... on the ballot in Los Angeles in March ... barely.


Friday was the day signatures had to be turned in by the Shaw Family, whose members have been madly scrambling to acquire the 74,000 plus necessary to place Jamiel's Law in front of L.A. voters, this coming Spring.

Apparently (I was working very hard early in the week and missed all of this), Anita Shaw (Jamiel's Mom) was interviewed on the Sean Hannity show a few days prior to the deadline.

As this was going on, a handful of border security activists from local groups (NMI, the MM and SOS) were helping the Shaws by going to supermarkets, Wal-Marts, libraries, and other places where the public gathers.

About 3 weeks ago the family was approx. 20K signatures short, but the last push (which included some work by prof. signature gatherers) was fast and furious, and the number acquired started to grow.

I saw Althea Shaw (Jamiel's Aunt) on the morning of the last day. She parked herself in front of a Denny's that was a couple blocks away from the city govt. building where the signatures needed to be submitted. I handed her my sheet which contained about 3 dozen, wished her luck, and went off to work.

It has since been reported on the Walter Moore mayoral candidacy website ( http://web.mac.com/waltermoore/WalterMo ... s_Law.html ) that just over 76,000 signatures were submitted to local govt. Everyone is sort of holding their breath because that leaves very little margin for error.

A few well-timed prayers would be helpful, folks. Some people from around the country generously donated money and some private individuals pitched in, but the reality is is that 75% of the heavy lifting was done by the grief stricken members of a working class Southern California family who just refused to let their son's death be in vain.