Not too long ago, Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank was in Washington along with other big-city police chiefs. They met with Attorney General Eric Holder to complain about how the newly enacted Arizona law (SB 1070) would inevitably lead to racial profiling of illegal aliens and how unfair it was.
So, just how fair is Chief Burbank?
Chief Burbank, who denies that he sees things in terms of race, spends an inordinate amount of time and resources proving that Latinos do not commit crimes in excessively high numbers. However, the chief fails to distinguish between Latinos who are legally in the United States and the estimated 100,000 illegal aliens in Utah who are primarily Latinos. (Note: Police Chief Burbank is the one who specifically focuses on Latino crime and it was the authors of a study that he commissioned who said, "Salt Lake City's immigrant population is predominantly Latino").
In addition, Chief Burbank conveniently overlooks the fact that a senior Social Security Administration official estimates that about 75 percent of all illegal aliens have fraudulent Social Security numbers. This is a felony. So, unless 75 percent of the general population is committing major felonies, it would appear that illegal aliens do indeed commit crime at an inordinately high rate.
In addition, based on investigations by Utah Workforce Services and the Utah Attorney General's office, it is estimated that at least 50,000 Utah kids under age 18 have their identities being used primarily by illegal aliens to get jobs.
Under Utah law the use of another person's identifying data, including their Social Security number, either knowingly or unknowing. is identity fraud, a felony.
Furthermore, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which tracks identity theft, 16 percent of all identity theft in Utah is committed mainly by illegal aliens in order to get jobs.
So what does Chief Burbank do about this massive, illegal-alien-driven identity theft felonies? Nothing. Nada. Rien. Zero.
Therefore, is it any wonder that the chief's phony study on crime shows that illegal-alien-driven crime is not higher than crime committed by other groups?
Of course it isn't when you sacrifice tens of thousands of Utah children to identity theft by turning a blind eye to document fraud and identity theft committed by the vast majority of illegal aliens.
Of course it isn't when you are a sanctuary city and give illegal aliens immunity from arrest.
Of course it isn't when you refuse to ascertain whether those your officers arrest are in the United States legally or not.
And of course it isn't when you openly tell a Salt Lake Tribune reporter that you do not believe in upholding and enforcing laws that you don't agree with. According to the Tribune, when discussing the new Arizona law (SB1070) Burbank said: "When you talk about someone who is sworn to uphold the law, does that mean you uphold a law that is prejudicial or unethical or immoral? That's why I'm standing up now, and hopefully we don't get to that point so we don't have to face those decisions."
So there you have it. Salt Lake City's police chief refuses to enforce Utah's document fraud and identity theft laws, grants immunity to illegal aliens from arrest, refuses to identify the immigration status of Latinos who are arrested, and supports "police nullification" of laws that he believes to be prejudicial, unethical, or immoral.
Why then would anyone believe what Chief Burbank says about the overall crime rate of illegal aliens, or anything else for that matter? And why would a major city have a police chief who employs a sanctuary city policy and believes that he has the right to ignore or nullify laws that does not agree with?