The Vapid Virtue-Signaling of Politicians Is Not More Important Than American Lives

Commentary

The deep abiding love of Democratic politicians for useless virtue-signaling is getting people killed. And I am in no way exaggerating by saying that.

There is no real compelling reason to be passing state-level laws that result in violent illegal alien criminals being arrested but then set loose right back into the community instead of being deported. But this is exactly what’s been happening in California. And it’s far past time for the political class there to be held accountable for this insanity.

It got police officer Ronil Singh killed on Dec. 26, 2018, and on Feb. 17 it almost cost Napa Valley Sheriff’s Deputy Riley Jarecki her life when a violent criminal who also happened to be an illegal immigrant attempted to ambush her with a handgun during a traffic stop.

In the press conference announcing the arrest of Officer Singh’s murderer and those who attempted to help him flee justice, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson had some harsh words for California Senate Bill 54 [SB 54] which became law in 2017 and prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities such as ICE.

“This is a criminal illegal alien with prior criminal activity that should have been reported to ICE. Law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws and that led to the encounter with Officer Singh. I’m suggesting the outcome could have been different if law enforcement wasn’t restricted, prohibited or had their hands tied because of political interference,” Sheriff Christianson said.

Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson (R) stands outside CrossPoint Community Church after a funeral service for slain Newman police officer Corporal Ronil Singh in Modesto, California, on Jan. 5, 2019. (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood also criticized harshly the sanctuary laws that tie the hands of local law enforcement in California.

“When you tie our hands and don’t allow us to work with our federal partners and communicate with our federal partners about people who commit crimes and who are in this country illegally, we’re going to have incidents like this, not just on police officers, but on the public that we serve and protect,” Youngblood said.

Sanctuary laws in California continue to place the lives of both law enforcement and citizens in danger as Napa Valley Sheriff Deputy Riley Jarecki’s encounter with a violent illegal immigrant demonstrated. Thankfully, Jarecki’s encounter had a happier ending.

Despite firing at Jarecki at point blank range, Javier Hernandez-Morales missed, and when she returned fire, Jarecki did not. It made national news when Hernandez-Morales’ criminal history and mug shots were made public, several of which show him with a bruised and bloody face, something that pointed to his previous arrests having involved violence. It was also revealed that Hernandez-Morales had been deported three times and that since 2011 he’d been arrested multiple times—including for battery on a police officer and driving under the influence—but was always let go despite ICE having filed detainers for him on four separate occasions.

“ICE is grateful the deputy involved in this shooting was not harmed during this attack,” the agency said in a statement, CBS affiliate KPIX 5 reported.

“It’s unfortunate that our law enforcement partners and the community are subjected to dangerous consequences because of inflexible state laws that protect criminal aliens. … This incident may have been prevented if ICE had been notified about any of the multiple times Hernandez-Morales was released from local custody over the last few years,” the ICE statement read.

Napa County officials were quick to point out they consider state law to take precedence over federal law.

“We are in compliance with state law. That is the law of the state of California, and the county intends to comply with state law,” said Napa County Supervisor Vallea Ramos, according to KPIX 5.

Ignoring Detainers, Putting Lives at Risk

The most compelling fact that stands out in both of these cases is that the criminal involved was an illegal immigrant who had an ICE detainer filed against him but local California authorities were forced to ignored those detainers and set them free back into the community.

Ponder that. Instead of handing over these criminals to ICE so they can be returned to where they actually belong, these politicians make the deliberate decision to return these criminals to their community, setting them free to commit more crimes.

So it’s literally true that American lives are being placed at risk because an entire segment of the vapid virtue-signaling political class wants to show off how compassionate and special it is.

People in these California communities need to begin protesting these politicians who are making self-serving decisions based on their own narcissism that places the freedom of an illegal immigrant criminal above the safety and security of America’s citizens.

And the people who should be most concerned are the law enforcement officers who end up bearing the brunt of these stupid sanctuary city policies when they end up coming face to face with yet another violent criminal who shouldn’t even be in this country, much less trying to kill one of our best.

Protests are needed to call attention to this. People need to assemble outside the public offices of these public servants and demand answers.

And I’m not talking about DNC media reporters here. I mean police officers and sheriff’s deputies and concerned citizens. These are the people who should be camped outside the offices of these state legislators and mayors and chiefs of police demanding answers as to why ICE detainers on violent criminal illegal immigrants are not being enforced.

These politicians should be made to look right into the eyes of the people whose lives they are putting most at risk by violating these immigration laws.

People like Riley Jarecki and the family of Ronil Singh.

Brian Cates is a writer based in South Texas and author of “Nobody Asked For My Opinion … But Here It Is Anyway!” He can be reached on Twitter at @drawandstrike.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.