If being the principal force behind the nation’s most popular and dynamic political powerhouse wasn't enough to command the attention of most Americans, the likelihood that come next winter Michelle Obama could be the first black woman to occupy the White House has made her one of the most fascinating figures in the media today. With her six-figure earning power, Ivy League intellect and key role in securing the Democratic bid for her husband, Illinois senator Barack Obama, in what will go down in history as one of the most exciting presidential races this nation has ever seen,—all eyes are on Michelle Obama.
Essence magazine listed her among “25 of the World’s Most Inspiring Women” and in July of 2007, Vanity Fair Magazine listed her among “10 of the World’s Best Dressed People.” She was also listed 58th of “The Harvard 100,” a list of the prior year’s most influential alumni in September of 2007.
Her skyrocketing popularity has evoked parallels to Jackie Kennedy, a notion made all the more pronounced with endorsements from Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg and Senator Ted Kennedy. But her outspokenness, growing media profile and vital importance in the Obama camp have made her a target.
Before Rev. Jeremiah Wright, political analysts and rivals looking for a possible crack in Obama's political armor thought they might have found it in his wife.
A statement most believe was directed towards Hillary Clinton’s campaign in a speech last summer, first got the attention of the nation's media, drawing fire.
"If you can't run your own house, you can't run the White House," Obama had said.
Some pundits called it an indirect criticism of Hillary Clinton. Obama’s husband would later say the words were not directed at Hillary while characterizing the fluff behind the incident as "completely fabricated."
But what was not so easily dismissed was the characterization of Michelle Obama as overly opinionated and overbearing that surfaced on the campaign trail.
Early in the campaign, analysts described her as sarcastic when recalling anecdotes about the Obama family life. In an interview with MSNBC, Michelle Obama said of her husband: “he has big ears … a funny name, too. He doesn’t put butter away. Has trouble making his bed. He’s not the next Messiah who’s going to fix it all. He is going to stumble and make mistakes you won’t agree with. In the end, he’s just a man.”
Some analysts contended that her jests at humbling her husband could become a liability. In a press account of her sarcasm, New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd said: “I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god ... But it may not be smart politics to mock him in a way that turns him from the glam JFK into the mundane Gerald Ford, toasting his own English muffin. If all Senator Obama is peddling is the Camelot mystique, why debunk this mystique?”
And, as the press began to emphasize her sarcasm, which did not translate well in the print media, she appeared to tone it down.
But in February, Michelle Obama sparked yet another media firestorm when she told a Milwaukee, Wisconsin crowd that for the first time in her adult lifetime, she was really proud of her country, adding, "not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”
Conservatives jumped on the statement, attacking the Chicago-born lawyer and mother of two. A recent ad playing up the incident is being broadcast on the airwaves in Tennessee and the internet prompting the Illinois senator to admonish his opponents to lay off his wife.
“The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, or my track record," Obama fired back. “If they think that they’re going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I find unacceptable, the notion that you start attacking my wife or my family. He called the strategy, “low class.”
Fact is, Michelle Obama has been the subject of curiosity, if not scrutiny, since her husband's meteoric rise to the forefront of the Democratic Party after bowing on the national stage in 2004 with his electric keynote speech at the national convention at Boston's Fleet Center.
Though for some, her outspoken nature might not fit the persona of the archetypal first lady, political analyst Kerman Maddox said he was among just many who find her traits to be refreshing.
“This is an appeal quality to many people because she comes across as real and genuine,” Maddox said in an interview last year. Some people prefer the candidates’ wives to gaze glowingly at their husbands and for them to be working hard to be politically correct.”
"Michelle Obama doesn't appear to fit that stereotype and I think it resonates with many women voters. In fact, I'm not sure the media or the public has figured how to handle a strong, highly intelligent, well-educated, opinionated African American woman like Michelle Obama?"
Amidst the campaign frenzy, Obama, who stands 5'11", has also been described as fascinating, straight-talking, and charming;—a woman who holds down the home front, raising two daughters with a trademark cool and collected persona.
Indeed, she has found her biggest connection to voters to be in the more simple things of life: how she was reared, her principles, the love of family and how she is raising her children.
"As a parent I marvel at the fact that my father---a blue collar worker who also had multiple sclerosis and could not walk without the use of a cane, was not just able to raise us and keep a roof over our heads,” she has said, “but to send two kids at the same time to Princeton University.”
Born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson on January 17, 1964, she came from humble beginnings. Her father, Frasier Robinson, was a city water plant employee and her mother, Marian Robinson, was a Spiegel’s catalog secretary. The Robinson's had two children, Craig, who is 16 months older than Michelle, and Michelle. They lived in a one-bedroom apartment where the children slept in the living room, which was sectioned off by a patrician to form their bedroom.
Education was paramount in the Robinson home. Both children skipped the second grade and attended Whitney Young High School, a magnet school that boasts such alum as NASA Astronaut Joan Higginbotham, and NFL Superbowl Champ, Russell Maryland.
After high school, Obama and her brother both attended Princeton University. Craig Robinson is currently the Oregon State University Beaver’s Men’s basketball coach.
Although her position has been scaled down so she can assist with the presidential campaign, Obama is employed as vice president for the Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where in 2006, she took home a whopping $273, 618 (over $100,000 more than what her husband made as senator of Illinois) according to federal income tax returns.
Today, with the Secret Service for protection, cameras documenting their every move, and a nanny to help with the children, Michelle Obama lives a world quite different than what she probably ever imagined.
Her senior year thesis at Princeton University, entitled, “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community,” revealed the mind of a young black woman who believed she would always stand on the sidelines of American society because of the color of her skin.
“My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances under which I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."
Written in 1985, Obama goes on to say that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to “ further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.” (The 96-page thesis has been temporarily pulled from the University archives by librarians who were swamped with requests for a copy).
Obama—who went on to do post-graduate studies and secure a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard—met her future husband after returning home to Chicago and landing a job at the prestigious corporate law firm, Sidley Austin.
Assigned to mentor a summer intern by the name of Barack Obama (also a Harvard Law School graduate), she often candidly recalls how she initially dreaded the assignment.
“I read his bio and I thought, wow, this guy is black and he grew up in Hawaii, so I lowered my expectations because I thought any black guy that spent his formative years on an Island had to be crazy,” she recounts. “But I was wrong. I did like many people do and based my assumptions on a piece of paper. I thought there wasn’t anything I could possibly have in common with this guy.”
Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting. The couple's first date was to the Spike Lee movie, “Do The Right Thing,” and they were married in October 1992, by the now controversial, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
When asked about what made her fall in love with the presidential hopeful, she replied to reporters, "for the same reason many other people respect him: his connection with people."
Over the years, Obama would become a mother of two daughters, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha (known as Sasha) (born 2001), and go from the corporate world to the public sector in a slew of prestigious positions, including assistant to the Mayor of Chicago, and Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development.
In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization that encourages young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies, and at one time, she sat on the board of TreeHouse Foods, Inc., a major Wal-Mart supplier. She has since cut ties with them after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum. Obama also serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
But for all she has accomplished, her biggest mission just might stand before her in rewriting history as America's next First Lady —the first black women to call the White House home. And she is more than doing her part.
In May 2007, three months after her husband declared his candidacy, she reduced her professional responsibilities by eighty percent to become an active participant in the campaign.
“The way I look at it is, we’re running for president of the United States. Me, Barack, Sasha, Malia, my mom, my brother, his sisters—we’re all running,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Initially, she had limited involvement in the campaign, traveling to political events only two days a week, but by early February 2008, she had employed an all-female staff of aides, attended thirty-three campaign events in eight days, and stated on more than one occasion that she is Barack’s closest political advisor, keeping him level headed.
The political stump speeches for her husband's presidential campaign at various locations throughout the United States more than reveal her own audacity of hope. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote about one speech of hers in Iowa, stating "Michelle was a firebrand, expressing a determined passion for her husband's campaign, talking straight from the heart with eloquence and intelligence."
But with the role has come the spotlight, complete with appearances on countless talk shows and news programs including Good Morning America and Larry King Live, and the political attacks that have come to define the hard-fought campaign.
Nothing, however, has seemed to derail Obama’s popularity with voters as the campaign's fundraising soared to record levels making him the most bankable candidate—Republican or Democrat— in the race.
For that, Michelle Obama is more than thankful as she knows all too well that she is standing on the brink of being the right hand to the most powerful man in the world, should Obama win this November.
Win or lose, the 44-year old senator's wife is pleased with what they've been able to accomplish, stating what she hopes the campaign has portrayed.
“As we have all said in the Black community, we don’t see all of who we are in the media," Obama has said. "We see snippets of our community and distortions of our community so the world has this perspective that somehow Barack and Michelle Obama, are different, and unique, and we’re not-- you just haven’t seen us before.”
Despite the likelihood that her husband will be the Democratic nominee, Obama steers clear of discussing what she will do as First Lady, only recently suggesting that she would take on women's and family issues.
She is certain, however, of this: “When people ask, ‘what kind of First Lady will you be?’—I’m going to try, in all this, to be honest, hopefully funny, and open, and share important parts of me with people, hopefully in a way that will help them think about their lives and avoid the mistakes we may have made in our lifetime. What you see on the trail is probably who I will be as First Lady, because that’s really who I am.”
“I am desperate for change—now,” she says, “not in 8 years or 12 years, but right now. We don’t have time to wait. We need big change—not just the shifting of power among insiders. We need to change the game, because the game is broken. When I think about the country I want to give my children, it’s not the world we have now."
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
No Sanctuary for Gangsters: The Battle to end Special Order 40 and Establish Jamiel's Law
On Sunday March 2, 2008, 47-year-old Jamiel Shaw Sr. called his teenage son on the phone to find out what was taking him so long to return home from the mall. When Jamiel Shaw II told his father he was just five minutes away, the two hung up. Minutes later, Shaw Sr. heard gun shots ring out through their Arlington Heights neighborhood so he called his son back to warm him to 'be careful.' When there was no answer, Shaw says he already knew what had happened.
"The guy shot him point blank in the chest with a 45, then he reached down, put the gun to his head, and literally blew his brains out. I was there. I heard the gunshots and I saw his brains in the street."
Police say 19-year old Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street Gang, drove up and asked Shaw the question so many teenage Angelinos fear being asked, 'Where are you from?' When Shaw—who was just three doors away from his home—didn't respond, Espinoza murdered him in order to carry out the activities of the gang's affiliation.
Shaw was an African-American all star high school athlete who was preparing for his SAT's. His parents were doing all they could to keep him on the right track and headed to college and it was working. A good student, he was being recruited by several universities including Rutgers, Stanford, USC, and even had plans to participate in the 2012 Olympics in track and field.
His mother, U.S. army sergeant Anita Shaw, overseas serving in Iraq, was told of her son's murder after being summoned to the Red Cross office in Baghdad. Devastated, she would board a plane just thirty minutes later for the long flight home to bury her son; an innocent victim in L.A.'s street wars.
To make matters worst, the killer is an illegal alien who has been in and out of the L.A. county jail system for years. The day before he shot Shaw, police say he had been released from the Culver City jail for assault.
Shaw Sr. believes his son was targeted because he was black and the family is grief-stricken, frustrated and angry.
"My son was an American citizen," Shaw said. "No matter how you sugar coat it, he was murdered by someone who shouldn't have been in the country. Someone who had been in and out of the penal system, not checked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), and no one in the county turned him over to the federal immigration."
Espinoza was picked up by police the following Friday and prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty.
Meanwhile, across town, in Paramount, 26-year-old Nathan Chandler sits in his wheelchair, struggling to remember the night he became a crime statistic, but with the left side of his skull blown away, Chandler doesn't remember much.
"My memory is fuzzy, so most of what I know is based on what peoople have told me," stated Chandler who is scheduled to have skull replacement serjury this summer.
He and his friends were targeted on February 3, after returning from a night out at Universal City Walk. A detour on the freeway led them down the wrong street and they ended up in an East L.A. neighborhood where they say a black truck with several Latino males pulled up and shot at their car.
Two of Chandler's friends were also shot that night but they were treated and released from the hospital with minor injuries. The suspects were never caught and family and friends believe the shooting was a result of yet another gang initiation process.
Chandler spent the first two weeks after the shooting in a coma and is presently undergoing speech therapy, as well as occupational, and recreational rehabilitation at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in order to re-learn such basic motor skills as walking.
Says Chandler, "I spend a lot of nights thinking about what has happened to me. And there have been a lot of times where I literally just sit and break down crying because I'm so frustrated with what I have to go through.
Nathan Chandler and Jamiel Shaw's stories are becoming more and more commonplace both in the news headlines in the papers, and on local TV news, and in the community grapevine as fear of growing black/brown tensions mount. But it was the Shaw case that turned the spotlight on crimes by gang members who are in the country illegally and "Special Order 40", an LAPD policy mandate that prohibits police from inquiring about the immigration status of those they arrest.
According to the Los Angeles Almanac, as of 2005 law enforcement officials were aware of more than 1300 street gangs with over 150,000 members in L.A. county. In the city of Los Angeles alone, there are approximately 407 gangs with over 56,000 members. More than half of the 'known' gang members in the city are Latino, and in many cases, in the country illegally. The reason so many are able to evade immigration officials is because Los Angeles made Special Order 40 policy in 1979, creating what is called a sanctuary city.
Special Order 40 was originated by former Los Angeles Police Chief Gates and the L.A. City Council to protect the rights of immigrants and make it easier for them to come forward in the event they witness a crime without the fear of deportation.
Nearly 30 years has passed since the policy was put in place and some feel it is outdated, unfair, and having adverse affects on the safety of the city, particularly with the growing black/brown tensions and the increasing activities of gangs like MS-13 whose makeup is predominantly illegal immigrants.
The downside to Special Order 40 is substantial because it is a powerful incentive for more illegal immigrants to evade U.S. law, viewing Los Angeles – and many other cities that have adopted similar laws – as safe havens where they can't be touched because of their immigration status.
Espinosa previously served 180 days on gun charges without police even checking into his immigration status.
"It's obscene," wrote L.A. Daily News columnist and radio talk show host, Doug McIntyre. "The ultimate responsibility for the murder of Jamiel Shaw rests with the triggerman. But let me be blunt – the cowardice of local politicians who hide behind political correctness and racial pandering as an excuse to look the other way on the mounting death toll perpetrated by illegal aliens are enablers of death."
Special Order 40 is also at odds with the law because it is basically telling officers to ignore federal immigration laws.
To that end, Judicial Watch, a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, established to promote accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law, filed a lawsuit on April 28, 2006 in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
"The Los Angeles Police Department needs to stop undermining our nation's immigration laws," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Special Order 40 is unlawful and dangerous. It prevents police officers from communicating freely with federal immigration officials and puts American citizens at risk from criminal illegal aliens."
On April 8, Shaw Sr., who says he has now made it his life's mission to make the streets of L.A. safer, went before city council to ask them to amend Special Order 40 and adopt Jamiel's Law which would not extend 'sanctuary city' rights to gang members and allow police to arrest those here illegally.
"Jamiel's Law would actually require the mayor and the police chief to take action and deport gang members without waiting for them to commit a crime," says 2009 Mayoral Candidate, Walter Moore, who drafted the law. "It's just that simple. If they are here illegally, you get them for that."
Just days after Shaw Sr. plead with City Council to change the city's policy, Councilmen Dennis Zine, who represents the third district, introduced a motion to alter Special Order 40 that sounded similar to Jamiel's Law, except that police would not be allowed to arrest 'known' gang members that are in the country illegally, unless they commit a crime. Under Zine's motion, a 'known' gangster who does not commit a crime, and is here illegally, would have a notification sent out to ICE.
"The modification that I'm calling for, I believe to be extremely reasonable," said the councilman who also serves as Chair of the Immigration Task Force for the National League of Cities.
But while the councilman says he introduced the motion in an effort to make Angelinos safer, Moore believes the motion is merely a tactic to thwart the public and get Special Order 40 out of the headlines.
"I think there are people in City Hall who are so committed to protecting illegal aliens that they would rather protect illegal alien gang members than American citizens," Moore said.
In response, Zine said, "Walter Moore is talking about establishing a process. I believe we already have a process that can work successfully. With the modifications of Special Order 40, we don't have to establish a new procedure. We just need to implement this motion to amend the rule and it would address the concerns."
For most, the biggest difference in Jamiel's Law is that the California Department of Justice—along with other law enforcement agencies—maintains a comprehensive computer database called Cal/Gang, complete with photos, names, addresses and other vital information on thousands of 'known' gang members. With Jamiel's Law, police officials would be allowed to research and arrest anyone in that database who is here illegally.
Under Zine's motion, officials would not be allowed to arrests individuals in the Cal/Gang database unless they commit a crime. (Gang members, who are in the database and have not committed any crimes within five years, are considered reformed and dropped from the system)
.
While immigrant rights groups fear Jamiel's Law could cause police to abuse their power, an April 17 poll in the L.A. Times Newspaper revealed that of 2,525 people surveyed, 78 percent believe that L.A.P.D. officers should be allowed to ask about citizenship status when stopping people for routine crimes.
As of late April, Zine's motion had not been placed on the council's agenda for action and Walter Moore says he plans to get the 74,000 signatures needed to put Jamiel's Law on the ballot for a vote in March of 2009.
Ten years ago, the L.A. Times Newspaper ran a three part series on the 18th street gang, the same gang that killed Jamiel Shaw II, and stated that out of the membership estimated to be as high as 20,000, about 60% of them are illegal immigrants, according to a confidential report by the state Department of Justice. The statistics also found that the gang's primary recruitment targets immigrant youngsters -- and that's just one gang.
Growing tensions between blacks and browns—particularly among the city's gangs—only serve to exacerbate the problem.
Area churches—both black and Hispanic—are looking for ways to relieve at lease some of the rising tensions. Several organizations— including the Power of Love Christian Fellowship, H.O.P.E. For Life Foundation, Unidos Por Jesucristo, Teach Them 2000 and dozens of other community and city organizations—are set to host an African-American and Latino Conference to establish a dialogue between the two communities with the goal developing a unified solution.
The conference will be held this September at USC and the turnout is expected to be huge. Leaders want the public to attend the event, share ideas, and pray for the city's unification of the black and brown youth.
In the meantime, prayer is how Nathan Chandler gets through his ordeal.
"I know God's going to bring me through, states Chandler who has been making tremendous progress since the attempted murder.
At one time, Chandler would forget a face or a conversation within minutes. And during this interview, he straightened his leg out to all of his family's delight. Chandler hopes to move forward and use his testimony to enlighten others.
"I want to get in the streets and tell these gang members that going around shooting people is just not the way to live. Someone needs to tell them this is not what you should be doing," he said. "They need more education."
Whether education, or deportation is the answer Jamiel Shaw Sr. is left to mourn the death of his son. The father says that mail still comes from university athletic scouts who don't know he was murdered.
Jamiel Shaw is survived by his mother—now overseas in Kuwait, his father, and his nine-year-old brother, Thomas. Shaw Sr. says he struggles to comfort the little boy.
"This morning my little son was getting ready for school and he sat there with his legs crossed staring at a picture of Jamiel, crying, saying man, dad this is a nightmare. And I couldn't explain to him. He asked why did Jamiel have to die and I couldn't explain. I mean what do you say to a frightened nine-year old? Oh the lord needed an angel. No! I just said, you know what Thomas, I just don't know."
An angry father, who says his son was the sacrificial lamb, Shaw Sr. is committed to making a difference in Los Angeles.
"If it takes the rest of my life I'm going to break down "Special Order 40."
"The guy shot him point blank in the chest with a 45, then he reached down, put the gun to his head, and literally blew his brains out. I was there. I heard the gunshots and I saw his brains in the street."
Police say 19-year old Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street Gang, drove up and asked Shaw the question so many teenage Angelinos fear being asked, 'Where are you from?' When Shaw—who was just three doors away from his home—didn't respond, Espinoza murdered him in order to carry out the activities of the gang's affiliation.
Shaw was an African-American all star high school athlete who was preparing for his SAT's. His parents were doing all they could to keep him on the right track and headed to college and it was working. A good student, he was being recruited by several universities including Rutgers, Stanford, USC, and even had plans to participate in the 2012 Olympics in track and field.
His mother, U.S. army sergeant Anita Shaw, overseas serving in Iraq, was told of her son's murder after being summoned to the Red Cross office in Baghdad. Devastated, she would board a plane just thirty minutes later for the long flight home to bury her son; an innocent victim in L.A.'s street wars.
To make matters worst, the killer is an illegal alien who has been in and out of the L.A. county jail system for years. The day before he shot Shaw, police say he had been released from the Culver City jail for assault.
Shaw Sr. believes his son was targeted because he was black and the family is grief-stricken, frustrated and angry.
"My son was an American citizen," Shaw said. "No matter how you sugar coat it, he was murdered by someone who shouldn't have been in the country. Someone who had been in and out of the penal system, not checked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), and no one in the county turned him over to the federal immigration."
Espinoza was picked up by police the following Friday and prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty.
Meanwhile, across town, in Paramount, 26-year-old Nathan Chandler sits in his wheelchair, struggling to remember the night he became a crime statistic, but with the left side of his skull blown away, Chandler doesn't remember much.
"My memory is fuzzy, so most of what I know is based on what peoople have told me," stated Chandler who is scheduled to have skull replacement serjury this summer.
He and his friends were targeted on February 3, after returning from a night out at Universal City Walk. A detour on the freeway led them down the wrong street and they ended up in an East L.A. neighborhood where they say a black truck with several Latino males pulled up and shot at their car.
Two of Chandler's friends were also shot that night but they were treated and released from the hospital with minor injuries. The suspects were never caught and family and friends believe the shooting was a result of yet another gang initiation process.
Chandler spent the first two weeks after the shooting in a coma and is presently undergoing speech therapy, as well as occupational, and recreational rehabilitation at Long Beach Memorial Hospital in order to re-learn such basic motor skills as walking.
Says Chandler, "I spend a lot of nights thinking about what has happened to me. And there have been a lot of times where I literally just sit and break down crying because I'm so frustrated with what I have to go through.
Nathan Chandler and Jamiel Shaw's stories are becoming more and more commonplace both in the news headlines in the papers, and on local TV news, and in the community grapevine as fear of growing black/brown tensions mount. But it was the Shaw case that turned the spotlight on crimes by gang members who are in the country illegally and "Special Order 40", an LAPD policy mandate that prohibits police from inquiring about the immigration status of those they arrest.
According to the Los Angeles Almanac, as of 2005 law enforcement officials were aware of more than 1300 street gangs with over 150,000 members in L.A. county. In the city of Los Angeles alone, there are approximately 407 gangs with over 56,000 members. More than half of the 'known' gang members in the city are Latino, and in many cases, in the country illegally. The reason so many are able to evade immigration officials is because Los Angeles made Special Order 40 policy in 1979, creating what is called a sanctuary city.
Special Order 40 was originated by former Los Angeles Police Chief Gates and the L.A. City Council to protect the rights of immigrants and make it easier for them to come forward in the event they witness a crime without the fear of deportation.
Nearly 30 years has passed since the policy was put in place and some feel it is outdated, unfair, and having adverse affects on the safety of the city, particularly with the growing black/brown tensions and the increasing activities of gangs like MS-13 whose makeup is predominantly illegal immigrants.
The downside to Special Order 40 is substantial because it is a powerful incentive for more illegal immigrants to evade U.S. law, viewing Los Angeles – and many other cities that have adopted similar laws – as safe havens where they can't be touched because of their immigration status.
Espinosa previously served 180 days on gun charges without police even checking into his immigration status.
"It's obscene," wrote L.A. Daily News columnist and radio talk show host, Doug McIntyre. "The ultimate responsibility for the murder of Jamiel Shaw rests with the triggerman. But let me be blunt – the cowardice of local politicians who hide behind political correctness and racial pandering as an excuse to look the other way on the mounting death toll perpetrated by illegal aliens are enablers of death."
Special Order 40 is also at odds with the law because it is basically telling officers to ignore federal immigration laws.
To that end, Judicial Watch, a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, established to promote accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law, filed a lawsuit on April 28, 2006 in the Superior Court for the State of California, County of Los Angeles.
"The Los Angeles Police Department needs to stop undermining our nation's immigration laws," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Special Order 40 is unlawful and dangerous. It prevents police officers from communicating freely with federal immigration officials and puts American citizens at risk from criminal illegal aliens."
On April 8, Shaw Sr., who says he has now made it his life's mission to make the streets of L.A. safer, went before city council to ask them to amend Special Order 40 and adopt Jamiel's Law which would not extend 'sanctuary city' rights to gang members and allow police to arrest those here illegally.
"Jamiel's Law would actually require the mayor and the police chief to take action and deport gang members without waiting for them to commit a crime," says 2009 Mayoral Candidate, Walter Moore, who drafted the law. "It's just that simple. If they are here illegally, you get them for that."
Just days after Shaw Sr. plead with City Council to change the city's policy, Councilmen Dennis Zine, who represents the third district, introduced a motion to alter Special Order 40 that sounded similar to Jamiel's Law, except that police would not be allowed to arrest 'known' gang members that are in the country illegally, unless they commit a crime. Under Zine's motion, a 'known' gangster who does not commit a crime, and is here illegally, would have a notification sent out to ICE.
"The modification that I'm calling for, I believe to be extremely reasonable," said the councilman who also serves as Chair of the Immigration Task Force for the National League of Cities.
But while the councilman says he introduced the motion in an effort to make Angelinos safer, Moore believes the motion is merely a tactic to thwart the public and get Special Order 40 out of the headlines.
"I think there are people in City Hall who are so committed to protecting illegal aliens that they would rather protect illegal alien gang members than American citizens," Moore said.
In response, Zine said, "Walter Moore is talking about establishing a process. I believe we already have a process that can work successfully. With the modifications of Special Order 40, we don't have to establish a new procedure. We just need to implement this motion to amend the rule and it would address the concerns."
For most, the biggest difference in Jamiel's Law is that the California Department of Justice—along with other law enforcement agencies—maintains a comprehensive computer database called Cal/Gang, complete with photos, names, addresses and other vital information on thousands of 'known' gang members. With Jamiel's Law, police officials would be allowed to research and arrest anyone in that database who is here illegally.
Under Zine's motion, officials would not be allowed to arrests individuals in the Cal/Gang database unless they commit a crime. (Gang members, who are in the database and have not committed any crimes within five years, are considered reformed and dropped from the system)
.
While immigrant rights groups fear Jamiel's Law could cause police to abuse their power, an April 17 poll in the L.A. Times Newspaper revealed that of 2,525 people surveyed, 78 percent believe that L.A.P.D. officers should be allowed to ask about citizenship status when stopping people for routine crimes.
As of late April, Zine's motion had not been placed on the council's agenda for action and Walter Moore says he plans to get the 74,000 signatures needed to put Jamiel's Law on the ballot for a vote in March of 2009.
Ten years ago, the L.A. Times Newspaper ran a three part series on the 18th street gang, the same gang that killed Jamiel Shaw II, and stated that out of the membership estimated to be as high as 20,000, about 60% of them are illegal immigrants, according to a confidential report by the state Department of Justice. The statistics also found that the gang's primary recruitment targets immigrant youngsters -- and that's just one gang.
Growing tensions between blacks and browns—particularly among the city's gangs—only serve to exacerbate the problem.
Area churches—both black and Hispanic—are looking for ways to relieve at lease some of the rising tensions. Several organizations— including the Power of Love Christian Fellowship, H.O.P.E. For Life Foundation, Unidos Por Jesucristo, Teach Them 2000 and dozens of other community and city organizations—are set to host an African-American and Latino Conference to establish a dialogue between the two communities with the goal developing a unified solution.
The conference will be held this September at USC and the turnout is expected to be huge. Leaders want the public to attend the event, share ideas, and pray for the city's unification of the black and brown youth.
In the meantime, prayer is how Nathan Chandler gets through his ordeal.
"I know God's going to bring me through, states Chandler who has been making tremendous progress since the attempted murder.
At one time, Chandler would forget a face or a conversation within minutes. And during this interview, he straightened his leg out to all of his family's delight. Chandler hopes to move forward and use his testimony to enlighten others.
"I want to get in the streets and tell these gang members that going around shooting people is just not the way to live. Someone needs to tell them this is not what you should be doing," he said. "They need more education."
Whether education, or deportation is the answer Jamiel Shaw Sr. is left to mourn the death of his son. The father says that mail still comes from university athletic scouts who don't know he was murdered.
Jamiel Shaw is survived by his mother—now overseas in Kuwait, his father, and his nine-year-old brother, Thomas. Shaw Sr. says he struggles to comfort the little boy.
"This morning my little son was getting ready for school and he sat there with his legs crossed staring at a picture of Jamiel, crying, saying man, dad this is a nightmare. And I couldn't explain to him. He asked why did Jamiel have to die and I couldn't explain. I mean what do you say to a frightened nine-year old? Oh the lord needed an angel. No! I just said, you know what Thomas, I just don't know."
An angry father, who says his son was the sacrificial lamb, Shaw Sr. is committed to making a difference in Los Angeles.
"If it takes the rest of my life I'm going to break down "Special Order 40."
NEW GIG!!
Hey Folks,
so I'm still clawing my way to the top! I still freelance at NBC 4 and L.A. City view, but i've also managed to land a full-time job at the L.A. Focus Newspaper Publication. The paper is a faith based community paper with a circulation of 35,000. It's a monthly and it's magazine style. Occasionally, I will post articles that I've written . . .so check back often.
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