Patterico's Pontifications

4/20/2008

39 on 40, Plus Me

Filed under: Crime,Deport the Criminals First,Dog Trainer,General,Immigration — Patterico @ 12:00 am



The L.A. Times‘s Sunday Opinion section has a special feature titled 40 on 40. The title refers to 40 people discussing Special Order 40, which restricts LAPD’s ability to enforce federal immigration laws. Or, as the deck headline explains: “Forty prominent Angelenos and Southern Californians sound off about policing, illegal immigrants and the LAPD.”

Make that 39 prominent Angelenos and Southern Californians . . . and me.

I was asked to keep my contribution to 40 words. Stick out your index finger and start poking the computer screen as you count the words to see how close I came:

Patrick “Patterico” Frey, blogger at Patterico’s Pontifications

Jamiel Shaw would be alive today if we deported every illegal immigrant in County Jail. Instead, immigration authorities screen only 6% of L.A. jail inmates. The best “Jamiel’s Law” would prioritize deporting criminals, by assigning more immigration agents to jails.

(Remember: L.A. counts as only one word!)

Read it all. It’s an interesting set of viewpoints. It’s good that people are paying attention to the issue.

Too bad for Jamiel Shaw that we weren’t paying more attention before.

25 Responses to “39 on 40, Plus Me”

  1. Well done. Forty words that added perspective and valuable information to the debate.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  2. I really disagree with your point, but then I have never been quoted in the same article with Edward James Olmos, so I willingly concede that you are cooler than me by that association alone.

    I will even say that in the few words allowed you were more coherent than Edward James Olmos on the subject.

    This should be a victory lap thread, so I won’t mention my concerns with reassigning immigration agents to inland jails, unless you create another thread specifically directed to that.

    Aplomb (61ab33)

  3. It’s a twofer. People are paying attention to the issue, and the Times is apparently starting to pay attention to your site.

    Apogee (4e1b69)

  4. Aplomb – I agree with you. I don’t want to have to reassign immigration agents to inland jails. I want more of them so we can cover multiple locations effectively.

    Apogee (4e1b69)

  5. Bush’s fault. Why won’t he propose legislation to withhold all Federal funding from local governments that have these sanctuary policies? Deny the tax deductibility of state and local taxes for those local and state governments that have the sanctuary policies and won’t comply with ICE. The Feds can make it easier on the states by taking convicted illegal felons in State prisons and putting them in Federal prisons until completion of sentence followed by immediate deportation. Indeed make committing a felony while here illegally a Federal offense subject to a mandatory five year sentence served consecutively with the state sentence. No no of that has been proposed. Just stupid rhetorical nonsense.

    cubanbob (409ac2)

  6. Unfortunately, most of the other 39 comments are something like: “The rule is excellent and you are a racist hate monger to think otherwise.”

    Perfect Sense (b6ec8c)

  7. The Daryl Gates and Gustavo Arellano comments are an interesting juxtaposition.

    Pablo (99243e)

  8. The Hispanic activists fight special order 40 for a number of nonsensical reasons. The fact of the matter is revoking this order would provide more protection to the Hispanic community community as they are the ones most often victimized by the criminal illegal aliens.

    Stan Switek (7cfd24)

  9. You know we’re living in a crazy world when Melrose Larry Green makes more sense then elected officials.

    Mark1971 (888585)

  10. Unfortunately, most of the other 39 comments are something like: “The rule is excellent and you are a racist hate monger to think otherwise.”

    Not mine.

    Hello, Patterico – nice to see I was in good company. And I totally agree with your comment.

    I, too, was given the 40 word limit, so I addressed how the rule works in practice, which is what counts:

    If I want a job cleaning your company’s toilets, I’ll have to present proof of citizenship and swear under penalty of perjury I’m legal, but if I mug you, beat you, and leave you for dead, it’s no questions asked?

    Amy Alkon, syndicated columnist, advicegoddess.com

    Amy Alkon (262cdf)

  11. I wondered why you were limited to 40 words where others with an opposing view were not?

    And its ironic that 40 on 40 is in today’s paper along with a sympathetic frontpage article on the lack of remittance money being sent back to Mexico by illegals working here due to the housing crunch and economic slowdown and an increasingly tighter border…

    Dana (1b8fba)

  12. You are absolutely correct in your analysis. I copied your post into Microsoft Word…Tools…Word count….Exactly 40. Wd. BTW, What was it you were commenting on anyway? And I got this comment in in only 26 words. Dang it.. make that

    Toes (81ca7a)

  13. I suspect nothing will change until some high-profile individual is killed by an illegal invader. And even then, I’m not sure.

    Here is AZ, there is a war going on between Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio is taking taking the hard line against illegals and Gordon is incensed, calling for an FBI investigation about civil rights violations.

    Horatio (55069c)

  14. Horatio,

    I’m interested in who you think has the most support in Phoenix – Gordon or Arpaio? Or is it too close to call?

    DRJ (a431ca)

  15. I’m interested in who you think has the most support in Phoenix – Gordon or Arpaio? Or is it too close to call?

    Given the passage of the law mandating that employer’s verify immigration status or suffer serious consequences, I think public support is heavily on the side of Sheriff Joe. Rumor has it Gordon is running for Governor when Janet Napolitano’s current term ends

    Horatio (55069c)

  16. Horatio – I have friends in Phoenix, and have never been able to reconcile how the State with Sheriff Joe, McCain and Kyl has a Democratic Governor (although she did call for NatGuard at the border).

    Also, a different friend told me he was looking for day laborers in Phoenix and couldn’t find any, so maybe those laws actually work.

    Apogee (366e8b)

  17. Horatio – I have friends in Phoenix, and have never been able to reconcile how the State with Sheriff Joe, McCain and Kyl has a Democratic Governor (although she did call for NatGuard at the border).

    The counties in AZ are rather divided but what I can only see as those dependent upon government and those who are not.

    Napolitano’s call for the National Guard on the border was a PR stunt. It had no effect, no teeth and was completely ineffectual.

    Also, a different friend told me he was looking for day laborers in Phoenix and couldn’t find any, so maybe those laws actually work

    This is true. Illegals are leaving for more lucrative pastures, including going back to Mexico, where the Governor of Sonora Provence is complaining about the influx of Mexicans!

    Horatio (55069c)

  18. Well said, Patrick and Amy. Your comments, in their sensibleness, stood out in that company.

    Patricia (f56a97)

  19. Thanks, Patrick, for commenting. In the end, so many of those Angelent Prominenenos ended up blowing the word count by so many words (thus dashing my early hope of keeping this short enough to run in print) that I ended up abandoning that. Rest assured that the word-count observant still have a special place in my heart.

    Tim Cavanaugh (5a87cf)

  20. take a look at chief bratton’s comment (second from last) where he dichotomized individual “concerned parties” as “immigrant advocates” and “immigrant haters”. this is somewhere between demeaning and defamatory to those who don’t hate immigrants, but support the law.

    assistant devil's advocate (b716df)

  21. Uh Justine?

    Patterico’s obviously a little less proud than you thought… 🙂

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  22. Heh… Sorry dude…

    Totally don’t know where that last “E” came from…

    My bad.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  23. Patterico and Amy Alkon are clearly unrepentant racists 😉

    JD (75f5c3)

  24. If there were no illegal aliens in this country, would roads, hospitals, and schools be as crowded? Oh sorry, my pragmatic side. I love traffic, high COL, and long lines! Come to America!

    I.M. Copper (d5a17b)

  25. Love that Tim Rutten–finger on the pulse, man!
    Divisive civic waters are roiling.

    Kate (7c89a9)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0929 secs.