To paraphrase the immortal words of the great Edgar Allen Poe, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls"... ask instead why the politicians are ringing it in the first place. I watched intentently yesterday as the mayor of Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Police Chief and the Los Angeles County Sheriff all rang the "public safety issue" bell while announcing that they support some form of a drivers license for illegal aliens in the State of California. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Folks I am a retired cop albeit Military, and I have been to this rodeo before where politico's would insult my intellegence with their lies or half truths but this is off the charts on the WTF Index. Charlie Beck, the LAPD Chief had the unmittigated gaul to state that the reason illegal aliens don't have insurance on their vehicles, don't have the vehicles registered in their names and flee the scenes of accidents is because WE force them to drive illegally here. WE are somehow at fault that they chose to enter this Country illegally and if WE would only give them some form of a California drivers license, that would fix the entire problem instantly. Somehow the illegal immigrants would flock to LINE UP at the DMV, a government office, and tell the Government Employee there that they are here illegally but want to get their names and addresses listed in the Government computers so that they can be found in the future. This way, they are certain to go out and get insurance, properly register their cars and trucks and hold their heads high when in the future they are stopped by police and asked for their dirvers license, proof of registration and insurance and proudly hand the officer their Illegal Imigrant Drivers License to ensure that the officer profiles them as such Are we then to have a moritorium that says, IF the illegal immigrant decides to register they cannot be deported or detained when they get pulled over. Look at the moral outrage in Arizona where the Sheriff was sued by the Justice Department for requiring Deputies to ask for proof of status when stopping someone of hispanic looking decent. Now we have a government initiative to perfect that system in the most liberal state in the union and everyone thinks it is ok because the "public safety bell" was rung in the process.
I am appalled to say the least that the politicians leading Los Angeles, and make not mistake, at this moment, Chief Beck and Sheriff Baca are absolutely politically motivated, have attempted to make me believe that this initiative has merit and will somehow make my existance in Los Angeles more safe. If we start with the premiss that the best preditor of the future is the past and extrapolate out from there, someone who broke the law of the land by entering this Country illegally will almost certainly not suddenly become a law abiding citizen, put themselves on the radar as being here illegal and run to the DMV.
There is an excellent line in Smokey and the Bandit where Burt Reynolds says "I have an excellent bullshit detector. I can tell when someone is pissing on my boots and telling me it's raining". Mayor, Chief and Sheriff - This ain't rain.
