Opinion:

Local Cops Operating As Federal Law Enforcement?

And Guess Who Gets To Pay For This Piece Of Non-Thinking?

by Johnny Gunn

There is a move afoot to enlist local law enforcement into the immigration service -- to allow local police and sheriff's deputies to work as if they were INS officers -- and that creates a problem that hasn't been addressed on the local level. Local police agencies in Nevada are hard pressed to keep up with local crime now, how can they possibly also become federal immigration officers? And if they do, won't that just add to the already provocative issue of profiling?

There are too many people today that are willing to assume that every Hispanic speaking person they encounter is an illegal alien; the cops would be inundated with stupidity at a level only accepted in places where police are Federales to begin with. Police in this country are already overstepping their bounds by wearing combat uniforms with bloused boots and carrying AK 47s, often showing up at a crime scene wearing black pajamas with facemasks. Generally it's in dictatorships that police are afraid to have the local population know who they are. Now we want them to be able to stop someone on the street and make him or her prove they are in this country legally?

Jurisdictional policing has been a policy in this country almost from the days of the revolution. There are responsibilities that should not overlap each other, and immigration control I believe is one of those areas. Police agencies at the local level need to control crime at the local level, and federal laws need to be enforced at the federal level. The two don't really mix well. Even today jurisdictional disputes arise from differences between local and federal law enforcement working in illegal drug dealing, sometimes even to the point that the feds won't share information with the local agency.

And money is part of the problem. In Washoe County the sheriff has several helicopters at his service. Why? It isn't for search and rescue, not when there is active Civil Air Patrol squadrons and ground search and rescue units in service. It sure as hell isn't for law enforcement, because the most a helicopter in civilian service can do is high-level observation. To say, well it's OK because it's federally funded, is naive at best. Where do those federal funds originate? That's right, your pocket.

So how do we pay for a unit of local police to become agents of the immigration service -- now part of Homeland Security, the largest agency of the federal government? Well, with federal funds, of course. So our taxes for local policing are usurped by the feds to take on a job they have been unwilling to handle themselves for half a century. Because of drugs and gangs most police agencies in Nevada don't even have time to give traffic tickets to stop sign violators, how will taking more men off local crime beats to enforce more federal laws help the matter?

When the federal government is able to control the borders and when federal investigators begin to bring those that hire illegals to the bar, maybe then they will be in a position to ask for help. Control the borders and you reduce local drug problems. Control the borders and you reduce the threat of terrorists coming into the country. Control the borders and those that come legally can look forward to living here without being harassed by local cops doing a bit of profiling.

Every police department insists it does no profiling and yet if you ride a Harley and wear black leather you know you will be stopped before the guy on a Honda Gold Wing wearing nylon. If you drive a low-rider you know you will be stopped before the guy in a Buick sedan. If you wear a beard and longish hair you will be questioned about something before the guy wearing Dockers.

And one more thing while I'm on this rag today, this isn't a Republican or Democrat thing. People have been coming to this country in droves, legally and illegally for hundreds of years. Our economy, our freedoms are the envy of the world. To protect the economy and our freedoms the federal government needs to put controls on the borders. We don't need a Berlin Wall; all we need are federal immigration officers working the borders in enough strength to do the job.

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Cartoon by Thomas Nast, April 12, 1874