Mansoor and Senate Bill 54

 MANSOOR'S OPPOSITION TO SB 54 REJECTED LAST WEEK
Those who read this blog know that at the very end of the long, long City Council meeting last Wednesday morning, just before 1:00 a.m., the council rejected Councilman Allan Mansoor's request for a letter to be sent from The City opposing Kevin deLeon's Senate Bill 54.  The motion eventually made was to ignore his request and just receive and file the issue, effectively killing Mansoor's request.  The vote was 3-2, with Mansoor and Councilman Jim Righeimer voting NO.  Mayor Katrina Foley, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Genis and rookie Councilman John Stephens voted YES.

THE REGISTER REPORT
You can read Louis Casiano, Jr.'s report from the Orange County Register published late last week HERE., which included a link to another article from a few years ago.

MANSOOR'S LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Today, Sunday, Mansoor had a letter to the editor pleading his case on this subject.  Click HERE, then scroll down to his letter to read it.

CHASEN MARSHALL PROVIDES SOME CONTEXT
To more fully understand this issue it's important to have some context.  For that purpose I present for your reading pleasure Chasen Marshall's OC Weekly piece titled "It's Gotten Costa Messy In Costa Mesa" published September 1, 2011, HERE.  When you click on that link you will find Marshall's excellent piece PLUS a link to a timeline that will also be helpful to understand the tension in our city at that time.

THE OLD ATMOSPHERE
Understand that when we had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in our jail the atmosphere in this city among the Latino population was so tense you could feel it as you moved around town.  School children and their parents of Latino heritage were terrified about venturing out for even the most modest errands for fear of being picked up and deported and families torn apart.  That was the atmosphere created by Mansoor - anointed as an honorary Minuteman anti-Latino activist Barbara Coe, now deceased.

MUST HAVE MISSED THE POWER
Apparently Mansoor missed the power he had in Costa Mesa while he was in the California Assembly - a position he held with ZERO distinction.  During his tenure he managed to author only one piece of legislation that actually passed - a change removing the word "retarded" from the official state lexicon.  Who would vote against that?  Now he's back here where his mere presence on the dais has restored old fears among the Latinos in our community.

WILL HE CHANGE HIS TUNE?
It appears that Senate Bill 54 may, in fact, become State Law - which the City of Costa Mesa will have no choice except to enforcement it.  One of the great ironies in this situation is Mansoor's last sentence in his Letter To The Editor, above.  He closes by saying, "All elected officials take an oath to uphold our laws, but it looks like that's changing."  How will he feel if, and when, SB 54 becomes law - will he have the same position?

COMMIT THE CRIME, DO THE TIME
Before some of you get your panties in a wad, please understand that I do not support coddling criminals, whether they are in this country legally or not.  If you do the crime you should do the time.  AB 109, Prop. 47 and Prop 57 have made the lives of law enforcement officers across the state much more difficult, and made the residents less safe.  If an undocumented alien resident commits a crime and is convicted he should do the time and be deported.  But, I don't think the Costa Mesa Police Department - particularly in it's current depleted condition - should be expected to stop every person with brown skin to see if they are in this country legally.  That's a poor use of resources at a time when crime is on the rise.

WHAT WILL HIS NEXT TACTIC BE?
It's going to be interesting to watch Mansoor as he gains momentum on the dais, to see if he will continue to pursue this issue.

Mansoor Embraces Extremists

MANSOOR ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL
While turmoil continues to swirl around Costa Mesa Councilman Eric Bever for his capricious decision to withdraw his support for the City's bid for the Orange County Fair and Events Center his (former?) pal and former Orange County Deputy Sheriff, Allan Mansoor, is on the campaign trail.


AN INTERESTING EVENT TOMORROW
My Google Alert system barfed up a little notification this morning that I thought I'd share with you. Seems Mayor Mansoor is guest of honor at a meeting of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR) tomorrow evening, Wednesday, April 28th. You can read the announcement in full HERE.

BARBARA COE AND THE CCIR
In case you don't know about the CCIR, it was founded by racist Barbara Coe more than 15 years ago. Coe, among other things, was an officer in Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project until they had a spat over who was running the show. You can read more about the CCIR HERE.

"MINUTEMAN MAYOR"
A few years ago, when Mansoor was being honored at another CCIR event, he was named an honorary member of the Minuteman Project. Since that time opponents of his plan to designate every single Costa Mesa police officer as an immigration screener began referring to him as "Minuteman Mayor" or "Minuteman Mansoor".

PANDERING TO EXTREMISTS
I point out Mansoor's participation at this meeting because I've recently heard some observers speculate that he might steer clear of the extremists who support him to broaden his appeal for his run for Van Tran's 68th Assembly seat this year. Obviously, that is not the case. Nope, he will continue to embrace those folks and, apparently, vice versa. He will continue to pander to the extremists among us to garner votes, just as he did when he rode the backs of Costa Mesa's immigrants to victory in his Costa Mesa council campaigns.

MANSOOR CAMPAIGN FINANCES SOON
As the campaign season moves forward we'll be addressing Mansoor in depth, including an assessment of his campaign contributors. We'll keep that for a future entry, but some of the numbers are very interesting and illuminating.