Sanctuary city mayor, police chief scold cops for assisting Border Patrol officers who asked for backup: ‘Against our policy’
By: Chris Nesi
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Rochester leaders scolded local cops for violating their sanctuary city policies after they responded to a request for backup from Border Patrol agents conducting a traffic stop.
Border Patrol asked for emergency police assistance on Monday after pulling over a van with an estimated eight people inside.
Rochester cops responded to the scene with lights and sirens, ordered the suspects out of the vehicle and helped put them in handcuffs, according to local WABC affiliate WHAM.
It was not immediately known why the van was stopped.
But the completely routine police response was enough to raise the ire of Democratic Rochester Mayor Malik Evans, who held a press conference on the incident Wednesday.
"The officers on the scene verbally directed the occupants to get out of the vehicle, and this is against our policy," he said.
"Our policy is crystal clear. City police officers do not help or participate in federal immigration activities," he added, noting he personally instructed Police Chief David Smith to remind every member of the force about the directive.
Smith, who also spoke at the press conference, threw his officers under the bus for responding to the call — as well as the Border Patrol agents who initiated the stop.
"From watching the body-worn camera footage, what is concerning to me is despite the fact that we were called, we went lights and sirens," he said.
"I see in the video a total lack of urgency on the part of multiple Border Patrol officers at the scene."
Smith then continued admonishing officers for following standard police procedure.
"We are not to be handcuffing subjects," he said. "We are not to be doing pat frisks on subjects, and we are absolutely not going to be detaining them or putting them into our cars."
The Rochester Police Locust Club union issued a press release defending the officers' actions and calling Evans' statements "a complete overreaction" to what happened.
"As with any law enforcement agency that indicates it has a critical situation in progress within the City of Rochester, officers responded under lights and sirens … expecting their fellow law enforcement officers to be in distress when they got there."
The union said the occupants of the van "were not complying with agents' request to exit the vehicle," which they eventually did "without resistance" when the local cops stepped in to help.
"The officers on scene asked no questions of the occupants about their immigration status or relevant documents. No force was used … Once the scene was secured, that ended RPD's involvement in the matter," the statement read.
"The Mayor's statements today about this incident represent a complete overreaction to what did (and did not) happen on Monday. The Locust Club members who responded did absolutely nothing wrong, other than to answer a call for help from another agency."
Rochester's sanctuary city resolution was first adopted in 1986 and reaffirmed in 2017, according to the outlet. The Rochester Police Department is prohibited — under General Order 501 — from enforcing federal immigration laws.
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So their policy isn't to enforce the law and provide mutual assistance? This sanctuary shithole is worse than I thought.
Immigration is federal only enforcement. This has been long established.
Federal and state law enforcement working together is long established practice. Are you suggesting the police should not help a federal agency if they call for help? What happens if they get hurt because of a lack of help. Is that acceptable?
What has also been long established is local law enforcement working with federal agencies. I notice you left that part out.
Not with immigration. That is optional for state, county, and local law enforcement.
Depends on what they are calling for help for. Immigration round up turns violent? Of course there are no law enforcement agencies that would not respond to an "officer needs help" situation.
However what is being denied is for the local law enforcement doing federal's job for them. That type of request for help is purely optional for the local department.
That's because you are trying to paint with a too wide brush. The agencies working together is purely based on the situation, sometimes they do, sometimes they do not.
Sounds like you are suggesting that only certain laws should be enforced. Sorry, the days of picking and choosing what laws to enforce went out with Biden and his dumpster fire.
From the article :Border Patrol asked for emergency police assistance . The article also states it was a completely routine response.
What about emergency police assistance does not sound like officer needs help to you?
Not at all. I'm just not following the direction you are trying to take things.
And they asked for some assistance from local law enforcement, who obliged and promptly left whey those LEO's had expended their needed assistance. Big fucking deal.
Only to those that may rather see ICE officers hurt than helped by local police. A certain mayor comes to mind
Comment doesn't violate RBR.
So let’s say local law enforcement calls for assistance and ICE is in the area and ready to help.
What would your response be if ICE says…..nope…not our job and a local cop gets killed?
My guess is you would blame Trump for the local cop getting killed.
Quite possible.
I would also guess the mayor would not have an issue with it. I mean a few less cops is a good thing in some liberal sanctuary shitholes, isn't it?
Sounds like you didn't actually read my response. Federal laws are outside local law enforcement's jurisdiction.
Assistance with what? Once again you refuse details.
The fact that they requested it thru channels, AND if you'd bother to read the seeded article you'd see that this was not the case. You are ignoring the facts presented in the article and attempting to add fictionalized accounts to support your claims.
So what did I say that was incorrect? They didn't ask for help or asking for help does not sound like asking for help?
Read it and responded.
Pretty sad that we see many on the left pissy that local law enforcement asked for help fro the feds for something.
They get pissy when a terrorist sympathizer gets picked up and held for deportation.
They get pissy when ICE picks up ACTUAL illegal gang members and holds them for deportation.
They get pissy when we get illegal criminals out of the country and sent to another country.
It’s almost as if they are hoping these illegal criminals take control of this country
They get pissy when they defend illegals getting into the country and you ask them how many of them they have taken i to their home to take some financial burden off the taxpayer.
What sick individuals many of them are.
So local law enforcement won't respond to a bank robbery?
That question is too ignorant to respond to, other than to state that it is too ignorant to respond to...
So states will enforce some federal laws just not others, seems the left is a bit hypocritical on which federal laws they want to help enforce.
Bank robbery is actually a state crime under our basic system. It becomes a federal crime when the bank is insured by the FDIC or is part of the Federal Reserve System.
18 USC 2113 defines “bank” thus:
Nothing like a little virtue signaling from a dem mayor.
Hopefully the PD will continue to give him the middle finger and answer the call for help from any department in need.
It’s legitimately hard to understand the craziness of the left and their hatred of ordinary Americans. They’ll fight to the death to protect foreign child molesters here illegally but ask them to perform the most minimal acts possible to protect actual Americans and they flip out.
The Feds should immediately end all funding and grants to the city and bar Rochester from AIFIS and CODIS.
Then Rochester gets no federal money
Police should respond if federal agents are having an emergency. It’s not clear from this story that they actually had an emergency, though. If they are abusing the emergency call just so they can get a little backup, then that’s bullshit. Federal agents should have sufficient resources to handle their own business under normal circumstances. Drawing local police away from their normal duties just to be a few more sets of hands could result in local agencies ignoring all calls for help from federal officers.
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There were eight people in the vehicle, and they were going to arrest all of them so they or any law enforcement officers would automatically call for backup. It isn't because something already happened it's because with so many people even if they were only going to arrest one person they would still be outnumbered and so they call for backup to prevent something from happening. I've seen a single cop pull over four guys in a car hundreds of times and they'll just sit there till backup arrives before doing anything.
If all they needed was more guys, why not call federal officers for backup? Local guys responding code 3 makes it seem like there was an actual emergency. I wonder where they got that impression?
But I supposed if these guys request backup from the FBI or the DEA they would sure expect someone to come running and bail their asses out of trouble