Special Order 40
No, Special Order 40 is neither a menu entry nor a secret and sinister plan by the Bush administration to deprive us of more civil liberties. It's an order issued nearly thirty years ago by the then-chief of the Los Angeles Police Department which ordered the city's police officers to be cops and not federal immigration officials. Because of the increased hysteria over illegal immigration generated by Republican xenophobes such as Tom "Nuke Mecca" Tancredo and because there has been an uptick in gang violence in Los Angeles, Special Order 40 is once again under attack. Tim Rutten has a pretty good op-ed piece in today's Los Angeles Times on the issue.
In 1979, the LAPD voluntarily decided it no longer would investigate people solely to establish their immigration status and would not arrest anyone simply for being in the country illegally. It was a practical rather than a political or altruistic decision by then-Chief Daryl F. Gates. If the department was going to police the burgeoning immigrant neighborhoods, particularly those where Latinos predominated, it needed the newcomers' cooperation as tipsters and witnesses -- help that wouldn't be forthcoming if the LAPD continued to be regarded as an arm of la migra. [Emphasis added]
Daryl Gates was no weak-kneed liberal wimp as a police chief. His tenure was marred by several instances of institutionalized police brutality and questionable intelligence gathering. But he was also no dummy. Special Order 40 had the desired effect: communication between the police and the Latino community improved over the years as a result of his practical approach. So why tamper with an approach that clearly works?
Well, recently a black high school football star was murdered, allegedly by a gang member who may be in the country illegally. In light of the tragic crime, a Los Angeles Councilman proposed adding a provision to the special order:
"when in the course of gang suppression investigations, LAPD officers are able to verify that a suspect is a known gang member, those officers be instructed to obtain information on the suspect's immigration status and transmit" it to federal authorities.
That addition has the effect of completely nullifying the order, and places police officers into the position of being immigration officers, something the cops just haven't been trained to do:
Immigration law is hideously complex, [LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio] Diaz pointed out. "I would resist any attempt to try to make 10,000 LAPD officers into immigration experts," he said. "We have enough to do educating them all about probable cause and the 4th Amendment."
Councilman Zine is on the wrong side of this issue. Hopefully his colleagues on the Council figure that out.
In 1979, the LAPD voluntarily decided it no longer would investigate people solely to establish their immigration status and would not arrest anyone simply for being in the country illegally. It was a practical rather than a political or altruistic decision by then-Chief Daryl F. Gates. If the department was going to police the burgeoning immigrant neighborhoods, particularly those where Latinos predominated, it needed the newcomers' cooperation as tipsters and witnesses -- help that wouldn't be forthcoming if the LAPD continued to be regarded as an arm of la migra. [Emphasis added]
Daryl Gates was no weak-kneed liberal wimp as a police chief. His tenure was marred by several instances of institutionalized police brutality and questionable intelligence gathering. But he was also no dummy. Special Order 40 had the desired effect: communication between the police and the Latino community improved over the years as a result of his practical approach. So why tamper with an approach that clearly works?
Well, recently a black high school football star was murdered, allegedly by a gang member who may be in the country illegally. In light of the tragic crime, a Los Angeles Councilman proposed adding a provision to the special order:
"when in the course of gang suppression investigations, LAPD officers are able to verify that a suspect is a known gang member, those officers be instructed to obtain information on the suspect's immigration status and transmit" it to federal authorities.
That addition has the effect of completely nullifying the order, and places police officers into the position of being immigration officers, something the cops just haven't been trained to do:
Immigration law is hideously complex, [LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio] Diaz pointed out. "I would resist any attempt to try to make 10,000 LAPD officers into immigration experts," he said. "We have enough to do educating them all about probable cause and the 4th Amendment."
Councilman Zine is on the wrong side of this issue. Hopefully his colleagues on the Council figure that out.
Labels: California, Immigration
posted by Diane at 4:24 AM
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