Posted on 08/21/2007 3:59:05 PM PDT by Wolfie
LAPD is Taking Laws Into Its Own Hands
The Police Department shouldn't be able to pick and choose the laws it wants to enforce.
Los Angeles, CA -- When federal agents busted down doors raiding medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles in July, Los Angeles Police Department officers were their comrades in arms. The department's assistance in the raids infuriated some City Council members, who chastised them Wednesday for cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Agency and for enforcing federal drug laws that are in conflict with California's medical marijuana law and the will of the public.
They even threatened to forbid the LAPD from cooperating with the DEA, but that would require the council to actually take an unequivocal stand.
LAPD officials just brushed off the criticism, essentially telling the council to get over it. The department will continue to help the feds bust medical marijuana dispensaries, they said, even though Chief William Bratton has declared that the department supports the state law.
The explanation officials offered was simple: The LAPD has a policy of enforcing federal laws.
That would make sense if it were a policy the department actually followed.
But the truth is that the LAPD only enforces the federal laws that it feels like enforcing.
Despite pressure from federal authorities and many residents of Los Angeles, the LAPD has refused to enforce immigration laws, and officers don't ask about citizenship status except in the rarest instances.
The department has stuck to Special Order 40, which prohibits LAPD officers from asking people about their citizenship status. So much for working with the feds.
Medical-marijuana dispensaries exist legally under state law, but not under federal law. In L.A., city officials are finally trying to craft regulations that will make them less flagrant for feds to bust. But the DEA doesn't care what the city or the state does.
That leaves the LAPD in an awkward situation, but selectively picking which laws it will enforce and which it will ignore does nothing to enhance the department's credibility.
Sounds like: “10 speeders got away, and I was nailed unfairly!”
Except Federal immigration laws ...
Regards
Sounds like they would rather have an easy fat bust than risk their own hide rounding up illegals...
Cancer patients are so much easier to catch than illegals.
There was a time when the LAPD was just as revered as the NYPD. After the Rodney King riots it all went downhill. Now the department is just as bad as New Orleans PD.
I’m all for the City of L.A. telling the unconstitutional DEA’s paramilitary thugs to stop enforcing unconstitutional laws within its jurisdiction. What happened to states’ rights?
They have a policy of enforcing federal laws except for immigration laws.
The States were eliminated by the 17th amendment.
Which I would consider a reasonable argument if I were the slowest vehicle on the road at the time. There is a presumption that 80% of the motorists are reasonably safe drivers; ergo, if 80% of motorists do something, it's probably reasonably safe. So if at least 20% of motorists on a stretch of road are faster than me, it's unlikely that my speed is dangerous; if 99%+ of the motorists are faster than me, it's really unlikely.
That having been said, the federal government should be required to prove in drug cases that the actions of which the defendant was accused either directly involved interstate commerce, or were such that the defendant should have expected them to involve interstate commerce. Not much of a hurdle in most cases, but it would (rightly) prevent some prosecutions.
What can we expect since the LA Mayor was a major activist for La Raza (The Race) at UCLA?
LAPD department policy isn’t worth the paper it is written on. And the city council can just vote to have them change the policy, and that is that.
The federal government has sworn officers to enforce federal laws, as do State and local governments.
It is no more appropriate for a local cop to arrest Cindy Sheehan on a federal treason charge than it is for an FBI agent to issue you a speeding ticket on a city road.
When DEA agents go to arrest a crippled grandmother undergoing chemotherapy because she smokes anti-God weed, the only reason they need to even mention it to the LAPD is to keep the LAPD from gunning down DEA agents, thinking they are MS-13 bank robbers. It is a courtesy call.
It is probably appropriate for the LAPD to control traffic in the vicinity, and to advise armed citizens to not gun down the DEA agents, because he thinks they are MS-13 bank robbers, but that’s about it.
If the city council wants to end this, they can, and right now.
And the Civil War. Despite what our PC history books say, that war was fought over State's rights - not slavery - and the Federal Government won.
Put in some property forfeiture laws for harboring aliens and they'll be all over it.
Great idea...and it might divert them from parking tickets.
Just as revered as the NYPD? I don’t know where you’re from, but in the West, the NYPD was never revered. Going back to the 1930’s, the LAPD and the LASD (SFPD as well) laid the foundations for modern day law enforcement.
I will agree with you about the beginning of the end for the LAPD, although it actually began several years earlier with affirmative action and forced promotion quotas brought on by several lawsuits. After Rodney King, Daryl Gates was forced out and so began the East Coast-erization of the great LAPD, beginning with Willie Williams (Philly) and currently Bratton (NY). Now their just a bunch of namby pamby community outreach officers. Sad really.
Seriously? I’ve always thought the NYPD were the PREMIER police department in the country. I knew the LAPD was great during Hollywood’s golden era, but I didn’t know they were the foundation.
So everyone knows cops have the best dope, but who needs 10 gardeners?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.