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Thu 24 Jul, 2008 11:56 am
This sancutary crap was yet another reason I left commiefornication.
Killings turn focus on San Francisco sanctuary law
Jul 24, 7:42 AM (ET)
By PAUL ELIAS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The scene repeats itself daily on city streets: a driver gets stuck bumper to bumper, blocking an intersection and preventing another car from turning left.
But authorities say that was enough to cause Edwin Ramos to unload an AK-47 assault weapon on a man and his two sons, killing them.
The deaths immediately drew public outrage, which intensified when authorities revealed that Ramos, 21, is an illegal immigrant who managed to avoid deportation despite previous brushes with the law.
The case has put San Francisco's liberal politics to the test, setting off a debate over its sanctuary law that shields undocumented immigrants from deportation.
On Wednesday, Ramos pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the deaths of Anthony Bologna, 49, and his sons, Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16. Bologna and his older son died in the intersection on June 22. His younger son succumbed to his injuries days later.
Shortly after that, police arrested Ramos, a native of El Salvador and reputed member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS-13. Investigators believe he was the gunman, though two other men were seen in the car with him.
The heinousness of the deaths has put pressure on San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris to seek the death penalty against Ramos. Harris, who campaigned on an anti-death penalty platform and has never pursued capital punishment during her more than four years in office, has declined to say exactly how she intends to proceed.
"This case has been charged as a special circumstance case," making it eligible for the death penalty, spokeswoman Erica Derryck said. "No additional announcement has been made about this aspect of the charging."
Ramos' attorney, Robert Amparan, said his client was not the shooter. "They have the wrong person," he said.
Amparan declined to discuss details of the case, but he denied his client was involved in gang activity and said Ramos entered the country legally. Federal authorities contend Ramos is undocumented.
The victims' family learned that Ramos had been arrested at least three times before the shooting and evaded deportation, largely because of San Francisco's sanctuary status.
The policy, adopted in 1989 by the city's elected Board of Supervisors, bars local officials from cooperating with federal authorities in their efforts to deport illegal immigrants.
Officials in the juvenile offenders agency interpreted the law to also shield underage felons from deportation by refusing to report undocumented ones. Mayor Gavin Newsom said he rescinded the policy regarding juvenile offenders after learning about it in May.
The Bolognas' relatives say Ramos apparently benefited from the policy when he reportedly was convicted twice of felonies in 2003 and 2004 but never was turned over for deportation.
"All San Francisco's sanctuary ordinance has done is bring violence and death to this once-great city," said Frank Kennedy, who is married to Anthony Bologna's sister.
Kennedy called for an investigation of the sanctuary policy and demanded "prosecutions for violating the law."
Meanwhile, local and federal authorities are pointing fingers at each other over Ramos' most recent arrest before the shooting.
Ramos was arrested in late March with another man after police discovered a gun used in a double homicide in the car Ramos was driving.
The district attorney's office decided not to file charges against Ramos, and he was released April 2 even though he was in the process of being deported after his application for legal residence was denied, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
San Francisco Sheriff's Department spokesman Eileen Hirst said jail officials faxed ICE on March 30 asking if Ramos should remain jailed. Ramos was freed after Hirst said immigration officials didn't respond.
ICE spokesman Timothy Counts said his agency did not receive word of Ramos' arrest in March. He said the only communication received about Ramos was an "electronic message" from the sheriff's department three hours after his release.
The case has garnered national attention, leading U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and an anti-immigration group called Californians for Population Stabilization to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to take over, alleging San Francisco authorities have mishandled it.
"Because San Francisco's political leaders have already demonstrated their willingness to act in flagrant violation of federal law, I do not believe that local judicial institutions can be trusted to fairly try the case or mete out an appropriate punishment," Tancredo said in a letter sent Tuesday to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said he was unaware of the case and the congressman's request. Miller said the attorney general routinely responds privately to such requests.
Diana Hull, president of Californians for Population Stabilization, called on about a dozen cities nationwide with similar sanctuary policies to end those programs.
"We need to remember always that a death-dealing policy like 'sanctuary' hides behind the false mantle of compassion," Hull said.
Nathan Ballard, a spokesman for San Francisco's mayor, said city officials were wrong to shield undocumented, juvenile felons from federal immigration authorities.
"The sanctuary program was never intended to shield felons," Ballard said. "The policy was inappropriate."
However, Newsom "still supports the worthwhile aims of denying the federal government" assistance in deporting otherwise law-abiding undocumented residents, he said.
Man, do you ever know how to hand ammunition to the anti-gun crowd.
More like throwing them a rope to hang themselves with.
Where to begin...
Let's see...
1) Illegal immigrant.
2) Illegal immigrant with a criminal arrest record that has escaped deportation as a felon.
3) Illegal immigrant felon that somehow acquired a firearm.
4) The possession of a firearm by this individual is already very illegal on several points of already existing legislation.
5) The weapon he possessed was illegal.
6) The assault with a dangerous weapon and 3 violent felony murders committed by an illegal felon alien with an illegal firearm that he illegally acquired, being already illegal to exist in this country...
UUUUuuuuuummmmmmmm is there ANYBODY that fails to get how gun laws don't do anything to stop or prevent crime and only penalize the law abiding citizenry?!?
Bush Should Strip Sanctuary Cities of Federal Funds ( Michael Reagan )
humanevents.com ^ | 07/25/2008 | Michael Reagan
Three good men are dead thanks largely to San Francisco's outrageous sanctuary-city policy, which forbids city authorities from notifying federal immigration authorities when they arrest illegal aliens for crimes they commit, and it's time for President Bush to crack down on all the cities in the United States that follow this absurd policy.
On June 22, Anthony Bologna and his sons Michael and Matthew were shot to death by Edwin Ramos, 21, after a brief traffic incident when Anthony Bologna allegedly briefly blocked Ramos' car from making a left turn, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Ramos, an alleged member of the vicious the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS-13, should never have been around to kill the three men, and wouldn't have been -- were not for the city's sanctuary-city policy. Ramos, an illegal immigrant, was found guilty of committing two felonies when he was 17 -- involving a gang-related assault of a Municipal Railway passenger and the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman -- yet was never surrendered by the city's juvenile justice authorities to federal officials for possible deportation as required by federal law.
Ramos was taken to juvenile hall on charges of assault and participating in a street gang, and was later convicted in juvenile court and put in a shelter. Under federal law, he should have been referred to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) but the Juvenile Probation Department's policy for dealing with offenders stipulated that "probation officers shall not discriminate in any fashion against minors based on their immigration status."
On April 2, 2004, Ramos was released to the custody of his mother, despite the fact that he had already been flagged by federal authorities as an illegal immigrant. He was still considered a ward of the court and was on probation. Just four days later, records show, he committed another crime at 19th and Mission streets, two blocks from the site of the attack on the Muni passenger. He was released after city prosecutors declined to charge him in connection with an arrest in March on suspicion of weapons and gang violations.
There is a dispute revolving around the question of whether ICE was ever notified of the Ramos arrest, but the fact remains that for the last 10 years the city's juvenile justice authorities have followed a policy of not turning over illegal-immigrant felons to the federal government, basing the practice on San Francisco's sanctuary-city status and state law barring local officials from surrendering them for deportation.
After a storm of protest following the slayings of the Bologna family men, San Francisco's ultra-liberal Mayor Gavin Newsom belatedly rescinded that policy earlier this month following a report in the Chronicle that the city had flown a number of youths out of the country on its own, in possible violation of federal law, and then housed some in unlocked group homes from which they quickly escaped. His action came too late to save the lives of the Bologna men.
Those are the facts in this shocking case. They illustrate the lethal effects this idiotic and dangerous sanctuary-city policy can have on the safety of innocent Americans.
Sanctuary-city policies defy guidelines from the 9/11 Commission Report, which called on state and local authorities to help federal agencies crack down on illegal immigration. "There is a growing role for state and local law enforcement agencies [for the enforcement of immigration law]," the report stated. "They need more training and work with federal agencies so that they can cooperate more effectively with those federal authorities in identifying terrorist suspects."
In my opinion, the sanctuary city, which may have backing from some liberal groups, is really a euphemism for cheap labor in restaurants, food markets, gardening contractors, etc., etc.
John Q. Citizen may get outraged by incidents committed by illegals, but the American entrepreneur that has a bigger profit by hiring illegals is not easily deterred from a bigger profit, in my opinion.
Did not the Pope on his visit say something pro-immigrant, legal or otherwise? Not that I follow the Pope's advisements, but that is a big constituency that he has in the U.S.
The Pope is the richest man in the world, and the leader of the biggest bunch of blowhards and pedophiles on the planet. Of course he's pro-immigrant. If the Catholic baby-makers can move into the US and make more money, it's more money is his pocket.
cjhsa wrote:The Pope is the richest man in the world, and the leader of the biggest bunch of blowhards and pedophiles on the planet. Of course he's pro-immigrant. If the Catholic baby-makers can move into the US and make more money, it's more money is his pocket.
Well, to be specific, much of urban America has large Catholic communities. So, some sanctuary cities may have backing by many residents that think of the sanctuary city concept as doing good works?
And, San Francisco, if I am correct, is named after Saint Francis of Assisi. It was a city with an established Catholic community, way before any Protestants and others might have moved in.
But, thank you ever so much for explaining, in simple terms, the "baby-makers" and profit motive. I guess the televangelists are not concerned with a profit motive from their respective flocks?
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