Another young, promising life gunned down by gangs,...another podium speech!

Last week, I was moved significantly by the story of Jamiel Shaw, Jr. and angered at the lack of caring and support from the Los Angeles City Council to address illegal alien gang members preying on our inner-city youth. One of the initial supporters actually had to request ALL of the council members to quit their side-bar discussions to pay attention. Residents throughout Los Angeles are connecting through the Shaw family, including myself, to say enough is enough. When Cheryl Green was killed by gang members, out came the podium with all of our elected leaders, including the Mayor and our councilmember, stating that something must be done. When Christopher Ash was targeted and killed by the same gang members last December, out came the podium again. Something must be done! Less than a month later, Demetrius Perry, a 23-yr-old black man working with middle school youth, was gunned down by three Latino gang members identified later as Mexican Mafia in the school gymnasium. Out came the podium!

Now we have Jamiel Shaw, Jr.: a role-model student who stayed away from gangs, worked hard in school, two-time high-school football MVP, and being recruited by Stanford & Rutgers. His parents are also role-model citizens; his mother serving our country overseas as an Army soldier in Iraq. Imagine being in the middle of Baghdad, where you’d expect the risk of danger to be very high, and getting the call. “Your son was shot and killed three doors down home, by a gang member that authorities had released less than 24 hours prior.”

Special Order 40 prevents the LAPD from stopping or detaining a person solely based on their legal status. This order had the intention of relieving the issue of an illegal resident coming forward to report a crime by protecting them from being asked their legal status and possibly being deported. But the practice of this order has been to prohibit law enforcement from EVER inquiring about the legal status of a detainee, and gangs throughout Los Angeles have been allowed to thrive and grow. Many of our surrounding jurisdictions, including the L.A. County Sheriffs, have informally adopted Special Order 40 due to the pressure to align with the LAPD as the largest police department in the county. This is not solely helping Latino gangs, but Asian gangs and Black gangs have also been able to use this interpretation to not only prey upon our inner city youth like Cheryl Green and Jamiel Shaw, Jr., but it also gave them access to Pedro Espinoza, the 19-yr-old gang member who killed Jamiel Shaw, Jr.

Mayor Villariagosa said "He was gunned down by someone who was close in age but who took a different path," In my opinion, the reason that “different path” exists is due to how our previous police chiefs, Mayors and City Council members have required Special Order 40 be applied. Because we have not given our law enforcement both the support and the incentive to go after gang members here illegally, they were able to recruit Pedro Espinoza.

Pedro Espinoza was brought to this country illegally at the age of 4. His parents came seeking a better life, and worked very hard like most parents do. Because these gangs rely upon illegal immigrants and recruit them regularly, our immigrant youth population see these illegal alien gang members coming back and forth across a porous border, and they see the police “walking on eggshells” when questioning these thugs because of political correctness. They see the gangs as strong and the police as weak!

Special Order 40 creates that environment because of how it is applied; this approach has been supported by both Chief Bratton and Mayor Villariagosa. Jamiel's Law will modify Special Order 40 to direct the LAPD to use the gang intervention database already available to the LAPD to look up gang members and determine their legal status, and turn over any that are either in this country illegally or cannot confirm their citizenship to Immigration & Customs Enforcement for further disposition, including possible deportation.
Councilmember Hahn wants us to consider a $30M anti-gang initiative measure this November - if she does not support this immediate NO-COST action to get rid of illegal alien gang members coming to our city to prey on our children by recruiting them or killing them, how can she ask us to be taxed on "anti-gang" programs that do much less? It's not our responsibility to give these gang members a place to play basketball or congregate so they can plan their next crime! It's our job to weaken these gangs as much as possible by deporting as many of those that want to harm our families and our children as we can! Regardless of how you feel about immigration in general, I hope we can ALL agree that gang members who come to this country are not doing so to become law-abiding citizens! Please keep the Shaw family in your thoughts and prayers, especially Jamiel Jr's mother, Anita, who returned to Iraq last week to complete her Army tour of duty. Despite this heavy burden that she now has to bear. Anita Shaw values her service to our country so high that she believes that Jamiel Jr. wanted her to return. I sincerely hope she does not give up hope in the good people of this city, this state and this country who benefit every day because she puts her life on the line. But...Anita is RIGHT when she said last Tuesday to our City Council “This does not make sense!” Jamiel Jr. should have been safe, and we failed in our duty to protect and to serve. There is no excuse, and we must now do everything we can to make sure his tragic sacrifice is not fruitless. We must take our L.A. communities back from these illegal gang members and give them back to the good residents & neighbors like the Shaws who so courageously stood up to the semi-attentive and later politically-correct city council last Tuesday!I cannot think of a more deserving young man, God-loving family, and especially one that has already given so much to this country and to their community. It is our job, now, to give them the support they deserve. It’s time to put away the podiums and start taking action!