PO Ronil Singh was allegedly killed by Gustavo Perez Arriaga during a traffic stop in California. Arriaga, who is alleged to be in the United States illegally, sparked a debate about California’s Sanctuary State law as a possible reason for the officer’s killing. We break that law down on Fox News with Eric Shawn. Was this law to blame based upon what we know?

#immigration #SanctuaryState #illegalimmigration #RonilSingh #Arriaga #police #murder #california

PO #RonilSingh killed in line of duty, sparking debate about California’s #Sanctuary state law

January 3, 2019

Eric Shawn: Eight people are now under arrest in the killing of a police officer in northern California, including the suspect’s brothers and his girlfriend. Police say the man who killed Officer Ronil Singh, is an illegal immigrant and a member of a violent Mexican Street gang. Ice officials say however, they were unaware of this suspect until his arrest last week. And critics are blaming the State Sanctuary policies. Bob Bianchi, former Morris County, New Jersey Prosecutor, Criminal Defense attorney joins us now. Bob, uh, I do not have the words, frankly I do, but I won’t say them on television to say how I feel about this case. You have this, illegal immigrant allegedly charged with this horrible killing and he was here and the critics say that if the Sanctuary State policy was not in place, he would have been caught. There is Arriaga, he would’ve had two DWI’s if they were legally able to ask him and cuff him and booted him, he would’ve been kicked out of this country. And the brave Officer Ronil Singh, who himself in contrast, law abiding immigrant from Fiji whose dream was to become a police officer, a member of law enforcement. He is shot to death allegedly by this Arriaga. What an offense against what this country represents period.

Robert Bianchi: Eric, listen, when I was Prosecutor gangs were my number one priority, and I have a little bit of a different take on this because we used many of the undocumented people who were law abiding, if you will they weren’t committing crimes, as our witnesses. As our people that were giving us intelligence in order to eradicate those that were here illegally and committing massive crime, typically in the very communities that the Sanctuary State laws supposed to protect. So, what I don’t like about this dialogue, Eric, is that we need a moderate approach. Law enforcement should be able to work with Federal law enforcement partners, State law enforcement partners to go after these gangs. We don’t have enough resources to deport everybody. Let’s concentrate on them because they are committing crimes, not just to those communities, they bleed out into the suburbs with burglaries and all sorts of other violent crime. So, it’s unfortunate that this issue gets mired in politics as opposed to sensible law enforcement policy and he pays the price, this officer. And I see many, I have a really, really bad cases where people that were deported, they come back in, they’re deported, they come back in, one in particular, a five-year-old boy, abducted from a fair, brutally raped and then murdered. But again, I don’t think that we should be having policies that just say that we arrest everyone. Local law enforcement should not be involved in my opinion, in deportation process.

Eric Shawn: In a sanctuary city policy, you’re saying it should be tailored, or it is tailored, to the criminals. That if you break the law you should be deported versus just being, just asking what’s your citizenship, are here illegally or not?

Robert Bianchi: Eric, that’s a great question and I was researching this, the Sanctuary State law in California, does not prevent them from being able to interdict with violent criminals. My question is having been the head Prosecutor, what directives are out there from the head law enforcement agencies that are telling them how to interpret that policy. And the only reason I say that is because the Sheriff came out and made a blanket statement, that something that was done, prevented them from being able to eradicate this individual propriety to him killing this beautiful man. We saw the picture with his wife and his baby. What was that exactly? Because the law doesn’t prevent them.

Eric Shawn: There are 800 exemptions in the Sanctuary laws that would let officers actually have picked this guy up and he fell completely through the cracks. So, you’re saying the law would have worked, would have worked if it had been carried out properly by authorities?

Robert Bianchi: Absolutely. So, you know, just so you understand how this works, and so your audience understands this, there’s a law, but then you have law enforcement like the Attorney General and Head County Prosecutors like myself, I have 44 police agencies. I could tell them, yeah, that’s the law, but we are going to do it this way, that way, and the other way and that could in fact what would have tied his hands, in when he made that comment, this is what we need an investigation to find out? Was he prevented from using the law for those 800 exemptions and ultimately that led to this officer’s death?

Eric Shawn: How could someone realistically expect if you’re an officer on the beat, you’re out in the street, you have a car stop, that you know all the 800 exemptions. I mean, what is somebody going to carry a big book and go through it while you’re stopping somebody. How does, how would that work?

Robert Bianchi: Well, I think the issue is that you want to get him off and out of circulation prior to that motor vehicle stop. If in fact he was a gang member, which we’re told that through social media accounts, so on and so forth. Then state local and federal authorities, there’s nothing, this does not violate the Sanctuary State laws we’ve been talking about, should be working to interdict these against these individuals. So, he wouldn’t have been on the road confronting that police officer. This violence from gangs from 2007, when I a was Prosecutor to 2013, grew exponentially. And Eric, it’s a big issue. We need to stop the political dialogue that the lefts point to the left, the rights pulling to the right, and in the middle is law enforcement being stretched in multiple directions, that we can’t do our job under these circumstances.

Eric Shawn: Meanwhile, let me just show you one more time, Corporate Ronil Singh, he handled the canine issue in Newman Police Department. He is the first and only police officer who, of that department, who was shot in the line of duty. Bob, I know you join us in all our viewers in thinking and keeping his family in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you, Heather.