townhall.com
by Rich Tucker
Accidents will happen. But, as any insurance company will tell you, most accidents could have been prevented. That’s what allows an accident to become a tragedy.
Consider Michael Sprinkles. The 37-year-old paramedic was riding his motorcycle home from work on Sept. 6 when the California Highway Patrol says a car crossed the double-yellow line and killed him. Sprinkles’ death could easily have been prevented. The driver of the car shouldn’t have been behind the wheel -- or even in this country. Suspect Juan Bibinz is an illegal alien.
This isn’t Bibinz’s first brush with the law. He’s been arrested a dozen times. “He has been convicted of four felonies, drug charges, thefts and a count of willful cruelty to a child, for which he served five days in jail,” the Los Angeles Daily News reported on Sept. 7. Oh, and he’s been deported to Mexico -- once.
How can an illegal alien be arrested again and again, yet sent home only once? Maybe because it’s official L.A.P.D. policy that officers can’t ask about a suspect’s citizenship. “Special Order 40, enacted in 1979, bars police from enforcing federal immigration laws,” is how the ACLU put it in a 2001 news release. And, it noted, “the Police Commission’s own Independent Review Panel noted how critical the Order is to ensure public safety.” Tell that to Michael Sprinkles.
Posted by Richard at September 16, 2005