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U.S. NEWS Saturday 2 december 2017

Immigration anger builds against San Francisco after verdict

By PAUL ELIAS San Francisco Deputy Dis-
JANIE HAR trict Attorney Diana Gar-
Associated Press cia urged jurors to convict
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — him of first-degree murder.
The attacks on San Fran- Jurors also considered and
cisco and other cities with rejected second-degree
similar immigration policies murder and involuntary
began moments after a manslaughter.
jury acquitted a Mexican They did convict him of the
man charged with killing a firearm charge, which car-
woman on a popular pier. ries a maximum sentence
President Donald Trump of three years in jail. U.S. Im-
called the verdict a “com- migration and Customs En-
plete travesty of justice,” forcement said it would “ul-
and U.S. Attorney General timately remove” Garcia
Jeff Sessions demanded Zarate from the country.
cities like San Francisco Before the shooting, he
scrap immigration policies had finished a federal
barring cooperation with prison sentence for illegal
federal deportation efforts. re-entry into the United
Thousands of Twitter us- States and had been trans-
ers turned to the hashtag ferred to San Francisco’s
#BoycottSanFrancisco. Craig Warner of Palo Alto, Calif., leaves a bell at a memorial site for Kate Steinle on Pier 14 Friday, jail in March 2015 to face a
Dec. 1, 2017, in San Francisco. In this fiercely liberal city, city leaders remained attached to San
Conservative politicians Francisco’s sanctuary city status despite a not guilty verdict in a killing that sparked feverish 20-year-old charge for sell-
and celebrities such as for- immigration debates because the man who fired the gun was in the country illegally after being ing marijuana.
mer Alaska Gov. Sarah Pal- deported five times. The sheriff’s department re-
in and actor James Woods (AP Photo/Ben Margot) leased him a few days after
lambasted the city. 2015. He had been deport- Central American refu- Sessions and others blame prosecutors dropped the
City officials pushed back ed five times before. gees. for Steinle’s death. marijuana charge, despite
and vowed to stand be- “San Francisco is and al- Since then, San Francisco Prosecutors had charged a request from federal of-
hind their so-called sanc- ways will be a sanctuary has consistently been an Garcia Zarate with murder, ficials to detain him for de-
tuary city policy. It’s what city,” said Ellen Canale, a early adopter of some of assault and being felon in portation.
led Garcia Zarate to be spokeswoman for Mayor the most immigrant-friendly possession of a firearm. He “San Francisco’s decision
released from San Francis- Ed Lee. policies nationwide, ex- called the shooting an ac- to protect criminal aliens
co’s jail despite a federal It was among the first U.S. panding protections to resi- cident. led to the preventable and
request to detain him for cities to establish a sanctu- dents living in the country He said he found a gun un- heartbreaking death of
deportation several weeks ary law in 1989 as part of without documentation. der a chair on the pier and Kate Steinle,” Sessions said
before Kate Steinle was a national wave of cities Hundreds of cities have sim- it fired when he picked it in a statement Thursday
fatally shot in the back in adopting policies to help ilar policies, which Trump, up. night.q
Report: Officer safety put ahead of public safety at rally

By SARAH RANKIN state and city police and public safety,” the report to deep distrust of govern- were peacefully march-
Associated Press a passive response by of- found. ment within this commu- ing through a downtown
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) ficials to the chaos. The re- The City of Charlottesville nity.” street, a car drove into the
— Law enforcement failed port also found that police also did not protect free White nationalists descend- crowd, killing 32-year-old
to adequately plan for or removed an officer from an expression on Aug. 12, the ed on Charlottesville in part Heather Heyer and injuring
respond to a violent white area where a car plowed report said. to protest plans to remove many more.
nationalist rally this sum- into counterprotesters and “This represents a failure of a statue of Confederate Public works officials had
mer in Virginia, leading to killed a woman and injured one of government’s core General Robert E. Lee. suggested using large bar-
“deep distrust of govern- 19 others, leaving only a functions — the protection They began fighting in the riers that can be filled with
ment” in the Charlottesville small sawhorse in place at of fundamental rights,” it streets with counterdemon- water to block vehicular
community, an indepen- the time. said. “Law enforcement strators before the event traffic but Heaphy said “it
dent review released Fri- “Supervisors devised a also failed to maintain order even officially began and just didn’t happen.”
day found. poorly conceived plan that and protect citizens from the brawling went on for The report was put togeth-
Former U.S. Attorney Tim under-equipped and mis- harm, injury, and death. nearly an hour in front of of- er based on about 150 in-
Heaphy’s monthslong in- aligned hundreds of offi- Charlottesville preserved ficers until the event even- terviews, and the review of
vestigation found a lack cers. Execution of that plan neither of those principles tually disbanded. Later, photos, video and over half
of coordination between elevated officer safety over on Aug. 12, which has led as counterdemonstrators a million documents.q