Thread: San Francisco: Softer Rule for Illegal Immigrants Leads to..

Maybe no one should have to prove they can drive to get a license?
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Softer Rule for Illegal Immigrants Leads to Fewer Car Tows

By Lauren Smiley, Tuesday, Apr. 6 2010 @ 3:21PM

Thanks to a forgiving new policy, it appears fewer undocumented immigrants are having their cars towed and impounded by SFPD in recent months.

In November, police started allowing unlicensed drivers -- many of them in the country illegally -- 20 minutes to get someone with a license to the scene of a traffic stop and drive away their cars. Previously, the department would often simply tow the cars and then sell them at auction if no one claimed them. Immigration rights activists and the ACLU had argued that the old policy unfairly punished illegal immigrants.

Stats requested by the SF Weekly show that the number of towed cars has plummeted since the change.



The biggest dip has been among drivers with an expired license or who never have had a license to begin with - the category illegal immigrants would fall into. While police towed 402 cars belonging to such drivers in November 2008, they towed just 85 the month the new policy went to effect in November 2009. In February of last year, the cops towed 423 cars to such unlicensed drivers; this February, only 76.

The policy change "appears to be working - or, if you don't like it - not working," says police spokeswoman Lt. Lyn Tomioka. "We're not having to tow so many cars."

Yet the lower numbers cannot be attributed only to the new policy; the number of traffic stops all together are down. After the arrival of the new Chief George Gascon and analysis of where officers could best spend their time, traffic cops on motorcycles now spend many of their hours responding to violence instead of just giving out traffic tickets, Tomioka says.

The numbers show it: While the police filed 825 reports for drivers without a valid license in February of 2009, they filed only 584 reports in February of this year.

But Supervisor David Campos, whose district includes the Mission, says that constituents have told him the 20 minute rule has allowed them to keep their car. Drivers "don't go out unless there's a driver on-call available," he said.

Captain Greg Corrales of Mission police station says he has "mixed feelings" about the new policy. "What the proponents overlook is those polices are to keep unskilled drivers off the street," Corrales says, "and these people who haven't shown they can drive a vehicle are driving in a community where people's children are walking to school."

Yet Campos disagrees. "None of the parade of horrible [scenarios] as far as having dangerous drivers on the road have materialized. This is about allowing people who may not be able to get a driver's license, but are otherwise good drivers, to pick up their car."

http://blogs.sfweekly.com

That's really a shame. How much more harm can the ACLU and illegal alien advocates do to our country? I guess destroy it completely.

The American public loses again. I'm getting sick and tired of the gutless wonders running our country!

A little information on Chief George Gascon:

[quote]

NEWSOM TAPS GEORGE GASCON AS SAN FRANCISCO POLICE CHIEF - FOUGHT FOR SANCTUARY CITY POLICY AS MESA POLICE CHIEF
16 June 2009

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has chosen Mesa, Ariz. police Chief George Gascon as the city’s next chief of police.

“I know going outside is a risk,â€

They really need to ban illegals from driving all together. One of them just hit my in-law's friend. She is fighting for her life, while the illegal didnt even get arrested.

I saw on the news this morning N. Korea sentenced an American to 8yrs hard labor for ILLEGALLY entering their country.