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.”
#9. They can’t do anything right. It needs a theme song.
https://x.com/miguelifornia/status/1933653716177203328
Well Barry, not so easy is it…
Sounds like the Councilwoman is espousing the view of John C. Calhoun, ex-VP of the United States and Senator from South Carolina, an avowed supporter of slavery and the theory of Nullification in the Tariff Crisis on 1833. A big issue for many of the slave holding states subsequently as we slowly and then more rapidly careened toward a civil war. Perhaps someone should educate her as to the fact that she is advocating for the same political view of slavery backers to protect their “peculier” institution. They sought to protect a legal but morally abhorrent institution while she seems to want to protect her “peculier institution “ of millions of illegal aliens who have brought with them drug cartels, human trafficking, de facto slavery, death and destruction along our borders and in our large cities.
And then there is Alex Padilla (Sen, D-California) who was auditioning for the lead role in Democrat’s version of a high school senior play. And all he had to do was call and ask for an appt and meeting. Such drama, such tension, such stupidity.
“find a creative way” (D politician Padilla)
The Left used to be clever about its “creative” corruption: Pay a law firm “legal fees” to hire a disavowed spy to spin a tale about your political opponent. Leak that tale to the press. Then cite the press as an authoritative source.
Utterly corrupt. But at least cunning — with an air of self-awareness: This is wrong. But we’re doing anyway, in secret.
Now the Left is too lazy, ignorant, and lacking in self-awareness to be creatively corrupt. With faux self-righteousness, it declares in public: Let’s conspire to commit multiple state and federal crimes.
The brazen corruption and flouting of the law is breathtaking.
@Sam
That’s the thing: at least in her case and that of those like her, she has no earthly idea what the law is, and she doesn’t care. If it is introduced to her, she will happily do what she wants anyway as though that were just a ‘suggestion’ unless someone intervenes, and when they do, she will scream bloody murder. Guaranteed. And afterward she will have learned nothing.
“. . . she doesn’t care.”
Tragically, that is true.
The Left’s operating premise is: Can we get away with it?
@Sam
I stand by my assessment. 😉 Her mentors are likely perfectly aware though, and I suspect they let her get away with it to placate that portion of their base, because they equally, ‘don’t care.’. 🤷🏽♂️ Any means necessary. Heaven forbid they tried to listen to and get along with other people, but I think, personally, for them, that ship has sailed for good.
All I get from her request is how she has no compunctions about violating the law OR her oath of office.
I am saddened to see foreign flags raised above US cities. They want us to surrender our country to foreign nations.
Ha. Those clowns are asserting they are on Mexican soil.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to distinguish January 6 in DC from June 7-11 in LA.
How is that? At worst, the people behaving badly on January 6 were trying to postpone the certification of an election. In LA, their avowed aim, judging by the social media posts of their fellow travelers, is to overthrow the government.
Mr.McDonnell could you also get my traffic ticket taken care of?
#9. What’s with all the Padilla’s leaping out of the bushes like rabid foxes?
I don’t for a moment believe that Padilla is stupid. Her question was reasonable and intelligent (but could have been more concise), and there was nothing untoward in her tone or manner.
What she is is ignorant. Ignorance is not a fatal flaw, it can be corrected. EVERYONE is ignorant until they learn what’s up and what’s down.
The Chief’s response was a very good one. He clarified her question, restated it so she could confirm he understood her point, provided the correct answer, and then referred her back to her own experts for better understanding.
So I take this exchange as not at all alarming, and only mildly embarrassing. Sure, it would be nice if our representatives understood the Law, but really what happens next is what we should be reacting to. If she does, in fact, consult with her city attorney and learn, it’s all to the good.
And we’ve got HIGH hopeS, high in the sky hopes, high apple pie in the sky hopes…
@Anonymous
Your grace in this is admirable, and I know people don’t want to accept it, but yes, she is likely that stupid, her cohort is sort of known for it, and it aligns with my experience (my wife has been a teacher for some time in multiple states, including that one).
Even if it were just ignorance, it’s very much disqualifying ignorance for the position she holds. Time to stop the coddling once and for all.
Not entirely stupid, not so much ignorant, but ignorant of her own ignorance and totally mis-educated. Combine all of that with a BLM/CRT indoctrination and you have an almost irretrievable citizen who can and will, alway, confront the “whitey”.
@whimsicalmama
That explanation suffices! Intellectually, emotionally, experientially, and philosophically ‘unripe’. In practice that looks a lot like stupid. 😂 Or at the least woefully underdeveloped; it can’t be ‘nascent’, because that implies better is forthcoming organically, and it likely ain’t.
The word we are all tip-toeing around is the non-congential definition of r*tarded:
r*tarded
/rĭ-tär′dĭd/
adjective
2. Occurring or developing later than desired or expected; delayed.
You are being too generous in assuming Padilla is ignorant. She already knew what the sheriff explained her. The issue is that reality conflicts with her party platform and her phony latino loytalty. She deliberately tried to subvert our laws.
Passing the buck to the chief. She can now say, we need a new chief.
I can’t comment on Padilla’s intelligence but her line of questioning exposed her clear political instinct to obstruct a legal federal law enforcement action. Her political instincts are remarkably aligned with those of John C. Calhoun as he wrote in 1831 regarding his view that South Carolina, as a state, could obstruct the federal tariff collection and seeing further the future danger that federalism posed to the local economy of low cost labor.
“I consider the tariff act as the occasion, rather than the real cause of the present unhappy state of things. The truth can no longer be disguised, that the peculiar institution of the Southern States and the consequent direction which that and her soil have given to her industry, has placed them in regard to taxation and appropriations in opposite relation to the majority of the Union, against the danger of which, if there be no protective power in the reserved rights of the states they must in the end be forced to rebel, or, submit to have their paramount interests sacrificed, their domestic institutions subordinated by Colonization and other schemes, and themselves and children reduced to wretchedness”, quoted from Richard Ellis’s The Union at Risk: Jacksonian Democracy, States’ Rights, and the Nullification Crisis.
Padilla’s, and like minded, political instinct are indeed alarming. We should all be grateful for the honesty and levelheadedness of Chief McDonnell.
Remember what the Ghost of Christmas Present said about Ignorance…
It was Judge Dugan charged, Judge Adelman has been assigned her case.
The exchange between LA councilmember Padilla and LAPD chief McDonnell is priceless. Kudos to the media, even the leftwing media, for showing the rest of the country (and the world) just how dysfunctional Los Angeles has become because of its mismanagement and biased sense of justice. West and East Coast elites no longer speak for the rest of the nation. Like those of Padilla, their voices and aspirations are met with cold, hard facts that everyone can and should understand. Thank you, LA, for showing us what to avoid becoming. Every rioter, every thrower of a rock or Molotov cocktail, every looter helps to increase the public’s confidence in the Trump administration’s promise to make America safe again.
JJC,
Well said.
It’s time for the Insurrection Act. Put the Color Revolution down before violence explodes. At some point citizens will pick up arms to Defend the Republic. Marxism is not compatible with a Constitutional Republic.
You don’t know you’re in a Qult when you’re in a Qult.
That’s what I believe that the progs are waiting for, they are convinced that they will win and then they can dispose of the constitution and create their utopian state in its place and EVERYONE will live in paradise after that.
Appointed by Bass. This is our future, folks. Sigh. Just, sigh.
This Democratic campaign, to save the illegal criminals, has stupefied me. I have no understanding why the Democrats object to the deportation of illegal criminals. The due process argument is baloney. The vast majority of Americans want the deportations.
To quote my mom’s favorite maxim, it seems the Democrats are “cutting off their nose to spite their face.”
§2384. Seditious conspiracy
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
My continuing question is: why aren’t ALL the oath-taking government officials already behind bars? I am getting very tired of the exposer of a law-breaker only to have it disappear down the news thread. Ms. Bondi? Why aren’t these people on trial by now?
With progressive stupidity there is no such thing as terminal stupidity.
good one.
Perhaps the federal government should be offering a free ride and monetary compensation for U.S. citizens who wish to leave Southern California. Then let Northern CA split to form their own state. Then kick Southern California out of the union by gifting it back to Mexico. I know I’m ready to see that happen. Enough is enough.
Ms. Padilla (relation to Alex?) seems to think LA Scanner was a good idea.
I was wondering about that coincidence also.
State LEOs and legislators can enact policies to not-cooperate with federal authorities, but they cannot legally obstruct federal agents from executing federal laws.
There’s a difference between not doing anything to help, and doing something to obstruct.
Correct and what she was asking would be aiding and abetting.
OMG, is she really that dumb. Well it is blue LA.
And that “Marqueese” chap didn’t /wouldn’t acknowledge that fact either, perhaps it’s something in the water.
The dem marching orders are: the ends justify the means.
Doesn’t it strike you as odd that the very structure of Federal supercedence of state laws that allowed for the national guard to confront segregationist actions in the 60s are what these loons want to deny now in order to adhere to the pernicious prog cult to which they adhere.
Agree