The attack on the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Order 40 — which limits when officers can ask about the citizenship status of suspects — has come largely but not exclusively from anti-illegal-immigration forces. But now the order has a new and potentially potent foe: the family of Jamiel Shaw Jr., the Los Angeles High football star who was killed last month, reports the city’s Times. Police have charged a gang member who was in the country illegally with Shaw’s slaying.
Jamiel Shaw Sr. and his wife, Anita, a U.S. Army sergeant who has been serving in Iraq, appeared before the City Council on Tuesday arguing for changes to the 30-year-old Los Angeles Police Department policy as it pertains to gang members suspected of being illegal immigrants. Shaw Sr. proposed that LAPD policy be changed so officers would routinely check the immigration status of known gang members who are crime suspects — which he said would make it easier to immediately deport them. The family’s appearance drew rousing cheers in the council chambers.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-specialorder9apr09,1,264700.story