Well, this was unexpected. Given its long-standing (and richly deserved) reputation for racism, the LAPD has taken a stance for good policing…for a change:
The Los Angeles Police Department won’t change its stripes and help deport undocumented immigrants under President-elect Donald Trump, the city’s top cop said Monday.
“I don’t intend on doing anything different,” LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times in an exclusive interview.
“We are not going to engage in law enforcement activities solely based on somebody’s immigration status,” Chief Beck said. “We are not going to work in conjunction with Homeland Security on deportation efforts. That is not our job, nor will I make it our job.”
[…]
The LAPD already prohibits officers from initiating a police action with the sole purpose of uncovering someone’s immigration status.
The rule, called Special Order 40, was adopted in 1979 to assure undocumented immigrants they could step forward as witnesses or victims of crimes without fearing their actions would lead to deportation.
I have to admit that this came as some surprise to me. The only image I had in my head of the LAPD was that of the cops who beat the shit out of Rodney King, back in 1991:
…or committed the brutal repression that led to the Watts riots of 1965:
The LAPD was, by the admissions of one of its few black members (who also lived in Watts at the time), extremely racist. And for black residents of the city, it still is. So it’s strange, ironic and interesting to see them refusing to serve as a border patrol to one of the most racist presidents-elect ever in the history of the United States of Amnesia.
