LAPD Chief Back Misrepresents Facts for Obama

LAPD Charlie Beck claims that Arizona’s law will cause crime to go up. He bases this on the unproven theory that illegal immigrants are less likely to report crime if they’re afraid that police officers will arrest them.

From my time as an LAPD officer, however, the opposite is true.

For many years, the LAPD’s Special Order 40 provided for the same protections as those demanded by Arizona’s critics. BUT instead of protecting the illegal alien crime victims, the order protected the gangsters who targeted other illegal aliens. As a result, the Order often resulted in the return of gangsters to the Latino neighborhoods they targeted, which chilled crime reporting much more than uniformed police officers ever did.

Chief Beck’s argument also assumes that the police officers he hires are too unprofessional and undisciplined to be trusted to differentiate between law-abiding migrants and criminal gangsters. He knows better but perpetuates the myth to appease the corrupt politicians he works for.

It was partially the politically-motivated misrepresentations of fact thaty contributed to my decision to retire from the LAPD in 2000. How very sad for the Latino community and the officers who serve them.