Posted on 09/06/2015 5:49:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
"We're here not only for Kate, to keep her memory alive, but to have something done," a shellshocked James Steinle pronounced at a Tuesday news conference on the steps of San Francisco City Hall. On July 1, Steinle, his daughter, Kate, and a friend were taking an evening stroll on Pier 14. Kate Steinle, 32, took a selfie. Moments later, a bullet pierced her aorta. She died in a hospital. The San Francisco district attorney charged an immigrant who was here illegally and who had seven felony convictions and five prior deportations with first-degree murder. Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who was free because the San Francisco sheriff had refused to honor a federal deportation request, has pleaded not guilty. This is a crime that never should have happened.
So flanked by his wife, Liz Sullivan, their son, Brad, and a cluster of lawyers, Steinle announced legal action against San Francisco and federal agencies in an effort to squeeze something positive out of what is every parent's nightmare. Government officials screwed up, and no one seems eager to correct the mistakes. Said Steinle, "The silence has been deafening."
It started with a gun. In a departure from standard law enforcement practices, a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger left a loaded .40-caliber service gun unsecured in his car in San Francisco. The gun was stolen -- and later used to kill Kate Steinle. Did Steinle's death serve as a wake-up call? Not at all. Even after the much-publicized shooting, James Steinle observed, there have been two instances of guns stolen because law enforcement officers failed to secure their weapons. It happened in August, when University of California, Berkeley police Chief Margo Bennett left her gun in her car as she went jogging. Days later, thieves stole a Hayward, California, police officer's Sig Sauer P239 handgun from his car in Oakland.
In papers filed by a legal team headed by attorney Frank Pitre, the Steinles say the BLM ranger "failed to exercise his mandatory duty to leave his firearm unloaded at a time when it was not actually needed." As a result, "Lopez-Sanchez was allowed to gain access to a loaded weapon that he later used to kill Kate."
In July, James Steinle went after San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy. He testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that he believed that his daughter died "by the hand of a person that should have never been on the streets of this country."
For his part and to the contrary, Pitre defended San Francisco's sanctuary city rules and said they were "never designed to protect" the likes of Lopez-Sanchez. The Steinle claim actually lauds San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for "courageously" faulting Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi for not notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement before releasing Lopez-Sanchez.
Let me back up a few steps. In 1985, then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein signed San Francisco's first sanctuary city ordinance, designed to protect refugees from Central America. Over the years, City Hall expanded the policy. In 2013, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed and Lee signed the Due Process for All Ordinance, which directed local law enforcement not to detain individuals based on an ICE detainer request -- unless an individual has been convicted of a violent felony in the past seven years or there is a judge's finding of probable cause.
Now the mayor claims that the ordinance, which challenges the constitutionality of ICE detainers, does not preclude law enforcement from alerting ICE before an inmate's pending release. In essence, Lee is arguing that the law never prevented law enforcers from communicating with ICE. (On July 21, Supervisor Mark Farrell introduced a reform package that would give law enforcement more discretion in dealing with ICE and require the sheriff to check with the district attorney's office before pursuing an outstanding bench warrant. Aide Jess Montejano expects a vote later this month.)
This is where Mirkarimi stepped into it. Like many City Hall progressives, he is hostile to immigration enforcement. In March, he wrote a memo directing personnel to refrain from sharing information with ICE absent a court order and an OK from department attorneys. Pitre and Lee have grounds to fault the sheriff for doubling down on the 2013 ordinance.
Mirkarimi maintains that the feds knew that if they want to deport an inmate like Lopez-Sanchez, they have to produce additional documentation. The sheriff blames ICE for not making him hand over the Mexican national. The legal claim asserts that ICE was aware of San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city and that therefore ICE should have presented the sheriff with "a judicial warrant or order for deportation." That's right; Pitre made the same argument as Mirkarimi.
Asked whether she wants San Francisco to change its sanctuary city policy, Steinle's mother answered that she wants to end it, but only for violent offenders. Sullivan is in a lot of pain. Someone needs to tell her that according to the family's legal briefs, Lopez-Sanchez has a string of heroin and other drug convictions to his name during his 20-plus years in the criminal justice system but no conviction for a violent offense. Thus, City Hall's 2013 ordinance sees Lopez-Sanchez as worthy of protection from ICE. This policy invites preventable crime. What city wants to shield a seven-time loser from deportation?
One led by politicians that know he would vote for their party if they could just get him to the polling station.
Screw them
We want the rule of law enforce and Obama needs to resign for causing more refugees in Syria with his polices and more coming with Iran and 160 Billion Dollars
When was the last time you heard one of their children or families being killed.
May hot coals be poured upon all their evil heads...
There is just so much wrong with this that I don't know where to start. I realize that they want to do away with all guns, but who is expecting someone to unload their gun when it is not actually needed? What in the world does that mean? And are there special bullets for BLM guns, so if it was unloaded when he stole it, he would not have been able to buy them? Just what are they trying to say here? I know, trigger locks for cops. They can only take them off them the gun is actually needed. Is that it? Special gun safes in cop cars?
The Steinle family should also go after the insurance carriers for San/Fran.....and the insurance carried by all the above-named individuals. All the San/Fran public (gag) officials, like the lawyers, should have malpractice insurance, as well.
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The Steinle's need to bring in the FBI.
OF INTEREST TO LAW ENFORCEMENT The FBI should interrogate individuals in official San/Fran administration for evidence of multiple schemes to falsify official documents to further fraudulent schemes, and the filing of official documents that were falsified. The FBI should investigate any and all official documents submitted by the administration for falsified entries.
Crimes might include--govt fraud, conspiracy, collusion, falsifying official documents (a felony), money laundering, tax evasion, extortion, theft, misuse of public facilities.
I want to know why none of these people ever uses the term, and prosecutes/sues, based on “Depraved indifference” and “Under color of authority” because if ever a situation fit the terms, it’s this one.
Every one of these liberals has acted with both in creating sanctuary city policies, refusing to work with ICE and protecting criminal invaders.
San/Fran Mayor Lee controls billions in tax revenue.....local tax revenue, state tax revenue, federal tax revenue. San/Fran is a global tourist destination----the tax take from tourism (added to restaurant and hotel bills) must be in the billions.
THIS ITEM IN THE SAN FRANCISO LIB/ZIT BOARD OF SUPERVISOR'S BUDGET REPORT IS A HUGE RED FLAG--- And I quote: "For the first time in fifteen years, the Mayor’s Budget Office did not ask Departments to make any reductions in their budgets. Although the current deficit projections look better than last year, we will still be forced to make difficult decisions to produce a balanced budget."
UT-OH Asking Dept's to reduce budgets? In a world renowned city that is teeming w/ tax revenue? Local revenue. State Revenue. Federal Revenue. Tax revenue from world-wide tourism alone must be in the billions.
Where is all the money going?
FYI---a govt official asking for agency reductions is the very same MO used by the Illinois govt official who stole $80 million tax dollars using a secret bank account to siphon off govt tax revenue.
OPEN THE BOOKS OF SANCTUARY CITY NOW---ACTION PROJECTS---(1) find the banks that handle sanctuary city municipal finances; (2) find sanctuary city insurance carriers; (3) find the number of identities the Steinle killer uses to ride the gravy train; (4) find sanctuary city agencies' fraudulent use of tax dollars.
More below
They’re saying the cop acted negligently in not securing his weapon. It’s weak, I know, but it’s valid enough to add to the suit.
L
The SEC, FBI, banking overight agencies, and the IRS, would be interested in the activities of state/city entities WRT issuing city bonds..... AND the whereabouts of the bond revenue.
EMAIL---FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
EMAIL--enforcement@SEC.gov
Contact the IRS Fraud Unit
EMAIL Banking oversight agencies
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Taxpayers should find out which banks are facilitating this.
<><> Which banks are designated the repositories of municipal tax dollars.
<><> Which banks are dispensing tax-exempt bond proceeds.
<><> Also culpable are vendors receiving ill-gotten bond revenue.
I’ve always wondered what became of the loved ones of these crime victims; I would think they would be shouting from the rooftops until their dying breath. I know life must go on (for them), and there is little interest in our media in giving them any coverage, but if this happened to my loved ones I would find it hard to think about anything else.
In the meantime, America is in meltdown mode over marriage licenses and some lion when this should be at the top of the list, yet it’s largely ignored.
I hope this couple gets everything they’re after and then some. There is no way that illegal alien should have been in the country, much less be free to roam a “sanctuary city” at will.
Liberals disgust me.
“We want the rule of law enforce and Obama needs to resign for causing more refugees in Syria with his polices and more coming with Iran and 160 Billion Dollars”
Actually he needs to be thrown in jail for being a public official “not upholding the law of the land” i.e. Kim Davis.
But, he can ignore laws he doesn’t like cause he’s a liberal and stuff.
The rest of the proles can’t. And by the way, all this fuss over marriage licenses and I don’t see anywhere, in any story, she’s a registered Democrat. If she were a Republican, it’d be all over every story.
Let me get this straight:
Illegal gets into country without documentation but only can be deported with documentation.
Apparently the Steinles' opposition to sanctuary cities only relates to 'violent' illegals. So, technically, the man who killed their daughter would be allowed to stay if they had their way. Sadly, the Steinles are apparently the type of libs who helped create the problem in the first place.
You’re on to something there, pointing to the center of the corruption and likely related to the policy shifts towards sanctuary cities and other leftwing causes.
It will take lawyers and judges of unbelievable courage to open such a can of evil.
“There is just so much wrong with this that I don’t know where to start.”
I’m with you...how can anyone be expected to ‘secure’ anything in a state that is opening its prison doors and letting out many thousands of offenders, and, of course, having the feds doing the same thing regarding Illegals.
About the only possibility that I see to keep the gun secured is that it has to stay on your person full-time, or be locked in a safe at home that would take a bulldozer to remove, or it stays at work when you’re off duty. California has to understand they can’t have it both ways, secure guns for LEO’s, while felons run wild.
Well, if they falter....we’ll just hold their hands....help them along (/snix).
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