Posted on 02/11/2009 9:17:59 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
More than 40 protesters rallied outside the Balcones Heights Police Department on Monday, accusing officers of racial profiling in efforts to detain unauthorized immigrants.
“Since early December there have been cases of racial profiling,” said Carlos de Leon, spokesman for the activist group Brown Berets of San Antonio. “The Police Department has been acting as immigration agents. As a result, they have been randomly stopping anyone who looks Hispanic and asking them for their papers.”
But city officials denied the allegations, saying officers understand they cannot enforce federal immigration policies.
“We're not acting as an ICE agent, no way,” said Police Chief Bill Stannard, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We're just acting as a police officer.”
Stannard said officers do not stop anyone unless they have probable cause, such as a traffic violation. He said officers then question the suspect, and if the person doesn't have any identification and can't be identified via computer, additional steps are taken.
“If we think they are a foreign-born national, we will call immigration,” he said. “The officer will call immigration. The agent will come out immediately or they talk to them on the telephone, and many of the times immigration is the one who will identify these people,” Stannard said.
It's that practice that drew the ire of the Brown Berets and several other Hispanic activist groups Monday as they marched into the Police Department's front parking lot, carrying banners and posters and shouting for justice.
“Everybody knows we're here today to stop racial profiling here at Balcones Heights,” Tony Mandujano of the American G.I. Forum said through a bullhorn.
Mandujano, De Leon and others argued that local police officers have no business enforcing federal immigration laws.
Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said he didn't understand why Balcones Heights would be calling immigration officials.
“I think that's pretty reprehensible,” Harrington said. “They really don't have the right to demand people give their identification unless they have some reason to believe that the identification that person is giving them is wrong. People are not required in this country to carry some sort of proof with them of their identity.”
Spokesmen for both the Bexar County Sheriff's Department and the San Antonio Police Department said they don't make it a practice to call immigration authorities regarding suspects they detain. But Ino Badillo, spokesman for the Sheriff's Department, said immigration officials do make daily stops at the county jail in search of possible unauthorized immigrants.
Stannard, a 33-year peace officer, said he feels his department is acting properly when officers detain people who can't be identified.
“I took an oath as a police officer,” he said. “I feel like we're not racially profiling and that we're doing the right thing. It's not about race. It's not about color. It's whether or not they are here legally or not.”
Brown Berets to protest Balcones Heights 'racial profiling'
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/latinlife/2009/02/the-brown-berets-of-san.html
Link to the Brownie Berets
http://sanantoniobrownberets.com/
Sounds like tjhese officerts deserve medals, and the protestors deserve deportation/exile from the USofA.
The Brown Berets, such a lovely group of ‘people’.
Fact is they don’t want their criminal aliens even stopped when they break other laws. Terry Anderson has had several encounters with this bunch of radicals.
Audio: Augustin Cebada of the Brown Berets
“Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets, we’re here today to show L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we’re here to stay. We do the work in this city, we take care of the spoiled brat children, we clean their offices, we pick the food, we do the manufacturing in the factories of L.A., we are the majority here and we are not going to be pushed around...” — Click here to listen to even more outrageous invader rants
http://ccir.net/AUDIO/TakeoverOfAmericaCD/Menu.html
This is the law of probability at its purest. In Texas, a brown-skinned man named Julio is statistically much more likely to be illegal than a blond, blue-eyed guy named Lars.
Actually they do. SCOTUS dealt with this about 3 years ago. If a police officer asks you for ID, you are legally bound to produce it.
L
Texas Penal Code
FastLaws™ Home
TITLE 8. OFFENSES AGAINST PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER 38. OBSTRUCTING GOVERNMENTAL OPERATION
Penal Code Table of Contents
Chapter 38 Table of Contents
Sec. 38.02. Failure to Identify.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
I’ve lived here for years and never heard of these jokers.
I keep mentioning to people that here in San Antonio, anglos are the distinct minority. Last figures I saw put the hispanic population at nearly 68%. A mi no me importa, but Balcones Heights has had something of a reputation in the past. ICE holds are generally initiated by ICE, not by the state authorities.
That having been said, what they’re doing is well within bounds under the Vienna Convention on Consular Notification, which requires authorities to ask anyone who gives indicia of not being a US citizen whether they are, so notifications can be offered or made, depending on the person’s country of origin.
Colonel, USAFR
“I think that's pretty reprehensible,” Harrington said. “They really don't have the right to demand people give their identification unless they have some reason to believe that the identification that person is giving them is wrong. People are not required in this country to carry some sort of proof with them of their identity.”
Jim Harrington's organization also represented the FLDS Eldorado compound occupants. Seems to have attraction for low lifes.
Austin is also a sanctuary city.
Only in America is this an allegation of wrong doing.
We met a friend in Vienna and were walking with her back to our hotel after dinner.
A police car was putting two people into a third police car as we were observing. She said that the people did not have their passports or proof of visa, so they were being taken to the airport for a one way trip back to their home country. Just like that from a police vehicle stop.
....................and, especially in Texas. LOL
I use that as an example in the talk I’m giving this academic year to the municipal court judges of Texas, followed by the Far Side slide of the guy at the helm of a big ship with a bunch of sailboats painted on the side, with the caption, “This is how the ACLU sees the ICE/Travis County arrangement”. Usually gets a laugh, except from the liberals in Austin...
Colonel, USAFR
“I am of Italian ancestry and resent being called an anglo-saxon. If I can find a lawyer, I will take these people to court for harassment. “
Yep, it kinda irks my American Indian ancestry too!
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