Critics, including the LAPD police union, say the changes just reward lawbreakers and put politics above safety.

The meeting in Northridge was packed with residents who were overwhelmingly against the change. At one point, things got so heated, police commissioners nearly walked out of the meeting.

Don Rosenberg, whose said his 25-year-old son was killed in an accident involving an unlicensed driver, was one of those who opposed changes to the policy.

"The car should be confiscated and the driver should be arrested, and if they are caught again, then just keep jacking up the penalty until this stops," Rosenberg said. "There's over a million unlicensed drivers in California, and they're killing people every day."

Rosenberg received resounding applause from the crowd when he spoke.

"If you think it's fair, you come down the road and come meet my son in his cemetery and you tell him that this is fair," Rosenberg said, addressing Beck and the commission."

That just says to me they've already made up their minds to go forward with this unlawful policy change. Oh, and they're cowards and puppets. They need to remember that they serve the people that are angry but they obviously don't care.

Chief Charlie Beck is a total coward and a political puppet of Mayor Tony Villaraigosa. Villaraigosa is in cahoots with State Sen Gil Cedillo who is the illegal alien's best friend. This policy will only serve to put those without licenses right back on the road after being cited. The Mayor and the LAPD have put politically correct politics above the safety of the people of this city and all of us should attend every Police Commission meeting and demand the immediate resignation of these phonies who dare to call themselves "city leaders."

This law applies to everyone not just immigrants(legal or illegal- even ones NOT from Mexico). If you don't have a valid license then don't drive. If you are going to break the law then be prepared for the punishment. Allowing anyone to knowingly break the law tells me that you Mr. Mayor and Mr. Police Chief are in the WRONG profession. Those of us who ARE law abiding, are punished more or suffer more risks because of it. What laws will illegal immigrants be compelled to abide by? Apparently NONE of them want to abide by our laws, no matter what they are. And it's dangerous for LAW ENFORCEMENT officials to go along with it. To what purpose is HAVING the laws, if some have to abide, and some don't?

Chief Beck you are the top law enforcement official for the City of L.A. Most of us are law abiding citizens and frankly I am OUTRAGED that you would even consider allowing unlicensed drivers to break the law without any consequence. Most unlicensed drivers are illegal aliens, who by their mere presence, is already breaking the law. They work using false identities, more law breaking and none of our city/state officials do anything to stop it. Why should the rest of us continue to obey the laws when you reward and coddle these offenders? Have you noticed, Chief Beck, how many more hit & run crimes there are lately? Stop being political, that is not your job. Please do your job Chief Beck and arrest these unlicensed drivers and IMPOUND their cars.

I'm astonished this is even being discussed... why do politicians continue to pander to illegals..they can't vote (yet) they can't legally hold a job, they don't pay taxes..they are a drag on our tax dollars with all their benefits they they easily get when real Americans are suffering. I say take care of American Homeless, American unemployed NOT those driving with PIOLIN bumper stickers and killing Americans.

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929.  He was assassinated in 1968.  “MLK Day” as it were, is celebrated the third Monday in January close to the time of his birthday.  One may ask how such a short life should warrant a federal holiday.  Martin Luther King, Jr. never was elected to public office.  His life was controversial while he lived it.  Moreover, his memory is skewed given that FBI files were sealed under court order until 2027.  These records were not accessible to lawmakers, who voted for his holiday in 1983.  The measure nevertheless passed with bipartisan support and by large margin before Ronald Reagan signed it into law. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. still evokes an ecstatic memory from his admirers, and the man has become something of an icon too.  That is to say, the representation of high ideals and idealism is separate and distinct from his actual biography.  Of course the same can be said of many others, including Lincoln and Jefferson.  Great men are often given a public pass on their blemishes and shortcomings.  Historians are or ought to be a bit more circumspect. 

The reason for the Day, and celebrating the life of MLK involves the issue of race.  Martin Luther King, Jr.’s work was important in achieving a Second Reconstruction so-called, i.e., the end of segregation and the application of rights past state laws based upon the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.   

Martin Luther King, Jr. attended segregated public schools in Georgia.  After that he went to Morehouse College in Atlanta and then to Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania.  At Crozer he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class.  He then proceeded to Boston University where he earned his Ph. D. in 1955 and met his wife Coretta Scott.  They would have two sons and two daughters together. 

After educational and professional preparations, King launched himself into the pastorate first in Montgomery, Alabama and then in his native Atlanta, Georgia.  At the same time he dedicated himself to political activism throughout the South, in order to end “Jim Crow” discriminatory statutes.  As a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) he led the Montgomery bus boycott lasting 382 days.  This led to a Supreme Court decision ending bus segregation.  During the days of the boycott, King was arrested and subjected to personal abuse, and his home was bombed. 

In 1957 he was elected to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, from which he provided new leadership for the burgeoning civil rights movement.  King employed the teachings and techniques of Henry David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi.  His enduring success is largely attributable, however, to skilful adaptation of widely accepted American values, including the rule of law—albeit, through aggressive non-violence; as well as strong appeal to common spiritual beliefs, especially in the South, about God and the moral worth and dignity of man, and to Christian values of forbearance and brotherly love.  His historicism was Lincolnesque and so helpful, in that he emphasized the text of the Declaration of Independence, characterizing that document as a promissory note as yet unfulfilled.  Thus he appealed to American patriotism, while strongly criticizing social norms regarding race. 

In the eleven year period from 1957 to 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled more than six million miles, gave over twenty-five hundred speeches, wrote five books and numerous articles, consistently preaching against racial hatred and injustice.  His activity is largely credited with changing the conscience of America on the subject of race.  In 1963 he directed a peaceful march on Washington, D.C. of 250,000 people and delivered perhaps his finest address, “I Have a Dream” from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  In 1965 he led 30,000 people on a march from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, where he demanded that black people be allowed to vote without unfair restrictions.  The speech televised to a national audience, as well as the Selma march and various protests he orchestrated, stirred general unrest in the South and American cities, leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

In 1964 he became the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, turning over that considerable cash prize to the furtherance of civil rights.  The iconic ideal he articulated at the Lincoln Memorial is still one of the highest domestic hopes in the land.  It has come to define what we mean by a just equality.  Speaking of his four little children, he said “I have a dream that … one day” they “will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” 

____________________

Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford.  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he serves as State Director of the Republican Freedom Coalition (RFC).  This article is from his newly released book, Horse Sense for the New Millennium available on-line at www.WesRiddle.net and from fine bookstores everywhere.  Email: Wes@WesRiddle.com

• There is a stock of up to 20 million illegals present in the United States at this time. (And this does not count their anchor baby children).
• Mexicans are colonizing the Southwest. The shanty towns they’re building are actually called Colonias.
• The US has 8.5 percent unemployment, at a time when many of those employed are immigrants, legal and illegal.
• The Obama administration is not engaging in record deportations. VDARE.com’s Ed Rubenstein has documentedthat this is simply a Big Lie. Deportations are flat to down since the late Bush years
• The Obama administration is engaging in a corrupt administrative amnesty.
• Last but not least: Legal immigration continues at the rate of a million a year.

Some political realities

• Any reduction in the flow of illegals is a caused by (a) the continuing economic crisis (fewer homebuilding jobs); and (b) state and federal enforcement efforts, which are successful and popular with everyone but the Treason Lobby and Clinton-appointed judges.
• Political consultants keep saying America can’t do immigration enforcement because of the “Hispanic vote”—which, if true, would  mean Latinos had taken over the political process.Uh-oh!
• While (reporters) use the word “railing” to describe candidates’ mild statement on immigration enforcement, the reality is that the candidates are, compared to normal Americans, not angry enough at illegal immigration. (And they never mention legal immigration).

Claiming immigration isn’t a problem because border crossing has temporarily slowed is like trying to tell the French in 1943 that theGerman Occupation wasn’t a  problem because the Blitzkrieg was over and a lot of occupation troops had gone home on leave. (I’m aware that Nazis as a metaphor are over-used, but for once it’s a pretty close parallel.)

James Fulford