Immigration law enforcement is a job that cops do not want, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank writes in the Huffington Post. "The job of law enforcement is to keep communities safe," Burbank and two co-authors write. "When legislators require state and local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration policy, they make it much harder for officers to do their job. Sheriffs and chiefs have long voiced their concerns that asking officers to be immigration agents will scare undocumented community members out of calling on law enforcement for help. The story is even more severe. Police who are required to look for illegal immigrants are going to find fewer drug dealers."
A Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity report has found that one in three Salt Lake City residents are unwilling to report drug-related crimes when law enforcement can detain someone based on their immigration status. Burbank writes, "Given law enforcement's history as an effective tool of social oppression, it should not be surprising that many law enforcement officials across the nation are troubled at the proposition of mandatory immigration enforcement practices that appear motivated by prejudice--a point the report also supports--and are likely to result in increased crime....That is why so many in law enforcement are voicing their objection to a change in their jobs that would once again institutionalize racial profiling and biased policing--while depriving the public of their safety." Burbank wrote the piece with Phillip Atiba Goff and Tracie L. Keesee of the Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity.
Posted by Mary Elizabeth Nichols
Wednesday, June 09, 2010 08:56
Is this comment by Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank in anticipation of a Utah enacted law concerning the resident status of criminal suspects or simply an opportunity for Chief Burbank to get his name in the national press?
From the quotes attributed to this law enforcement professional, Burbank is in the lofty company of US AG Eric Holder + Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano in criticiizing BEFORE READING THE ENABLING LEGISLATION.
Further, Burbank’s statement that " …Sheriffs and chiefs have long voiced their concerns that asking officers to be immigration agents will scare undocumented community members out of calling on law enforcement for help" lacks any substantive foundation in that no replicated studies are cited! Of course, AG Holder did have a splashy dog + pony show featuring less than a dozen police chiefs from Minnesota, Los Angeles + elsewhere to hype Obama’s illegal immigration “reform” agenda as opposed to a duly enacted state law.
Oh, yes! Chief Burbank was there.
Simply amazing what the media manipulation design can produce. Apparently, this churning of uninformed opinion lives on even after the staged press conference is forgotten in a report issued by a group, Consortium for Police Leadership in Equity. which has been around since February, 2009.
Now, that’s “bona fides!” Or, as the beloved cartoon, Porky Pig, says: “That’s All, Folks!”