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)
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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."

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