Showdown Over Crime & Illegal Immigration

Daryl Gates to testify at long-delayed hearing today on Jamiel's Law and LAPD's policy on illegal immigrant gang members

By RON KAYE

Updated 5:00 AM PST, Mon, Oct 27, 2008

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After months of stalling by Councilman Jack Weiss, his Public Safety Committee is armed and ready today to face angry supporters of Jamiel's Law and Special Order 40 who will get support Monday from tough guy former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates.

Talk radio show hosts Doug McIntyre and Kevin James along with mayoral candidate Walter Moore took up the cause of the family of high school football player Jamiel Shaw Jr. after he was gunned down in South Los Angeles in a senseless murder last spring, allegedly by an illegal immigrant gang member who had been released from county jail hours earlier without federal authorities being notified of his status.

For months, Weiss resisted pressure from the community and Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired cop, to hold a hearing on the Jamiel's Law proposal and the LAPD's policy on illegal immigrant gang members arrested on criminal charges but finally relented in early September to hold Monday's hearing.

He bought time for Sheriff Lee Baca to announce stepped up efforts to determine the immigration status of prisoners in county jail and for the LAPD to develop a response. The hearing agenda includes reports from the LAPD and Board of Police Commissioners on whether they will take action to report "known gang members to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities" and hold them in custody if they are suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Special Order 40 was developed by Gates nearly 30 years ago to allow victims and witnesses to reports evidence of crimes to police officers without risk of being arrested themselves on immigration violations.

It also required to officers to notify immigration authorities if they believed suspects arrested for felonies or mulitple misdemeanors were illegals, but that provision has been undermined in practice to the point that LAPD rarely reports immigration status of suspects.

The Rampart Independent Panel criticized the LAPD manual and its practce for ignoring that provision of Special Order 40, and Chief William Bratton promised in 2005 to change the practice, calling criminals who defy U.S. immigration laws "the worst of the
worst, they prey on their own communities, robbing, raping, extorting, and murdering people "

Gates -- famous for such memorable quotes as "casual drug users should be shot" -- is expected to trace the history of Special Order 40 and to explain his own views on how the issue of criminal illegal immigrants should be dealt with.

Jamiel Shaw's family has mounted a petition drive in support of a ballot measure that goes well beyond Special Order 40. They have won significant community support as well as faced substantial resistance.