“In the Spirit of Your Loyalty”: LA Citycouncil Member Asks Police to Warn Citizens of Federal Operations

There was an extraordinary moment this week in Los Angeles where  City Councilmember Imelda Padilla asked LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell to monitor and warn citizens whenever the federal authorities are conducting an operation or seeking to make an arrest. Padilla asked McDonnell if they could use “AI” and other means to give immigrants a heads up to allow them to oppose or evade federal law enforcement. McDonnell gently explained that Padilla was asking him to commit a crime.

In the June 10th council meeting, Padilla challenged McDonnell to be innovative and “find a creative way” to tip off the immigrant community. In the face of a clearly dumbfounded chief of police, Padilla explained that he needed to act “in the spirit of your loyalty to the city of Los Angeles.”

McDonnell delivered a measured response in the tone of an officer attempting to talk down a jumper from a tenth floor window ledge: “You’re asking me to warn you about an enforcement action being taken by another agency before it happens? We can’t do that.”

Padilla shot back: “why not!”

McDonnell keep his “I-know-you-are-upset-but jumping-will-not-help-the-situation” voice: “That would be completely inappropriate and illegal. That would be obstruction of justice. You might want to talk to the city attorney about that.”

Yet, that moment of sanity only seemed to irritate other residents of this insane asylum. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson warned McDonnell that he should not refer to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as “law enforcement partners”:

“If we know somebody is coming here to do warrant-less abductions of the residents of this city, those are not our partners. I don’t care what badge they have on or whose orders they’re under. They’re not our partners.”

Just to be clear, what the council member was asking would be a crime under both state and federal law. California Penal Code Section 148(a) states that obstructing, delaying, or interfering with a peace officer in the performance of their duties is a crime. Notably, Wisconsin Judge Lynn Adelman was just charged with obstruction and facilitating the escape of an illegal immigrant in assisting an individual to evade ICE.

The exchange captures the growing view that opponents to the Trump Administration are entitled to use any means necessary to oppose immigration enforcement and other policies. It is fueling the rage and the sense of license to commit even criminal acts for a higher cause.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”