Pubdate: Fri, 17 Aug 2007
Source: Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact: http://www.dailynews.com/writealetter
Website: http://www.dailynews.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/246
Cited: Los Angeles Police Department http://www.lapdonline.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Los+Angeles+Police+Department
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)

POLICE DOUBLE TALK

LAPD Enforces Federal Law on Pot, but Not Immigration

WHEN federal agents busted down doors raiding medical marijuana 
dispensaries in Los Angeles in July, Los Angeles Police Department 
officers were their comrades in arms.

The department's assistance in the raids infuriated some City Council 
members, who chastised them Wednesday for cooperating with the Drug 
Enforcement Agency and for enforcing federal drug laws that are in 
conflict with California's medical-marijuana law - and the will of 
the public. They even threatened to forbid the LAPD from cooperating 
with the DEA, but that would require the council to actually take an 
unequivocal stand.

LAPD officials just brushed off the criticism, essentially telling 
the council to get over it. The department will continue to help the 
feds bust medical-marijuana dispensaries, they said, even though 
Chief William Bratton has declared the department supports the state law.

The explanation that officials offered was simple: The LAPD has a 
policy of enforcing federal laws.

That would make sense if it were a policy that the department 
actually followed. But the truth is that the LAPD only enforces the 
federal laws that it feels like enforcing.

Despite pressure from federal authorities and many residents of Los 
Angeles, the LAPD has refused to enforce immigration laws and 
officers don't ask about citizenship status except in the rarest instances.

The department has stuck to Special Order 40, which prohibits LAPD 
officers from asking people about their citizenship status. So much 
for working with the feds.

Medical-marijuana dispensaries exist legally under state law, but not 
under federal law. In L.A., city officials are finally trying to 
craft regulations that will make them less flagrant for feds to bust. 
But the DEA doesn't care what the city or the state does.

That leaves the LAPD in an awkward situation, but selectively picking 
which laws it will enforce and which it will ignore does nothing to 
enhance the department's credibility. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake