[T]he testimony was riveting this morning before the Los Angeles City Council when a group of black residents pleaded with the 15 elected council members to rescind Special Order 40, the longtime local rule protecting illegal immigrants from arrest by the LAPD.Yesterday, I saw Sergeant Anita Shaw, US Army--who had to come home from Iraq to attend her son's funeral--get on the TV and lament that she had been safer in Iraq than her son had been in his native country, standing in front of his own home.The black residents are seeking a decision by the council to enact the so-called Jamiel's Law, named after Jamiel Shaw, a promising and law-abiding 17-year-old high school student allegedly shot by an illegal immigrant, 18th Street Gang member Pedro Espinoza. The noxious Espinoza, who has a massively long rap sheet, was arrested by cops in Culver City, and then released by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department jailers, shortly before he allegedly murdered Jamiel.
Jamiel's family members cried openly in the ornate Council Chambers, asking the council to allow cops to check on the illegal status of people like Espinoza so they can be deported rather than released.
Living in LA is dangerous. Many of the native-born criminal element make living in any large American city an ordeal. But the native born have a right to be in this country. Must we put up with a criminal element of other countries also--those who do not have a right to be here? Is that the price the country must pay for cheap labor?
I suppose that our betters believe that illegal immigration labor plus the attendant criminality is the price we must pay to add to the Social Security coffers. (Yes, that's the reason that nothing meaningful will be done about illegals--not that the amount of workers contributing to the fund will ever be enough to make SS viable before it runs out next decade.) A few dead youngsters--murdered by sins of commission and omission--are but a small sacrifice to that "noble" end.
Personal note: trust me, I look both ways when stepping out of my door.
(Thanks to Instapundit)
