The lack of respect for basic legal principles on the part of some of our elected officials is getting totally out of control. It used to be understood that if you broke the law, you got arrested, and possibly spent some time in jail. Now it depends on which law, which police department, and whether or not you are here illegally. There is no consistent rule of law anymore.<\/p>\n
Yesterday Fox News<\/a> posted an article about a Virginia police officer who has been suspended from his job.<\/p>\n The article reports:<\/p>\n A Virginia<\/strong><\/a> police officer<\/a> was suspended after allegedly turning over a suspected\u00a0undocumented immigrant<\/a>\u00a0to federal authorities following\u00a0a traffic accident last month.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Fairfax County Police Department didn’t identify the officer in a statement<\/a> released Tuesday but said\u00a0the incident occurred on Sept. 21 when an officer was dispatched to a car accident.<\/strong><\/p>\n The officer discovered one of the drivers didn’t have a Virginia driver’s license and ran\u00a0a check with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, police said. The check revealed\u00a0the driver had a violation for failing to appear for a deportation hearing.<\/strong><\/p>\n The officer verified the warrant and alerted officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/strong><\/p>\n An ICE agent was close by and arrived at the scene. The officer cited the driver for not having a driver’s license and turned them over to the federal agent.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Fairfax County Police Department enacted a 2007 policy that prohibits officers from confirming a person’s immigration status and detaining them solely based on civil violations of immigration law.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThis is an unfortunate issue where the officer was confused,\u201d Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. said. \u201cWe have trained on this issue a lot. This is the first time we\u2019ve had a lapse in judgment, and the officer is being punished.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The article concludes:<\/p>\n The officer involved has been on the job for a few years, Roessler told The Washington Post<\/a>. He added that the officer did not willfully violate the department’s policy with respect to cooperating with immigration officials.<\/strong><\/p>\n He said the officer will\u00a0undergo remedial training.<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the people in charge need to undergo remedial training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The lack of respect for basic legal principles on the part of some of our elected officials is getting totally out of control. It used to be understood that if you broke the law, you got arrested, and possibly spent … Continue reading