Prevarication Rather than Verification

PERFerring to Pervaricate

June 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment · Edit This

The handful of police chiefs who complained to Attorney General Eric Holder about Arizona’s new immigration law don’t represent law enforcement. They have a liberal agenda.
The media have breathlessly reported how the police brass traveled to Washington to voice their concerns over the law in an hour-long meeting with Holder. Left unreported was that the whole thing was staged by a liberal Washington lobby group called the Police Executive Research Forum, which a month earlier hosted longtime supporter Holder at its annual confab.
PERF’s Web site describes itself as a “progressive” organization “challenging traditional police practices.” Media also failed to note PERF is partnered with the ACLU and has lobbied against even federal enforcement of immigration laws. In fact, PERF favors amnesty for the millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
The police chiefs who attended the Holder meeting are members of PERF. One of them — Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor — argued that his state’s illegal immigrant crackdown will target “a subset of the community.” Yes, a criminal subset, which is the whole point.
Still, Villasenor insisted, “This is not the focus of local law enforcement. Immigration is the focus of the federal government.”
Unfortunately, the feds aren’t focusing on the problem, forcing besieged border states like Arizona to protect themselves. And long before Arizona’s S.B. 1070 became law, Villasenor’s own county signed an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help border agents ID and round up criminal aliens.
Tucson is the seat of Pima County — one of more than 70 law enforcement agencies across the country that ICE has deputized to crack down on illegals under the so-called 287(g) program, which PERF also opposes. Pima signed its agreement in 2008.
Rather than complaining, Villasenor should be grateful. The partnership has helped take dangerous criminals off the streets of Tucson and surrounding areas. Nationwide, it has ID’d and processed for removal more than 110,000 criminal aliens since January 2006.
Villasenor knows how bad the problem is in his state. Tellingly, he argued that the feds will be overwhelmed by the number of referrals once every cop in Arizona is empowered to check the immigration status of people they stop.
Villasenor argues the Arizona law, which takes effect July 29, will only divert resources from fighting crime. But much of Arizona’s recent crime wave involves immigrant-related drug-running, kidnapping, rape and murder. So attacking illegal immigration will at the same time reduce the overall crime rate.
It’s a shame he and other police chiefs would choose political grandstanding over the safety of the citizens they’re sworn to protect. (IBD)
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Oh, and Obama found some time in his “busy” schedule to meet with Governor Jan Brewer on Thursday.
The initial response from the White House indicated a visit was not in the cards.
“We remain in regular contact with the governor and her staff,” White House spokesman Adam Abrams told reporters. “While the president’s schedule next week doesn’t allow for a meeting, he does intend to sit down with the governor in the future.”
On Tuesday, the author of Arizona’s immigration law — which Obama has called “misguided” and expressed concerns that it might be applied in a “discriminatory” fashion — criticized the president’s failure to make time to meet with Brewer, calling it “an insult.”
Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce told Fox News that the president is “willing to have a beer fest with an officer in Cambridge after he misspoke. … He misspoke on this bill also and he’s not willing to meet with the governor of the state of Arizona?”
Later on Tuesday the White House announced the president intended to meet with Brewer after all.(ABC)
So he was planning to have a meeting with Hillary and India so will they meet over a curry?
An administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Brewer will meet Obama on Thursday at the White House.
“This administration has dedicated unprecedented resources over the past 16 months to fulfill the federal government’s responsibility to secure the Southwest border. The president looks forward to discussing those efforts and other matters of mutual interest with Governor Brewer,” the official said. (Reuters)

Does this sound like the BS it was not intended to sound like? Meaningless Orwellian drivel.
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By a 3-2 vote the board moves to suspend county-funded travel to the state, possibly terminate contracts with Arizona-based companies, and divest the county pension fund of Arizona state and municipal bonds. Residents attending the meeting spoke out on both sides of the issue.
Among the speakers against the boycott were family members of Jamiel Shaw II, a 17-year-old football player who was recruited by Stanford and Rutgers before he was shot to death in 2008. Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street gang who was in the U.S. illegally, has been charged with murder in the case. He had been released from jail a day before the shooting after serving time for another offense.
“I was coming here thinking what can I say to touch their hearts? But you don’t have one,” Tommie Shaw, Shaw’s grandmother, told the supervisors.
You go Grandma! And we, at least, are sorry for your loss. I don’t think the LA City Council cares enough to be sorry.
They are too busy pandering.
And that, after all, is what all the noise is about.