A neoliberal law enforcement disgrace has just played out in the media.
A leftist police Chief for one of DC’s wealthiest suburbs, Fairfax County, Virginia, announced in a press release that an illegal immigrant was initially investigated by one of his officers for causing a traffic collision, and after the officer was notified that the individual was wanted by ICE, the Fairfax officer surrendered him to ICE custody instead of setting him free. The Chief declared that this officer violated his internal police directive that orders Fairfax County officers to set illegal immigrants free, even if the officers are put on notice that these individuals are wanted by ICE and even if they can lawfully detain the individuals under Virginia law. The neoliberal Chief ordered an internal investigation and accused his officer of misconduct, stating that this officer “deprived a person of their freedom, which is unacceptable.”
Conservatives became outraged at a Chief punishing his officer for following Virginia law. “Based on the information currently known, this officer did NOT violate any law. He simply violated the liberal Chief’s sanctuary city policy and was punished for not following the Chief’s political agenda. This Chief destroyed a young officer’s career in order to pursue his selfish liberal ideations,” I advised Townhall for their report on this issue. Always on the wrong end of immigration issues, Liberals were unsurprisingly elated to applaud a Sanctuary City Utopia that does not enforce the law with respect to illegals.
What most media commentary has missed is the striking problem that the neoliberal Chief presented for Americans: he suspended an officer for briefly depriving an illegal of his freedom by detaining him until ICE arrived, but yet has never announced suspending or investigating an officer who has deprived an American of his or her freedom during an illegal detention or arrest. And, as a practicing Fairfax County attorney, I can personally vouch for the fact that unconstitutional deprivations of freedom have certainly taken place in Fairfax County, and these violations were remedied by the Court, but not by the police department.
“When was the last time that Fairfax County disciplined an officer for violating the rights of an American? Every time a lawyer wins a Motion to Suppress, it means that a defendant’s rights were violated. Yet, the responsible officers do not get publicly disciplined, if at all,” I advised the senior editor of Townhall for his article on this issue.
This is a very important point to digest. When an accused prevails on a Motion to Suppress, it indicates that his Fourth Amendment rights have been violated by the arresting or detaining officer. But does this neoliberal Chief care about his officers violating constitutional rights, true freedom violations? That question can only be answered by asking another question: has this Chief ever suspended and investigated an officer for violating the constitutional rights of an American? Does this Chief even have a directive on how to re-educate a police officer on constitutional rights when an officer’s arrest or detention was deemed unlawful in court? According to trusted sources, the answer is no, to both of these questions.
Moreover, the deprivation of freedom under the Constitution is a violation of freedom that has been recognized by American courts for centuries, the issue that defines our criminal justice system. The deprivation of “freedom” that the neoliberal Chief found unacceptable, however, is a freedom that this Chief personally bestowed upon a group of people that he personally and politically favors, a made-up anti-law-enforcement sanctuary city “freedom.”
By not redressing the constitutional violations of American defendants and only enforcing the politically-motivated “rights” of illegal immigrants, this Chief, undeniably, creates favoritism in his department for illegal immigrants over Americans. This is discriminatory, disgraceful, and wrong.