You don’t defund law enforcement — you fix it

The public has spoken, and its voice is an overwhelming rejection of how Immigration and Customs Enforcement is carrying out its role. That’s almost 8 out 10 Americans who identify as Independents.

Why concentrate on Independents? There are more of them than either Republicans or Democrats, and they are swing voters, not wed to the positions of either party. They decide who wins national elections.

And when ICE loses the confidence of the people, it loses the presumption of innocence. That’s why almost all of us want agents to wear body cameras, and few of us will accept the release of the footage only when it is in “best interests” of the agency, as was recently announced.

Excuse me?

ICE is constituted to protect us, not itself. Like every arm of the government, it is responsible to we the people.

This is not a call to defund ICE, or any other law-enforcement body, because that is utter, infantile, Looney Left  insanity. According to its Hymn, even Heaven is guarded by United States Marines.

OK, maybe not, but every earthly precinct needs a police force.

That’s a fact, a sad one perhaps, but still a fact. Only social simpletons deny this fact.

Another fact: By an overwhelming majority, Black Americans want police to spend the same amount or more time in their neighborhoods, 81%. 

It goes without saying they mean good cops. The “defund” idea takes roots only in safe, white, Left neighborhoods, the neighborhoods least effected by violent crime.

I support good cops, at every level — Philly cops, Parking Enforcement Officers, state troopers, FBI, DEA, TSA, ATF, DHS, ICE.

My support is not unconditional, it is not offered blindly. It is conditional on good behavior by those who wear the badge.

When ICE has erred, I have said so, and I have said so more than once.

You can see my objections to bad behavior here and here, among other places. It has made multiple mistakes and actually has broken the law.

The idea that ICE will promptly release videos of shootings and other encounters where there have been injuries only when “it is in the best interests of the agency,” is a nonstarter.

We the people are still waiting for the footage of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, two American citizens gunned down on the streets of Minnesota in January. 

No videos released, no investigations completed.

Seven long months have gone by and we the people have received no answers.

When running for President, Donald J. Trump made the porous border and the millions of illegals a key campaign issue, along with prices and inflation.

He slammed the border door shut, and went after the millions of illegals, as he promised.

He did say the worst first, which he hasn’t done, but he clearly said he wanted them all gone, under the law.

That had been a positive for him in the court of public opinion.

It has become a negative. Why?

Largely because of ICE conduct.

The same Americans who wanted them all gone changed their minds when they saw relatively harmless illegals being hunted like rabid dogs, being rounded up and deported without required due process, as the sob sisters in the liberal press cryied into their handkerchieves over the lame, and young, and old, and female, being forced onto flights.

It doesn’t matter that they were breaking the law.

The harsh actions of ICE have turned perpetrators into victims.

Almost two-thirds of Americans now want the nonviolent offenders to be given a chance to remain in the U.S. under certain conditions. 

That’s not the outcome Trump wants, but that’s what the public wants, and the more he deports, the less popular he, and Republicans, will be.

Time to change course, retrain and refine ICE, and move toward a gentler, kindler deportation policy — and transparency on all cop-shot video.