Posted on 02/22/2012 4:59:09 PM PST by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says the state of California should issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
The licenses don’t have to be identical to those issued to citizens and can be a provisional license or a nonresident license, Beck told a group of Los Angeles Times’ reporters and editorial writers.
“The reality is that all the things that we’ve done – ‘we’ being the state of California – over the last 14, 16 years have not reduced the problem on iota, haven’t reduced undocumented aliens driving without licenses. So we have to look at what we’re doing,” Beck told the group. “When something doesn’t work over and over and over again, my view is that you should reexamine it to see if there is another way that makes more sense.”
Beck believes issuing licenses to illegal immigrants would improve safety on California roads and would, for example, reduce the number of hit-and-run accidents because illegal immigrant drivers would not have fear being caught without a license at accidents, according to the Times.
Beck has in recent months pushed to make a controversial change to the LAPD’s vehicle impound rules for unlicensed drivers. The policy now calls for the car of an unlicensed driver to be impounded, but Beck wants unlicensed drivers with a clean record to be able to call another driver with a license, who would then be allowed to drive the car away.
The impound policy as it currently stands and the resulting fees and fines are an unfair burden on illegal immigrants, Beck has said.
The proposed policy change has been under increasing fire in the wake of at least two fatal accidents involving unlicensed drivers.
In February, three women died after the sport utility vehicle they were in slammed into a tree in South LA. The driver, Tenina M. Calhoun of Moreno Valley, was cited just a month prior by the California Highway Patrol for driving without a license, but her vehicle was not impounded.
Another woman was killed last month in a hit-and-run crash in Boyle Heights. Police said the driver, who had a warrant out for his arrest, was unlicensed.
...spoken like a man who could care less when some drunk illegal runs down an American citizen. HIS EMAIL SHOULD BE FLOODED EVERY TIME A CITIZEN IS KILLED IN LA, ALONG WITH THE MAYORS
Why anybody would bother coming here legally is beyond me. What does it get you except a lot of red tape that you could easily avoid by simply walking across the Mexican border?
Yo Chucky! You’re supposed to be a freakin’ cop! What part of ILLEGAL alien don’t you understand?!
Well, color me confused. This dweeb wants to give illegals a license and here in IL our last Republican governor is still in jail for doing the same thing. Of course, he was charging them a lot of money for them, but still he did the same thing. So will the LA police chief end up in jail too or will it be OK in Liberal-Land?
C’mon y’all! Where’s your heart?
They SHOULD be given drivers licenses. MEXICAN DRIVERS LICENSES!!!
They haven’t been able to stop illegals from driving, so this dipstick says make them all Drive legal and the problem is solved.
The reality really is that CA has done nothing over the last 14-16 years to curb illegals. Their policies actually encourage the illegals.
With that kind of logic, why not just hand out pot to dopers?
Goes double for Los Angeles and the LAPD.
What part of 2 years on the state farm or road gang does this idiot not understand? Betcha the incidents of illegals even coming to this country would dry up let alone driving if they didn’t get off so easy.
Will we pay for their insurance too?
With that kind of logic, why not just hand out pot to dopers?
Is this a great country or what.
Well he should just have them all move in with him. He can probably afford it.
Driver’s licenses for all illegal immigrants, valid in southbound lanes only.
Hell, he doesn't even have the balls to use the term "illegal alien", much less enforce the law.
The late, great state of California.
You know what I have a lot of respect for other states that require a birtcertificate for a DL no matter what state yo come from. Hats off to AZ, GA, AL, for making the law that they did, unfortunate in Calif we want to reward bad behavior. Calif has become a safe haven for illegals to run to because they will not get away with being illegal in other states. Giving illegals DL will not change a thing and this LEO needs to enforce the law not more bad policy’s.
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