Police
Chief Beck says it’s the only fair and humane thing to do.
The mayor
says it’s “justice”
But what
does the City Council or Police Commission say about the LAPD’s new policy, its
protocol, for allowing unlicensed drivers to walk away from the scene of their
crime.
Not just
walk away, actually, but ride away in the company of a licensed driver, not
even the car’s owner as required by law, when they’re stopped by police instead
of having the car impounded.
It’s like
putting a gun back in the hands of a violent suspect after he’s been subdued
and writing him a citation for an infraction.
No valid
identification. No proof of insurance. Maybe an unregistered vehicle or maybe
it’s registered in someone else’s name and the unlicensed driver is just using it
all the time to go to work and move about like everyone else.
It is an
injustice to tow away the unlicensed driver’s car and impound it for 30 days at
the cost of a thousand dollars he probably doesn’t have.
It is an
injustice to refuse to allow that immigrant who entered the country illegally to
take a test, get a driver’s license. buy insurance, register his car and drive
responsibly.
But even worse
is the injustice to society itself of allow a million people on California
roads without licenses – a class of people who whether they are ineligible for
licenses or had them revoked or suspended are responsible for a grossly
disproportionate percentage of fatal and injury accidents as well as
hit-and-runs.
This isn’t
just about that unlicensed driver who walks away scot free and goes around the
corner and gets back behind the wheel and runs down a family in a crosswalk and
flees the scene never to be found again – something for which the city is
liable.
It’s about
the corruption of the fundamental duty of every police officer to enforce the
law and protect the public safety even if it means putting their own lives at
risk.
If you
aren’t a cop or a fireman or a soldier you don’t know how sacred that duty is.
You can’t imagine what it means when your bosses tell you to look the other way
and put the lives of innocent people at risk.
The mayor
has appointed a police chief who is doing his bidding, a chief who has
surrounded himself with other ambitious men and woman willing to look the other
way and make sure the command staff below them keeps its silence.
The cops on
the streets know better. They know they are being ordered to violate the very
thing that made them want to be cops in the first place, the commitment to
protect and to serve the community.
Yes, it’s
inhumane to leave vast numbers of people out in the cold, to leave them
vulnerable and identity-less, non-persons without rights or sense of
responsibility. Outlaws.
But it is
an injustice to all to allow them to drive cars that all too often kill and
injure the innocent.
They are all
too often uninsured and untraceable – a fact that is proven beyond a reasonable
doubt by the hundreds of thousands of warrants issued for traffic violations to
people do not pay their fines or come to, people who cannot be find and for all
intents and purposes, don’t exist because there are no records of them.
They are los desaparecidos, the disappeared, of Los Angeles.
The LAPD
has been through too much for too long.
For
decades, the problem was one of excesses: Excessive use of force, mainly
against minorities and spying on the prominent. It took years and hundreds of
millions of dollars to fix that.
The danger
now is the opposite of excessive enforcement but of under enforcement. It is
not just traffic laws but drug laws and gang activity that LA has gotten soft
on.
This is a
mayor who has abused his power over the heads of the city’s department heads
and forced them, under threat of dismissal, to go along with policies that harm
the city.
We should not let this happen to the LAPD. Towing the cars of unlicensed drivers isn’t
the problem. Requiring cops to put the safety of the public at risk is.
It tears at
the fabric of the thin blue line, sending cops the wrong message and putting
them in an ambiguous and difficult position where they can be disciplined for
trying to protect the public safety.
We do not obey our own laws anymore.
Too bad we did not change the city council on
March 8. But what that means is that now we must flood neighborhood councils and city offices with reactions. This cannot remain status quo for the next three years.
Ron, where have you been for the last 20 years? All of you people of influence, the elite — you allowed the unchecked uncontrolled illegal population in LA. Now of course these people have reached a critical mass and since there are so many of them and they see we bend over to satisfy them, they demand more & more.
Why didn’t you warn about Villar, that his allegiance to illegals is strong, that this could pose a safety issue because he’d want laws to be bent to make their life easier? Oh to say this is racist! OK then don’t complain now. And Beck since he owes his job to Villar does what he’s told.
You people still wouldn’t admit how much the quality of life has been destroyed by these masses of illegals and how much allegiance all these politicos like Villar, alarcon, etc have to them and not to you. You all blew it and now it’s too late. Enjoy Mexico north!
Give them licenses… just like the rest of us… Problem solved.
The alternative, of course, is that we who currently have licenses simply allow them to expire – let the LAPD Chief deal with that scenario. It also will allow the State of California to shutter half of the DMV offices for lack of business. They currently are processing 80,000 new/renewal licenses per month.
The alternative, of course, is that we who currently have licenses simply allow them to expire – let the LAPD Chief deal with that scenario. It also will allow the State of California to shutter half of the DMV offices for lack of business. They currently are processing 80,000 new/renewal licenses per month.
Where were you people when the Mayor was elected twice AND during the recent City Council elections where all the incuments were re-elected. Quit complaining when the only thing that excites is you hatred for immigrants.
I agree with 2:42, why should someone’s immigration status have anything to do with acquiring a license to drive?
3:42. Nobody “hates” immigrants. Its the “illegal” part that we are against. If you don’t understand the difference, can’t help you. And I did vote both against Villar and against my clowncilman, so what? Nobody else did
2:42. Give illegals licenses based on what? Since they are illegal, how do you know who they really are? What will stop anybody from getting multiple licenses under different name?
A vehicle is a deadly weapon. You have to take and pass an exam and driving test. 40,000 people a year in this country die in auto accidents. This has nothing to do if you are some skin color.
4:03 The CRA is illegal, where is the 1 billion dollars. Nothing prevents anyone from getting multiple licenses. The establishment of identity is a very fragile consequence of sovereignty, but at the end of the day it is merely pro-scriptive. It is a necessary evil, that is only a product of an apparatus of exclusion and division. You can wear and shroud yourself in its impunity.
4:03 The CRA is illegal, where is the 1 billion dollars. Nothing prevents anyone from getting multiple licenses. The establishment of identity is a very fragile consequence of sovereignty, but at the end of the day it is merely pro-scriptive. It is a necessary evil, that is only a product of an apparatus of exclusion and division. You can wear and shroud yourself in its impunity.
This “ignoring” of the laws for all drivers to be licensed is not just illegals from Mexico, the LAPD wont be impounding the vehicles of “anyone” driving without a license. In other words those who have had their licenses revoked for DUI, revoked for being a habitual traffic offneder, etc will not get their cars impounded if they can get a licensed driver to show up. The purpose of towing someones car for driving w/out a license is to prevent them from having access to that car for a minimum of 30 days, then to get that car out of impound they must prove ownership, valid insurance and a VALID license, if they can’t prove all of the above they dont get the car back, thus saveing the rest of us from our insurance rates going up, being hit by (and God forbid seriously injured or killed) by an unlicensed driver (whos insurance wont pay for damages cuased by them due to no right to operate a vehicle). This decision on the Chiefs part is pathetic seeing he is the Chief Law Enforcement officer in LAPD and he is paid to ENFORCE THE LAWS – He should not have the right or the gall to ask his men & woman to ignore any laws on the books. Police dont write the laws they only enforce them and we should demand they do enforce them!! And shame on the Mayor for thinking this is “Justice”, this shows his true character!!
I thought CRA funds could only be used for development projects but sent this info makes it seems not the case. Do they just pick and choose without abiding by any rules or standards. City Council members have said a thousands times CRA fund only used for housing.
Community Redevelopment Agency Funds High Tech Crime Fighting Wireless Camera System Goes Live in Mission Area.
This “new” policy by the LAPD means that it becomes open season on licensed, law abiding drivers. Not hear legally? Driving Drunk? No Insurance? No Driver’s License? No registration? No worries! LAPD will look the other way, because, God Forbid, in case they might be accused of “profiling.” Just look at the number of hit and runs that have occurred in the past year! Why would you bother to stop and identify yourself? It doesn’t matter anyway, because nothing will happen.
As for those of us who obey the law? Drive on California’s road at your peril! After everything is said and done, the only gross injustice is to the legal driver!
To those who always use the excuses “they’re just trying to make a living” so are prostitutes and drug dealers. Illegals aren’t as innocent as they want people to think. they still social security cards, credit cards and everything else to use identity theft to get free services. They are criminals who demand they are entitled.
What gall to do this though
SAN DIEGO — Border Patrol agents have arrested 13 illegal immigrants dressed in U.S. Marine uniforms. The men were arrested at the Campo Border Patrol Westbound I-8 checkpoint on March 14th.
A good read
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/impounds-and-illegals/2/
Of course you people are so scared of not being PC that you don’t even want to think about this and other issues (like do we follow the laws, if we have limited resources what is fair, etc)
A good read
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/impounds-and-illegals/2/
Of course you people are so scared of not being PC that you don’t even want to think about this and other issues (like do we follow the laws, if we have limited resources what is fair, etc)