said Friday he wants to alter the LAPD's long-standing Special Order 40 by allowing officers to question gang members about their immigration status.
Opposed by immigration-rights activists, the amendment would bolster already existing relationships with immigration officials and require police to report gang members who are in the country illegally.
But it would not alter the crux of the 1979 rule that prohibits officers from asking crime victims about their immigration status.
"These are people who are terrorizing their own communities," Zine said. "They are extorting business for protection money. They are victimizing their own communities. We need to give gang officers another tool to deal with the problem."
Still, activists and the LAPD say officers should not be used to enforce immigration laws and argue that authorizing officers to obtain gang members' immigration status would do just that.
The proposal comes in the wake of last month's shooting of Jamiel Shaw, a 17-year-old high school athlete who police believe was killed by a gang member smuggled into the country as a child.
Police suspect Pedro Espinoza, 19, a reputed member of the 18th Street Gang, killed Shaw the day after Espinoza was released from county jail on a weapons charge.
Espinoza has pleaded not guilty. But his release and a plea by Shaw's parents
to stem deaths in Los Angeles have sparked concern that criminals here illegally are slipping through the cracks. Police officials said Special Order 40 - created to encourage immigrants to report crimes - already allows officers to check the immigration status of those arrested.
But they oppose any change that would require officers to determine immigration status based on their own investigation.
"We are not (immigration) experts and we would be hard pressed against becoming experts. I would recommend against that," said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, who oversees the department's Central Bureau covering the heavily immigrant eastern edge of the city.
"I don't think we are going to make immigration experts of all our field officers."
Immigrant-rights groups also say any change could harm communities' already tense relationships with the LAPD.
But Zine said he wants the rule broadened to allow gang officers to question gang members about their immigration status.
"If they have a known gang member, they should be able to check their status and put an immigration hold on them if they are here illegally," Zine said. "Most of the crime we have in the city now is because of gangs, and we have to send a message to them.
"This is not about racism. The gang members are all colors, all nationalities. We just need to have a tool to deal with this."
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he supports any clarification of Special Order 40, but doesn't believe Zine's proposal will change the existing regulation.
"Let's be clear here," said Villaraigosa, who earlier in the week sent a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement asking it to stop raiding businesses employing illegal immigrants. "We have asked ICE to concentrate on criminal gang elements and they say they don't have the resources. We say if you don't have the resources, why are you going after businesses and not criminals?"
Villaraigosa said Special Order 40 has been successful in reducing crime among immigrants.
"Every major city and police department has something like this," Villaraigosa said. "And I support it. If someone has committed a crime and is in this country illegally, they should be deported. We have a right to enforce our laws."
In the San Fernando Valley, the LAPD already shares its gang databases with immigration officials - providing leads to agents regardless of whether a gang member has been arrested.
There are 10 full-time agents assigned to work in cooperation with LAPD gang officers and detectives, targeting gang members here illegally and other foreign nationals who have committed criminal offenses, said Deputy Chief Michel Moore, the Valley's top cop.
Immigration officials review every arrest made by gang officers in the Valley. Based on the information-sharing, immigration officials picked up 100 suspects in the San Fernando Valley last year.
"There continues ... this misinformation that Special Order 40 prohibits us from notifying ICE when we have a gang member who is here unlawfully, but to mandate or legislate that in all instances we shall do (this) is something I think is unnecessary," Moore said.
"There is no sanctuary for gang members because of their alien status."
Last year, ICE agents said they picked up 700 gang members and their affiliates on criminal charges and immigration violations in Los Angeles.
Police officials have said they would object to any proposal that would force them to determine immigration status. And others in the community also are resisting any change.
"Amending Special Order 40, however, is neither a just nor appropriate response to the young man's death," said Sara Zapata de Mijares, director of Mundo Maya Foundation, a downtown immigrant-rights group providing medical, social and cultural services to Mayan-speaking immigrants.
"Instead, we are certain police officers acting as immigration officials with suspected gang members will exacerbate the already tenuous relationship between the community and the men and women in blue.
"An amendment would continue to pit our African-American brothers and sisters against the Latino community."
The article states that LAPD already works with ICE...Good...I wish that LAPD would work with ICE more closely. LAPD Deputy Chief Moore states that Special Order 40 does not prohibit LAPD from telling ICE about illegal alien gang members. But, Moore doesn't think that LAPD has to be forced to do that in all cases...
I think that Special Order 40, in general, discourages LAPD officers from working too closely with ICE. Many LAPD officers, worried about keeping their jobs and getting promoted, probably avoid asking suspects about their immigration status. That is the safe thing to do. Top management sets the tone for the rest of LAPD...Chief Bratton once was on a radio show and a caller complained to him about Special Order 40. Bratton told the caller that he should move somewhere else if he didn't like Special Order 40...Hearing that, an LAPD officer would get the message that he/she shouldn't work too closely with ICE.
Mayor Villaraigosa also sets the tone...He states that he supports the idea of deporting illegal alien criminals...Yet, he spoke at an illegal alien rally last year...Does any LAPD officer honestly believe that Villaraigosa really wants illegal alien criminals deported?
I don't blame any LAPD officer for wanting to keep his job and to get promoted...The officer has to do what Chief Bratton and Mayor want to do...
I think that LAPD should be FORCED to tell ICE about illegal alien gangsters in all cases...
By the way, members of Los Angeles City Council were not too respectful toward the parents of Jamiel Shaw, the young man shot by an illegal alien gangster. When they were speaking, it was obvious that many Council members were not paying attention at all...
Chief Bratton did react...He said that what happened to Jamiel Shaw was unfortunate but Special Order 40 shouldn't be changed because of that.
> Still, activists and the LAPD say officers should not be used to enforce immigration laws and argue that authorizing officers to obtain gang members’ immigration status would do just that.
I cannot think of even one good reason why “Activists” would want foreign gangsters to be allowed to stay in America. Unless, of course, the “Activists” have a stake in their criminal activity.
To me, that sounds like a logical line-of-enquiry for your FBI to check out, along with your Immigration folks. Check out these “Activists” — bags I they have either a) hidden criminality, in which case the FBI get to cuff ‘em, or b) hidden immigration issues, in which case the Immigration Service gets to cuff ‘em, or just as probably a) and b) both — in which case the FBI and Immigration can flip a coin.
First get rid of these “Activists” then go after the Illegal Alien criminals that they are protecting.
It’s simple: I’m a foreigner and I can see it. Makes sense to me. So why don’t they do exactly that?
Until Tony Villar and Chief Bratton—two losers if there ever were—are out of office, cities like Canoga Park are going to be controlled by illegal alien gangs, Villar’s friends in crime. I’m sure the rank and file and gang task force folks know who “the bad guys” are, but are afraid of sticking their necks out to arrest them. L.A. is about to explode as the police have long since lost control. They’re afraid of lawsuits, Special Order 40 and the ACLU instead of doing their jobs. We can get Special Order 40 thrown out.
So the LAPD is going to order 6,000 more of these?
But they're only here to pick tomatoes.
The continual slaughter of innocent Americans continues, secondary
to the neglegent, traitorous, US Congress.
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious.
But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.
But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.
For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men.
He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.
A murderer is less to be feared."
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero
I hope JUDICIAL WATCH is successful in its lawsuit against LAPD...It wants to end SPECIAL ORDER 40...By the way, ACLU is siding with Chief Bratton this time. They both want SPECIAL ORDER 40.
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