The Thin Blue Line Is Compromised at the Top

One of the more disturbing aspects of illegal alien crime anarchy has been the number of police officers killed by foreigners—and the apparent lack of concern about the issue at the highest levels of police departments.

There has been local outrage from citizens, to be sure. But not much of the official variety from leaders in uniform who should regard the safety of their officers as a top priority—especially any threat from illegal aliens, who should not be here in the first place.

Of course, Chief of Police is a political position. You attain it by doing the bidding of powerful people and gaining the support of influential voting blocs—not necessarily by being an effective cop.

An ambitious captain looking for promotion has to demonstrate capacity for community outreach of a diverse nature while navigating the obstacle course of alliances that is City Hall everywhere.

So obedient Chiefs who want to keep their cushy jobs—San Francisco top cop Heather Fong makes $210,000—fall into line with cop-killer policies like illegal alien sanctuary zones.

Sanctuary zones are a force multiplier on the side of the bad guys. If I were a citizen gangster, say a Crip or Blood, I would be offended that my criminal enterprises were being discriminated against. And they are. A foreign gangster is practically given a license to practice in Los Angeles, while homie lawbreakers get arrest and incarceration.

As a result of pander politics, we have creatures like the Los Angeles Chief William Bratton, who continues to defend his city's sanctuary policy. In 2003, Bratton even told a radio listener who objected to LA's Special Order 40 that he should "leave the state".

LA's growing list of victims at the hands of foreign gang-bangers include:

• 15-year-old Cheryl Green, a black teen murdered for "trespassing" on Hispanic turf in her own neighborhood.

• LA County Deputy David March, murdered by an illegal Mexican gangster in 2002. This tragic case was made more difficult by the indifference of LA police hierarchy. It was family and concerned citizens who worked together for years to insist that Mexico extradite killer Armando Garcia—not anyone among top LA police.

At least LA District Attorney Steve Cooley created a website, EscapingJustice.com, dedicated to shining a light on Mexico's corrupt policy of providing a largely extradition-free safe haven for murderers, rapists and other violent thugs.

Years of citizen anger and organizing on the David March case and a few other high-profile crimes has loosened the logjam in the Mexican court system. Now at least some of the worst are sent to America to face US justice.

• Another success was the December 2005 extradition of Raul Gomez-Garcia for the murder of Denver officer Donald Young. That case caused a lot of anger for many reasons: not only was the killer an illegal alien gangster, but at the time of the shooting he was employed at a restaurant owned by the mayor, John Hickenlooper. Officer Young had been working as a security guard at a private baptism party when he ejected Gomez-Garcia for misbehavior. The Mexican returned with a gun and shot Young three times in the back. Gomez-Garcia was sentenced to the maximum 80 years in prison last October.

But to call retrieval and a middling jail sentence a "success" is only to note a slight improvement on the part of our narco-criminal neighbor in terms of extradition. Officer Young's murder was a preventable crime, as are all the deaths caused by illegal aliens.

Doubly indefensible are deadly crimes committed by previously arrested illegal aliens who have not been deported. For example:

Dallas officer Brian Jackson, murdered during a domestic disturbance call. The killer was illegal Mexican Juan Lizcano, who had been previously arrested twice but allowed to remain in the country.

Needless to say, there are no federal statistics kept about the number of police officers (or innocent citizens) killed by illegal aliens. So there is no definitive list of their names. The following is a remembrance taken largely from my website Immigrations Human Cost, where crime victims of illegal aliens have been memorialized.

•  Brandon Winfield of Marion, Ohio, was killed while checking on a disabled van by the roadside. He was found shot in the head in his patrol car after apparently giving a lift to the Mexican owner of the vehicle. Just 29 years old when he was murdered, he was the father of two young sons. In heartland America, hundreds of local citizens came to his funeral to show their respect and concern because such crimes are not the norm there yet.

• Rodney Johnson, a decorated officer of the Houston Police Department, was killed last year by Juan Leonardo Quintero, a man previously deported for sexual indecency with a child. It's hard to know whether Houston's sanctuary policy was an attraction for Quintero, given his history. At any rate, the Mexican was pulled over for speeding, managed to hide a gun while being cuffed and then shot Officer Johnson four times in the head from the back seat of the patrol car. It's believed Quintero feared a prison sentence as a previously deported felon. (He will wish he had a little 10-year sentence after a Texas court gets finished with a cop-killer.)

Chief of Police Harold Hurtt actually remarked shortly after the murder that he supported Houston's sanctuary policy and it didn't cause Officer Johnson's death because "the subject was deported and yet he came back". It was not a shining moment in the annals of police leadership.

• Oceanside California Officer Tony Zeppetella was a rookie cop who had been in the department just over a year, when he was shot and killed in a credit union parking lot by Adrian George Camacho, a Mexican illegal alien with a long criminal record. Officer Zeppetella was married with a six-month-old child. He was born in Whittier and enlisted in the navy after he graduated from high school in 1994. Tony Zeppetella was 27 years old at the time of his death. The accused killer had been deported several times, and his criminal record lists drugs, illegal firearms possession and gang activity. Camacho fled the scene of the shooting to the home of his ex-wife's parents, and was taken into custody only after a four-h

• It was 1992 when Oregon State Police Trooper Bret Clodfelter was murdered by an illegal alien, but the crime has not been forgotten. Trooper Clodfelter of Klamath Falls had arrested three Mexican men for being drunk and disorderly, then offered them a ride and was murdered for his generosity. The prosecutor sought the death penalty, but one dissenting juror meant Francisco Manzo-Hernandez got life in prison instead. To add to the tragedy, Clodfelter's widow Rene committed suicide a year after her husband was murdered. The couple had been married just over a month when the murder occurred.

• Officer Sheila Herring was lost to a bullet from an illegal alien in an early morning altercation at a Norfolk bar in January 2003. The accused man, Mario Roberto Keen, a citizen of Jamaica, had reportedly shot a man in the bar after which the police were called. When several officers arrived, Keen opened fire and shot Officer Herring who died later in surgery. Keen was shot and killed at the scene. He had been sentenced to five years in prison in 1990 for selling cocaine and was later deported. Keen attempted to re-enter the United States in New York in 1997, but was reportedly barred from entering. It is not known when Keen succeeded in entering the U.S. Herring had been a cop in Detroit for ten years before moving to Virginia. She was 39 and had an 18-year-old daughter.

• Marc Atkinson was just 28 when he was shot and killed in a 1999 ambush by an illegal alien from Mexico. Officer Atkinson was a five-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Force, and was survived by his wife Karen and infant son. The killer, Felipe Petrona-Cabanas, had around a pound of cocaine in his car when apprehended with two other Mexican nationals. The three came from a farming area in the state of Guerrero near Acapulco, and said they came to the United States to work but couldn't find any.

A notable detail in this case: an armed citizen, Rory Vertigan, returned fire against the three Mexicans after they had ambushed Officer Atkinson and began shooting at him. He tackled one Mexican and disabled their car so the others were unable to escape into their country.

• Officer Kenneth Collings of the Phoenix Police Department was killed in 1988 during the arrest of two robbery suspects at a local bank when one opened fire. One of the robbers, Ismael Conde, was quickly arrested but the other, Rudy Romero, escaped to Mexico. Romero was caught in southern Mexico in 2000 and brought back to stand trial. The Arizona Attorney General's Office credits help from the Phoenix Police Department, the FBI, the Attorney General for the Republic of Mexico, and the Mexican Federal Agency of Investigation—a rare and welcome act of extradition from our southern neighbor. In March 2003, Romero was sentenced to 98 years in state prison.

• Officer Hugo Arango of the Doraville (Georgia) Police Department was murdered by an illegal alien, Bautista Ramirez, in May 2000. At trial the admitted cop-killer pleaded self-defense, alleging he thought Officer Arango would kill him first. But the jury wasn't having any and found the 19-year-old Mexican guilty of the murder as well as aggravated assault against a nightclub manager David Contreras who was blinded in one eye by the attack. The jury decided Ramirez should get life in prison (with the possibility of parole) plus 20 years for shooting Contreras. According to the strange math of sentencing, the convicted cop killer could be out in 46 years or less.

• Officer Will Seuis a motorcycle patrolman in Oakland, California, was killed on his ride home by an illegal alien. Fortunately, some witnesses on the highway immediately phoned 911 and the hit-and-run driver, Carlos Mares, was quickly caught. A sixteen-year veteran of the Police Department, Officer Seuis was remembered at his funeral as a hard-working cop who had received 33 letters of appreciation from citizens, including one from a motorist he had ticketed. He had been in traffic enforcement since 1998, and was a member of the department's 20-member precision motorcycle drill team. Seuis left a wife, Michelle, and two daughters.

• Officer Michael Gordon lost his life to a drunk driving illegal alien. The Chicago policeman was in the driver's seat of his squad car when it was struck by Luis Calle, a Guatemalan whose blood alcohol level was 0.177, twice the legal limit. Another officer, John Delcason, sustained injuries and was in fair condition in the hospital a few days after the incident. Luis Calle died several hours after striking the police car. Michael Gordon is survived by his wife and four children. Several of his relatives have also been police officers, including his father, brother, uncle and cousin. Before entering the police department, Gordon joined the 82nd Airborne right after high school, serving in Bosnia and Korea. As a policeman, he asked to be assigned to a tough part of Chicago because he wanted to do more than just write tickets.

• California Highway Patrolman John Bailey was off his shift on Feb. 25 of last year, riding his motorcycle home when he saw a dangerous drunk driver and pulled him over. As he stood on the shoulder of Interstate 15, he was struck and killed by another drunk driver, illegal alien Domingo Esqueda, who had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit. Esqueda was sentenced in early August to 10 years in prison for gross vehicular manslaughter. Officer Bailey was married with four children. He had just returned from a tour in Iraq that ended in November 2005.

As a result of Washington's policy of No Borders, law enforcement officers are the only protection we have against a planet overrun with criminals and terrorists. Accordingly, police should be remembered and honored as soldiers used to be—back when we had sovereignty and the armed forces defended America.

In other areas of law enforcement, the "broken windows" approach of tough policing on small infractions has been lauded as successful because it prevents minor situations from escalating.

But when illegal aliens are involved, the world turns upside down and the worst imaginable behavior is excused and permitted.

Within that looking-glass universe, police officers are so much disposable road kill to elites from City Hall to the White House.

Just like the rest of us.

Brenda Walker (email her) lives in Northern California and publishes two websites, LimitsToGrowth.org and ImmigrationsHumanCost.org. She admires Mexico for its marvelous tequila, and that's about all.