It’s been less than six weeks since nursing student Laken Riley went for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia and never returned. Illegal immigrant José Antonio Ibarra is the suspect in Riley’s brutal murder, which brought the Biden administration’s border crisis into sharper focus nationwide.
Riley’s death has also shone a spotlight on the far-left government in Athens-Clarke County. While the University of Georgia has made a commitment to beef up security on campus, the local government has demonstrated typical woke behavior.
District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, who was an entertainment attorney before she became a crusading yet incompetent prosecutor, went on record refusing to seek the death penalty for Ibarra. She also declared that she would “take into account collateral consequences to undocumented defendants.”
The death penalty should be sought for Jose Ibarra. But Athens District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez has said she won’t seek the death penalty — and said she will “take into account collateral consequences to undocumented defendants”. I sincerely hope she reverses course. pic.twitter.com/m4ufqOulOP
— Houston Gaines (@houstongaines) February 26, 2024
Mayor Kelly Girtz tried to pass the buck in a press conference and blame everybody but the government that he supervises. He also condescendingly spoke to hecklers like they were preschoolers, telling them, “We are here to listen.”
Athens Mayor Girtz (D) just tried to shift away blame over Laken Riley's death
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 28, 2024
Angry residents were NOT having any of it: pic.twitter.com/V6uXFqQAh6
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), whose district includes Athens-Clarke County, sponsored the Laken Riley Act, which “require[s] the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft, and for other purposes.” The bill passed the House by a bipartisan margin of 251-170 and is now before the Senate.
Related: The Far Left Versus Everybody Else: A Tale of Reactions to the Murder of Laken Riley
Collins has also uncovered an email exchange that reveals the messed-up priorities of the far-left Athens-Clarke County Unified Government (ACCUG). He obtained the email through Georgia’s Open Records Act.
🚨 A shocking email exchange reveals troubling priorities of Athens Mayor and Clarke County Sheriff only two days after Laken Riley's murder. 🧵 (1/5)
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) April 4, 2024
The email thread originates from Athens-Clarke County Sheriff John Williams, who was seeking clarity on the government’s sanctuary city policy on the Saturday after Riley’s murder. He admits that his confusion stems from the actions of his predecessor.
“I am respectfully requesting that someone from the Unified Government stand up and address the ongoing banter about Athens being a sanctuary city,” Williams begins. “It is my understanding this may have resulted from Sheriff Edward's statements or declaration years ago.”
It’s clear that Williams is playing a game of CYA when he adds, “I am being bombarded with emails, phone calls, and social media posts blaming me for the alleged status. It is my belief that such a declaration does not and has never been an authorized or legitimate power of any Sheriff in the state of Georgia.”
Williams calls on ACCUG to “come out and say” whether it embraces sanctuary city status, and he promises to “do everything in my power to protect the integrity and professionalism of the Clarke County Sheriff's Office and myself.” The sheriff’s immediate concern is that he and his department come out smelling like roses.
Girtz does a “reply all” to Williams’ email, and he begins by sounding as condescending to the ACCUG as he did to the hecklers who called him out during his press conference:
The term “sanctuary city” does not have a sole legal or procedural definition; instead it is a somewhat generic term that means different things to different people depending on the context of a discussion. Many of the elements ascribed to “sanctuary cities” are explicitly prohibited by state code. For example, in Georgia a government issued identification card cannot be provided by the state to undocumented persons.
Girtz cites policies in which certain localities refuse to honor Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer holds for illegal immigrants, including the policy that Williams’ predecessor held to. The mayor says that he agrees with ignoring immigration detainers, and his reason is insane.
“While the community is experiencing deep trauma right now, and emotions are understandably raw, I support the detainer policy as one that is both humane and following the well-documented propensity of immigrants in the U.S. to be less criminally inclined than the native-born population,” he claims, citing some research that he linked but which we cannot access from the copy of the emails that we have (emphasis added).
The fact that Girtz and Gonzalez would opt for coddling illegal immigrants over bringing Riley’s killer to justice demonstrates the failure of far-left Democrat policies on crime and illegal immigration, and the fact that Williams is only concerned about public relations is almost as despicable. Shame on every one of them.
Read the full email exchange at the link Collins provides below:
The blatant disregard of law and order by public officials is highly concerning. It reveals the need for accountability and new leadership that will prioritize public safety.
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) April 4, 2024
Laken's death was preventable, but nothing will change with leaders like these. (5/5)
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