When San Francisco residents Tony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew set out for a picnic, nobody knew that they would see Danielle Bologna for the last time. Hours later the three men were dead and Mrs. Bologna left to bury her husband and sons. Killed during a suspected case of road rage, the shooter was soon identified as an illegal Salvadoran immigrant.

Alleged shooter Edwin Ramos is purported to be a member of the feared MS 13 gang and his background reveals that he has been a frequent guest of the state. All of these allegations are denied by Mr. Ramos’ attorney, Robert Amparan. If Mr. Amparan is wrong, and if Mr. Ramos indeed did kill the men of the Bologna family, then the outcry against San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy is not only justified, but long overdue.

Sanctuary city statutes, in essence, hinder employees of the city and its agents from contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when they hold an individual with questionable immigration status in custody. Moreover, city employees are also forbidden from aiding and abetting ICE during arrests, sweeps, and investigations.

Although in theory a nice way of protecting the downtrodden that come to the United States in the hopes of partaking of the American dream, it appears that in practice this method of dealing with undocumented aliens is leading to violence and murder of American citizens. Loudly championed by newlywed San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, sanctuary city policies are nonetheless now coming under fire in the press. Those who thus far had been decried as racist for championing the upholding of federal laws and the inter-agency cooperation are vindicated.

This of course begs the question: where does it go from here? Jamiel’s Law is making a slower than molasses in winter process through the Los Angeles legislature and still the gang problem in the streets is compounded by the import of gang thugs that add to the numbers of the homegrown gangbangers. While citizens live behind bars and see their constitutional right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness trampled daily by thugs and those who would protect them, the ideological divide between the “let’s deport them all” crowd and the bleeding heart “there are no illegal people in this world” masses threatens to put everyone in the criminals’ crossfire.

The solution is simple: if it’s the law, enforce it; if you don’t like the law, change it. But for crying out law, don’t be a renegade rogue city with your own set of rules that jeopardize everyone else and completely disregard constitutional rights for your citizens and duties imposed on you!

Source:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-sanctuary26-2008jul26,0,3980668.story