San Francisco County Sheriff Ross
Mirkarimi defended his department’s release of the suspect in the shooting
death of Katie Steinle. The suspect, Francisco Sanchez, an illegal immigrant
with an extensive criminal history, and who had already been deported five
times, was released, from the San Francisco County jail, after local authorities
there declined to prosecute on a drug related charge.
Sheriff Mirkarimi contends that
if the feds wanted San Francisco to ‘hold’
Sanchez, then they should have issued a warrant or a court order. Since SanFrancisco is a Sanctuary City, they simply opened the door and let Sanchez walk
away.
Pardon me if I take exception to
Sheriff Mirkarimi’s statement. During the course of my twenty-two year law enforcement
career I ran a county jail. We routinely housed federal inmates, including
those that were released to us for the purpose of dealing with local charges.
This is exactly the situation that existed in San Francisco.
Sanchez was picked up by federal authorities
after he had completed a prison sentence. Since he had an outstanding charge in
San Francisco, that charge needed to be addressed before they could process
Sanchez for deportation on the federal immigration charge.
Federal inmates, which Sanchez
was, are remanded to local authorities with what is called a detainer.
Basically it directs the local agency to notify the feds when the local charges
have been addressed, either by release or incarceration. In the case of
release, the feds come and pick-up the prisoner. In the case of incarceration,
they update their records and notify the correctional facility, where the prisoner
is remanded to, that they have a federal hold in place and issue another
detainer to the facility.
For Sheriff Mirkarimi to say that
federal authorities should somehow have done more, belies the simple fact that
he did nothing. The optics on this are horrible and he knows it. He is trying
to deflect the blame instead of recognizing that San Francisco’s failed sanctuary
city policies cost the life of another innocent young person.
Most career law enforcement
officers will tell you that they often feel constrained by the politics that
seems to pervade local law enforcement policies, but Mirkarimi is not a career
law enforcement officer. He is an elected official whose law enforcement career
didn’t begin until 2011, when he was elected as sheriff. Prior to that, he was
a member of the San Francisco County Board, the same folks who are responsible for
the whole Sanctuary City debacle. A policy he vigorously defends, despite being
at odds with the members of his own department.
He is no stranger to controversy.
In 2012, just after his election, he was suspended from office after being
charged with domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a
witness, in connection with an altercation with his wife. He pled guilty to one
misdemeanor count of false imprisonment and was sentenced to three years of
probation and had to stay away from his wife for seven months. He was
reinstated seven months later, after the Board of Supervisors failed to get
enough votes to remove him from office.
He has also had to deal with internal
issues as well. In March, Mirkarimi issued a directive stating that only he
could turn them over to ICE. This was brought about because his deputies, who
opposed the policy, were reportedly secretly helping federal authorities get
illegal immigrants off the streets.
Under the circumstances, I can
understand why he would want to pawn off the blame to someone else.
This is another example of what
happens when the rule of law becomes subverted; abused and twisted to comply
with the rule of man, or, as it is in this case, the Board of Supervisors.
Mirkarimi, as well as the Board
of Supervisors, is trying to push the blame for the tragic death of Katie
Steinle to the feds, but it is a responsibility that lies squarely on their
doorstep. It was their policy that allowed this to happen and they need to be
held responsible.
