Special Order 40

Last updated

Special Order 40 is a police mandate implemented in 1979 by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), its Police Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles City Council preventing LAPD officers from questioning people for the sole purpose of determining their immigration status. [1] [2] The mandate was passed in an effort to encourage undocumented aliens to report crimes without intimidation. [2] The first section of the order states:

Police Law enforcement body

The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state to enforce the law, to protect the lives, liberty and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.

Los Angeles Police Department Municipal police department in California

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 officers and 3,036 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department. The department operates in an area of 498 square miles (1,290 km2) and a population of 4,030,904 people.

Daryl Gates Chief of Los Angeles Police Department, 1976-1992

Daryl Gates was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure was second only to that of William H. Parker. As chief of police, he took a hardline, aggressive, paramilitary approach to law enforcement. Gates is co-credited with the creation of SWAT teams with LAPD's John Nelson, who others claim was the originator of SWAT in 1965. Gates also co-founded D.A.R.E along with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Contents

Officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person.
Officers shall not arrest nor book persons for violation of title 8, section 1325 of the United States Immigration code (Illegal Entry). [3]

2008 incident

In 2008, Special Order 40 came under increased fire from conservative commentators Doug McIntyre, Kevin James, Walter Moore and various other figures in the public eye for what they saw as allowing the scenario that resulted in the homicide of Jamiel Shaw II by Pedro Espinoza, an illegal immigrant and gang member. The murder of Shaw was linked to Special Order 40 by its opponents because the alleged assailant had been arrested by Culver City police and then later released by the Los Angeles County Jail, although those two jurisdictions are separate and distinct from the City of Los Angeles and therefore were not subject to Special Order 40. [2] [4]

Doug McIntyre American television producer

Douglas John "Doug" McIntyre was the host of McIntyre In The Morning on KABC 790 Los Angeles. He retired after 22-years in broadcasting on December 14th, 2018. McIntyre is a long-time columnist for the Southern California News Group which includes the Los Angeles Daily News. Known for his active involvement in local politics and his passion for jazz and the Great American Songbook, McIntyre's background includes work as television writer-producer with credits including Married... with Children, WKRP in Cincinnati, Full House, Mike Hammer, and the critically acclaimed PBS series, Liberty's Kids, which earned McIntyre a Humanitas Prize nomination. With his wife, actress Penny Peyser, McIntyre wrote, produced, and directed the feature-length documentary film, Trying to Get Good: The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon, released in 2008. Doug is executive producer of Penny Peyser's 2016 feature documentary, Stillpoint.

Kevin Lee James was a candidate in the 2013 Los Angeles mayoral election and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for Southern California. Prior to his mayoral campaign, James was an American radio host and political commentator, focused on local and national politics. The program aired on KRLA AM 870 in Los Angeles between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m. on weekdays. Since 2007, Kevin James has focused almost exclusively on local, non-partisan issues that affect residents in Los Angeles.

The murder of Jamiel Shaw II occurred on March 2, 2008, in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California. Shaw, a 17-year-old Los Angeles High School football player, was shot by two Hispanic men while returning home from the Beverly Center. Shaw was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

In the wake of the Shaw murder, the Los Angeles City Council considered amending Special Order 40 with language specifying that police notify immigration authorities if that individual was not in the country legally. [4] Then-retired Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates spoke to the council to defend Special Order 40. He mentioned that the order already mandates that when law violators are arrested, the first thing police are supposed to do is notify immigration if they believe they're undocumented. [2] [4] The order was also defended by then Police Chief William J. Bratton. [1] The City Council eventually chose not to amend the order.

See also

Related Research Articles

A Los Angeles Police Department C.R.A.S.H. initiative that began in April 1987, Operation Hammer was a large scale attempt to crack down on gang violence in Los Angeles, California. After a group of people at a birthday party were shot down on their front lawn in a drive-by shooting, Chief of Police Daryl F. Gates responded with a roundup of gang members. At the height of this operation in April 1988, 1,453 people were arrested by one thousand police officers in South Central Los Angeles in a single weekend.

Bernard C. Parks American politician

Bernard C. Parks is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. He was a member of the Los Angeles City Council, representing the 8th District in South Los Angeles.

William Bratton American police officer

William Joseph Bratton CBE is an American law enforcement officer and businessman who served two terms as the New York City Police Commissioner. He previously served as the Commissioner of the Boston Police Department (BPD) (1993–1994) and Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) (2002–2009).

James Edgar Davis was an American police officer who served as the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1926 to 1929, and from 1933 to 1939. During his first term as LAPD chief, Davis emphasized firearms training. Under Davis, the LAPD developed its lasting reputation as an organization that relied on brute force to enforce public order. It also became very publicly entangled in corruption. Members of the LAPD were revealed to have undertaken a campaign of brutal harassment, including the bombings of political reformers who had incurred the wrath of the department and the civic administration.

Willie L. Williams was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1992 to 1997, taking over after chief Daryl Gates' resignation following the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Williams was the first African-American police commissioner of both the Philadelphia Police Department and the LAPD. During his term as chief of the LAPD, he tried to create a positive image of the department and close the rift created between the police and black neighborhoods by the violent arrest of Rodney King in 1991.

Skid Row, Los Angeles Neighborhoods of Los Angeles in County of Los Angeles, California, United States

Skid Row is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles. The area is also known as Central City East.

The Los Angeles Police Department was formed in 1869, and has since become the third-largest law enforcement agency in the United States. They have been involved in various events in history, such as the Black Dahlia murder case, and the infamous Rampart scandal.

The 2007 MacArthur Park rallies were two May Day rallies demanding dignity, respect, and amnesty for undocumented immigrants which occurred on May 1, 2007, at MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles.

Crime in Los Angeles has varied throughout time, reaching peaks between the 1970s and 1990s.

Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department

The Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the head of the Los Angeles Police Department.

LAPD Metropolitan Division

The Los Angeles Police Department Metropolitan Division, also known as Metro, is an elite division within the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The Metro Division, which also contains LAPD's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, contains seven platoons of specially-trained police officers. It is tasked with numerous crime-fighting duties including solving major crimes, surveillance, providing counter-terrorism details and attending high-risk barricaded situations, such as a hostage situation.

Highland Park Police Station United States historic place

The Highland Park Police Station on York Boulevard in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, California, USA is the city's oldest surviving police station. Closed in 1983, the station is now operated as the Los Angeles Police Museum. It has been designated as a Historic Cultural Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Charlie Beck Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department

Charles Lloyd Beck is a retired police officer, ending his career as the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). A veteran of the department with over three decades as an officer, he is known for commanding and rehabilitating the Rampart Division after the Rampart scandal; and for technology enhancements during his time as Chief of Detectives.

Michael P. Downing was the interim Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department. On August 5, 2009, Chief William J. Bratton announced that after seven years as chief he would be stepping down from his position. He continued to serve as LAPD chief until October 30, 2009. After Bratton stepped down, Downing was appointed as Chief of Police by the L.A. Board of Police Commissioners. As of January 2014, Downing is a 29-year veteran of the Department.

Jim McDonnell (sheriff) American sheriff

James McDonnell is an American law enforcement official who served as the 32nd Sheriff of the County of Los Angeles in California. McDonnell was elected as L.A. County's 32nd sheriff on November 4, 2014, defeating former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka. He replaced interim sheriff John Scott on December 1, 2014, when he was sworn in. Previously he served as the Chief of Police in Long Beach, California and before that in the Los Angeles Police Department, reaching the rank of Assistant Chief.

Michel Rey Moore is an American police officer and the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) since 2018.

The issue of crimes committed by Illegal immigrants to the United States is a topic that is often asserted and debated in politics and the media when discussing Immigration policy in the United States. According to many studies, undocumented immigrants in the United States are less likely to commit crime than native-born citizens and have no impact on violent crime rates.

References

  1. 1 2 Mariel Garza (April 14, 2008). "Bratton: Special Order 40 not going anywhere". Los Angeles Daily News . Archived from the original on October 14, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "In the real world". Los Angeles Times . April 9, 2008.
  3. ↑ Daryl Gates (November 27, 1979). "Special Order No. 40" (PDF). Los Angeles Police Department.
  4. 1 2 3 Andrew Blankstein and David Zahniser (October 28, 2008). "Gates returns to police-immigration fray". Los Angeles Times .

Further reading

<i>Los Angeles Times</i> Daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper which has been published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It has the fourth largest circulation among United States newspapers, and is the largest U.S. newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues particularly salient to the U.S. West Coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters. It has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of these and other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, and the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.