California Democrats passed a bill that would ban federal immigration agents and other federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks.
“We’re looking at the constitutionality of it,” Gov. Newsom said in July.
Don’t bother looking, governor. Any eighth grader could tell you that a governor can’t order federal law enforcement or any other federal official to do anything. This is virtue signaling at its finest, and naturally, Democrats are waving the bloody shirt for all to see.
“We are in a truly disaster of a situation where we have secret police, effectively, on our streets,” said Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator from San Francisco. Wiener may be familiar to PJ Media readers as the poster child for liberal idiocy in California. And that’s saying a lot.
He proposed legislation that would allow Californians to sue oil companies for wildfire damage because of climate change, of course.
He introduced a bill that would force auto makers to install a device to “beep” when the vehicle went 10 miles over the speed limit.
Wiener’s pièce de résistance was his gender identity bill that would have allowed the state to remove a child from his home if the parents refused to recognize his “new” gender. The bill was too much even for Governor Newsom, who vetoed it.
So this is nothing out of the ordinary for the gay state senator from San Francisco.
“It is our duty in California to defend our rule of law,” said Assemblymember Juan Carrillo, who represents a Southern California district northeast of Los Angeles. “If we want to support public safety, if we want the public to trust law enforcement, we cannot allow them to behave like secret police in an authoritarian state.”
“It’s tearing apart the fabric of society,” Wiener said. “You have communities in Southern California where people are scared to go out on the street, they’re scared to go to work, they’re scared to bring their kids to school. And now is the time for us to say what the rules are.”
Related: America Is Coming Apart. Is There Anything We Can Do to Stop It?
Mr. Wiener’s legislation would bar officers from wearing face coverings that shield their identities, such as the ski masks, balaclavas and neck gaiters that have become common in recent months during President Trump’s immigration crackdown. It does not apply to medical masks, clear plastic face shields, respirators, eye protection or other safety devices.
The bill would take effect in January if signed by Mr. Newsom. The governor has until Oct. 12 to act on the legislation.
Numerous lawmakers described fear and anxiety in California’s many Latino communities. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Democratic state senator from the Los Angeles area, said that one of her constituents was so afraid of immigration agents that he ran onto a freeway and died. She said that her own family members have begun carrying their passports at all times.
“That’s a very strange reality,” Ms. Pérez said.
Another bill expected to pass soon would require all law enforcement officers to wear name tags or badges. I think it’s not a bad idea if there are carve-outs for officers acting in certain sensitive situations.
But this is not about law and order. It’s about exposing federal law enforcement officers to the tender mercies of online doxxing attempts and, worse, potential acts of violence against the officers and their families.
Maybe Wiener could introduce a bill requiring the names, addresses, and phone numbers of federal law enforcement officers to be posted on the Internet for all to see. If he’s going to unmask them, he might as well make it easier for the assassins to find the officers and their families.
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