Today is Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Originally published Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Updated Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Impound change makes roads less safe

Once again, the L.A. City Council steps into an issue that would be resolved if federal and state lawmakers would pass reforms.

Daily Breeze editorial

There's good reason to keep unlicensed drivers off the road. For starters, they're unlicensed. They're not appropriately trained or qualified to drive. They're almost certainly uninsured. Their presence on the road endangers lives and drives up insurance rates for those who are driving legally.

But in a bow to political correctness and various pressure groups, Los Angeles city leaders have ended the practice of impounding the vehicles of unlicensed drivers for 30 days.

And with that, they've taken away the biggest incentive to keep unlicensed drivers off the streets.

The reason for the shift is illegal immigration: Illegal immigrants can't get driver's licenses, so city leaders - citing an arguably unrelated 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and a lawsuit - have decided to give unlicensed drivers a pass, at least for the time being.

Oh, sure, these unlawful drivers can still be cited. But as long as they can get a licensed driver to drive their car away for them (or they can park it safely), there's no impound.

And as soon as police officers are out of sight, they're free to drive the car again.

Fortunately, South Bay cities don't seem to be following L.A.'s example. Most local cities are continuing to impound vehicles of drivers who are found to be unlicensed.

But in the city of Los Angeles, one can expect that the streets will become increasingly dangerous - and L.A. residents have their own city leaders to blame.

Admittedly, the problem extends far beyond them. It's Washington's fault that we don't have an immigration policy capable of managing some 12 million people who live in the shadows. And it's Sacramento's fault that we can't find a sensible way to make sure that when these people do drive, they can be properly trained and insured.

But it's not the City Council's job to do what it can't. As long as Sacramento refuses to offer licenses to illegal immigrants, the city must stringently enforce state laws about who's allowed to drive - laws that exist for our own safety and well-being.

As with Special Order 40, this is another case in which city leaders have taken it upon themselves to decide which laws they choose to be serious about, and which ones they don't.

They've opted to make the city of L.A. a "sanctuary" for illegal immigrants - which is another way of saying a hazard for everyone.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/arti ... 76157.html