We Could Use A Man Like Lee Atwater Again...Those Were the Days

It's a story so unreported as to constitute a part of the "undernews:" a program operated by SF's district attorneys office hid juvenile felons who were also illegal aliens from the feds, going as far as to send the juvies back to their home countries, rather than turn them over for deportation. Then, one of these members of the Protected Alien Class did a drive-by, killing a local butcher and his two teenage sons. Quite a story, especially when the mayor under whose direction the program was protecting this guy is running for governor.

You would think voters outside SF would want to know about this sort of thing, but it's been kept pretty quiet. Only the dead men's family has been vocal in their outrage, with SF's usual progresive volume dealers staying mum. The City has refused to end the program protecting illegal aliens, has refused to seek the death penalty against the killer, and has refused to pay the victim's family any attention at all. Now, the victim's family is proceeding with a lawsuit against the City for pursuing recklessly progressive policies that led directly to the murders of 3 people. SF's liberal elite would just as soon not have to deal with this: Judge Lets Victims' Kin Take SF to Court

The family of a father and two sons who were slain in San Francisco last year can go to state court with a claim that the city is to blame for failing to turn their alleged killer over to immigration authorities when he was arrested earlier as a juvenile, a federal judge has ruled.

(snip)

(Tony) Bologna, 48, and his sons Michael, 20, and Matthew, 16, were shot to death near their home in the Excelsior district in June 2008. Edwin Ramos, 22, is charged with murdering them.

Ramos, a native of El Salvador whom prosecutors describe as a member of the MS-13 gang, was arrested twice as a juvenile, for an assault in October 2003 and an attempted purse-snatching in April 2004. Juvenile courts sent him to a shelter after the first incident and to the city-run Log Cabin Ranch in the Peninsula hills after the second.

Case records don't show whether police or juvenile courts knew that Ramos had entered the United States illegally. But under juvenile authorities' interpretation of the city's sanctuary policy at the time, they would not have passed that information along to federal immigration officials. Federal authorities learned of Ramos' status later but did not take him into custody for deportation proceedings.

I know this murder happened in SF, so the normal rules of politics and criminal law don't apply, but come on! The weakness displayed by SF's political class from the Mayor and DA on down is pretty astounding. They have pompously declared that the City program that protected a murderer is a good one, spoiled by some rotten apples. They have also declared that the death penalty is off the table. In effect, they are choosing Thug Ramos over the Widow Bologna, a woman who has received little in the way of protection or help from the City.

Mayor Newsome is running for governor and DA Harris is angling to be the next State Attorney General. Can they seriously expect to win state-wide races with this sort of issue is hanging over them?