So, the police issued a fake press release, saying they turned over two low-level criminals (the police actually used those exact words), to immigration officials, supposedly for deportation, to mislead some gang members who wanted retribution against them.
After thinking about this for a while, something occurred to me. I would assume, that these guys were dealing drugs (why else would the other guys want to kill them?). That was the “low-level criminal activity” that the police referred to. And since they meant to imply that they were deported, I’m going to assume that they were also here illegally, along with their families, who are now in protective custody.
Does anyone else have a problem with that? “Low-level criminals,” being protected by the police? And their families living on the taxpayers’ dime? And, not the least of the issues, the chief of police is lying to us about it.
Police these days have a serious public relations problem, and it’s compounded by the media looking to fry a cop for any reason. Now Chief Martin is lying to the media, and protecting undocumented immigrants, criminal undocumented immigrants at that.
Santa Maria is developing some very serious crime problems. Burglaries, robberies, car theft, assaults, gang issues, hit and run accidents, uninsured/unlicensed drivers—it’s getting bad here. Do the city manager, the mayor, the city attorney, and the City Council agree with these tactics? Did they know in advance that the chief was going to protect criminal undocumented immigrants, put them into the Witness Protection Plan, then lie to the media about it?
I think this is going to get worse. I’ll just assume that this is not the only thing they have lied about. The city is going down the tubes, with the expressed and implied approval of our city officials.
This article appears in Dec 15-22, 2016.