Posted by
David Smith on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 6:38:34 PM
OK, bear with me here, because the story that I will be referencing may not have anything to do with illegal aliens, but my point most assuredly does. I know these things take on a "what-color-is-my-skin" attitude amongst a bunch of people on both sides based simply on my point, which is:
Every elected official, appointed official, and public servant must raise their right hand upon entering service in their position of public service and state something to the effect of, "I, <name>, swear to the best of my abilities to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and Laws of the United States and the State of <wherever they serve>." Important fact: It does not matter if you are the President of the United States or a local Police Officer, you take an oath something to the effect of the above.
I have a real problem with people who refuse to carry out this oath after they have said it. Typically, lately, we have seen this from locally-elected politicians who want to dodge the bullet of the contemporary hot-button topic surrounding illegal aliens and illegal immigration, etc, et al. I will be in the near future addressing this topic with one specific City Council person in my region and will be publicizing it here as well--stay tuned.
Here is why I bring this issue up now. Dallas Police Lieutenant Carlton Marshall and the Dallas SWAT team were assisting the Federal Government by serving a Federal arrest warrant Wednesday morning when Lt. Marshall was shot in the neck. Doctors on the scene performed an emergency trachyotomy to allow Lt. Marshall to breath and he came through surgery later in the morning and is now in good condition.
Now, all of the people in the residence where the warrant was being served were of Hispanic surnames, but no report has been made that I have seen yet regarding their citizenship or alien status. In other words, we don't know if these people are illegal aliens or not, and quite frankly, I don't care. It is not my point to discuss. If I missed that detail in the article, I apologize.
Here is my point, however. Dallas Police Lt. Vernon Hale said that Dallas police have assisted in the execution of federal warrants about 10 times a year and that the department would continue to help out other agencies.
The article goes on to state that in February 2006, four Dallas SWAT team officers were attempting to assist the DEA in serving federal drug warrants early in the morning when someone inside the home began firing. Four officers were shot, but all recovered.
In case you missed that, local law enforcement is assisting Federal agencies with enforcing Federal law and, therefore, bringing Federal criminals to Justice. And that is where I bring this into the realm of Illegal Aliens.
Again, this particular case, and the earlier one from 2006, may not involve Illegal Aliens. That is not my point. My point is that in the case of local officials claiming no responsibility or no jurisdiction in the case of Federal Law, it is entirely inappropriate an argument to make that this is the case.
First, local officials swear allegiance to the Constitution just as State and Federal officials do. And secondly, there is significant cooperation on the part of all levels of government to enforce the "Constitution and Laws" of every level of government.
Now our locally-elected as well as Federal representatives need to begin recognizing these facts--also known as Law--and begin following them. Or we need to begin replacing them.
Perhaps Lt. Hale and Lt. Marshall would be available for promotions and associated payraises to the Congressional level???