Up until around 2020, the legal system worked fairly well mostly because jurors generally did their jobs. Even initially in BLM cases. Then the dam broke, jurors began convicting innocent police officers. Now they routinely refuse to convict obviously guilty defendants in ICE interference cases. What that means is we don’t have a functioning justice system and the law does not apply in certain parts of the country.
Like Los Angeles.
A federal jury has acquitted a South L.A. man who was charged with stealing government property by towing an immigration agent’s vehicle during the arrest of a TikTok influencer in Downtown Los Angeles earlier this year.
After a four-day trial and more than three hours of deliberation, the jury found Nunez not guilty of one count of theft of government property Friday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, which declined to comment on the verdict. He had faced up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
In a Sept. 2 statement on X, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said Nunez had been arrested for “brazenly towing an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] vehicle.”
“Apparently he thought it would be funny to interfere with our immigration enforcement operations,” Essayli said. “Now he can laugh behind bars while he faces justice.”
Authorities in an affidavit alleged that Nunez pressed the passenger’s side door of Martinez’s car against a law enforcement officer as officers were struggling to arrest her.
Officers then threatened to arrest Nunez and he allegedly swore at them and said “something was going to happen” to them, according to the affidavit.
While the officers were distracted, Nunez used his tow truck to tow a government vehicle, with its emergency lights flashing, out of the garage, according to the affidavit. The vehicle had its keys inside and a firearm locked inside a safe.
The not guilty verdict is the latest in a string of trial losses in federal court cases tied to immigration arrests and protests. There have been three recent not guilty verdicts delivered to defendants accused of assaulting federal agents.
Bill Essayli’s performance has been very poor and Trump would do well to replace him with top talent. The ratio of posturing to results is low on results and heavy on tweeting.
But that said, it’s pretty clear that LA juries are very comfortable with letting defendants go in cases where the evidence is very clear for political reasons.
That makes parts of the country into ‘sanctuary cities’ not just for illegal aliens, but for assaults on federal law enforcement personnel.
This is a crisis situation and it’s not hard to see where this is headed. And what the long term consequences can be.
