Editor's Note: The City Council refused to take up the issue of the city's failure to enforce the law against illegal immigrant gangbangers for months and now says it will hold a hearing in October. If you want this issue addressed now, you should call, write or email your council member. Click here for the information you need to have your voice heard.
The long-standing constitutional limit on free speech is you can't yell fire in a crowded theater. The corollary to that is you have a moral imperative to warn people if you know there is an imminent danger.
That's why we all must stand up now and demand City Hall do something about enforcing the law against known criminals who are in this country illegally.
Enforcing the LAPD's Special Order 40 as it's written is all that has to be done. As it is, the only provision consistently enforced is the don't ask, don't tell language that is used to effectively look the other way at all questions of immigration status.
It's been more than five months since the senseless murder of high school athlete Jamiel Shaw Jr. allegedly by an illegal immigrant gangbanger released from jail the day before without the Sheriff's Department holding him for deportation. Outside of domestic disputes, gangs are involved in most of the murders in L.A. and a significant portion of them could be stopped and the terrorism that holds so many neighborhoods in the grip of fear reduced.
Yet, Councilman Jack Weiss -- the man who has all but shined the mayor's shoes for the last four years to get his support to be the city's No.1 law enforcement officials -- has refused to hold public hearings on Jamiel's Law and the whole issue of criminal aliens.
Under presssure from last week's protest at his Westside office organized by KABC talk show host Doug McIntyre, Weiss ran to Chief Bill Bratton to ask what he should do.
Bratton told him to wait two months when he'll have a policy on gangs ready just in time to influence voters to support the proposed parcel tax -- the single most regressive tax there is.
Obedient as always, Weiss agreed and the mayor and City Council are on side with him.
There will be blood on the streets between now and October from violence by illegal immigrant criminals and the blood will be -- already is -- on their hands.
The least anyone can do it is to email or call you own council office and demand that immediate hearings be held and the council put on record on the issue: Do they support illegal immigrant criminals living in our city or are they going to do something about it?
The long-standing constitutional limit on free speech is you can't yell fire in a crowded theater. The corollary to that is you have a moral imperative to warn people if you know there is an imminent danger.
That's why we all must stand up now and demand City Hall do something about enforcing the law against known criminals who are in this country illegally.
Enforcing the LAPD's Special Order 40 as it's written is all that has to be done. As it is, the only provision consistently enforced is the don't ask, don't tell language that is used to effectively look the other way at all questions of immigration status.
It's been more than five months since the senseless murder of high school athlete Jamiel Shaw Jr. allegedly by an illegal immigrant gangbanger released from jail the day before without the Sheriff's Department holding him for deportation. Outside of domestic disputes, gangs are involved in most of the murders in L.A. and a significant portion of them could be stopped and the terrorism that holds so many neighborhoods in the grip of fear reduced.
Yet, Councilman Jack Weiss -- the man who has all but shined the mayor's shoes for the last four years to get his support to be the city's No.1 law enforcement officials -- has refused to hold public hearings on Jamiel's Law and the whole issue of criminal aliens.
Under presssure from last week's protest at his Westside office organized by KABC talk show host Doug McIntyre, Weiss ran to Chief Bill Bratton to ask what he should do.
Bratton told him to wait two months when he'll have a policy on gangs ready just in time to influence voters to support the proposed parcel tax -- the single most regressive tax there is.
Obedient as always, Weiss agreed and the mayor and City Council are on side with him.
There will be blood on the streets between now and October from violence by illegal immigrant criminals and the blood will be -- already is -- on their hands.
The least anyone can do it is to email or call you own council office and demand that immediate hearings be held and the council put on record on the issue: Do they support illegal immigrant criminals living in our city or are they going to do something about it?
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.