Mexifornia is in the news again because its Democratic-controlled State Senate has just passed a  bill banning cops from checking the status of most illegal aliens stopped for other reasons. That’s the direct opposite of a now-upheld provision in Arizona’s SB 1070 (hence it’s called the “anti-Arizona” law) and arguably conflicts with federal law—but don’t expect the Obama regime to sue. [“Anti-Arizona” Immigration Law Passes California Senate, By Elizabeth Llorente, Fox News Latino, July 6, 2012]

However, this is just part of the Reconquista strategy to elect a new people in California. Thus public safety has been taking a real pounding in recent months—and at the hands of elected officials who are supposed to protect, not endanger, the populace.

Los Angeles' Mexican-friendly Mayor Villaraigosa and his Police Chief Charlie Beck launched an assault on one aspect of normal law enforcement last December: They announced a new city procedure under which the vehicles belonging to unlicensed drivers would no longer be automatically seized and held for a month.

Those involved readily admitted the change was to benefit illegal aliens a.k.a. undocumented Democrats, as indicated in a Los Angeles Times headline: With illegal immigrants in mind, LAPD to change impound rules (By Joel Rubin and Paloma Esquivel, 14, 2011).

It’s really inconvenient for illegal aliens to have to get along without a car for a month. Chief of Police Beck became major spokesman for lawbreaking, dutifully touting the new policy as “humane,” arguing "This is an extreme hardship on many people"—by which he meant the lawbreaking foreigners who have stolen jobs from citizens.

Because, contrary to propaganda, deportations have fallen to new lows under the Obama regime, vehicle impounds have been a rare instance of illegal aliens being punished in today’s California. Taking hazardous unlicensed drivers off the road by removing their cars and trucks for a month has afforded a small degree of protection for the public. However, with towing and storage fees running around $1200, some illegals just buy a replacement clunker to get back on the road faster.

In contrast, the BBC reports that in Gainesville, Florida, many illegals began  taking taxis to work—responding to a new state law that allows police to check immigration status during traffic stops. (Others, of course, choose to “self-deport.”) many illegals began  taking taxis to work

The point: illegals are not forced to drive without a license; other choices exist.

Make no mistake: unlicensed drivers are dangerous people to have on the road. A 2008 study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that, nationwide, unlicensed drivers were involved in one in five fatal crashes. The number of deaths from auto crashes has been around 40,000 annually for a couple decades, so the fatalities from unlicensed drivers must therefore be approximately 8,000 Americans every year.

One telling protest against the no-impound switch: the opposition of the LAPD union—indicating the opinion of street cops who have to deal with the mess. A letter sent by the organization noted the California vehicle code specifies “Unlicensed driving is a crime” and that LA’s change would subject the city to “needless civil liability for the sake of political correctness.”

Plus the actual policy that has been proposed in Los Angeles is riddled with loopholes. If an unlicensed Jose is smart, he can avoid a 30-day impound if he has insurance, identification and no previous felony or misdemeanor convictions.

All these details can be easily finessed by cunning lawbreakers. An insurance card can be gotten by paying for one month only. Identification can be satisfied by the routinely fraudulent matricula card handed out at Mexican consulates. Felonies and misdemeanors can be downgraded into infractions. (The February28 discussion on the John and Ken KFI radio show explained how Chief Beck’s policy means even unlicensed drivers with multiple arrests will still be let off.)

So offenders may have their vehicles impounded for only 24 hours rather than 30 days. But there’s a loophole with that tiny handslap too. If the unlicensed driver can get a friend to drive the car away, then that may be permitted.

Wasting a police officer’s time in waiting for Jose’s legal driver friend is not seen as a problem by Villaraigosa and Beck. Their priority: coddling lawbreaking illegal aliens, mainly Hispanic, not maintaining proven strategies of safety for Americans.

A few Los Angeles officials spoke out against more dangerous roadways. County District Attorney Steve Cooley sent a letter to Chief Beck on February 27 specifying the possible consequences of the Mayor’s recklessness. Cooley summarized:

In our view, such policies are contrary to state law and likely would create risks both to public safety and public treasuries. [PDF]

Not all Angelenos submitted passively. KFI’s John and Ken have kept the issue front and center for concerned citizens, describing the policy change as an assault by public officials on the safety of constituents.

In one instance of impound activism, John and Ken urged concerned listeners to attend a community forum of the Los Angeles Police Commission held in Northridge on January 17. Hundreds showed up to voice their strong objection to the impound policy being scrapped. (Watch a news video here.)

One of the angry attendees was Don Rosenberg, whose 25-year-old son Drew was killed in 2010 by an unlicensed illegal alien driver whose car had been impounded, then released. Drew, a law student, was riding his motorcycle in San Francisco and was struck and killed by an unlicensed illegal alien driver.

The Rosenberg death was not a rarity. Last December, Patricia Ellen Riedy of Wildwood, Missouri, was run down near a crosswalk in Panorama City (a district within LA). The driver, Martha Cruz, was unlicensed and her Ford Explorer was impounded. Under the new no-impound policy, she would be back on the road with no annoying hindrance from law enforcement.

Despite the public outcry, the Police Commission voted 4-1 on February 28 to support the no-impound policy. The one dissenting vote was from Commissioner Alan Skobin. He commented: "I don't think we can close our eyes and pretend it's OK to drive without a driver's license. It's not.”

But under Mexifornia’s increasingly racialized regime, it is acceptable, indeed desirable, for illegal aliens to have a lesser responsibility under the law than citizens.

According to the state Department of Transportation, California experienced 2715 traffic fatalities in 2010. Extrapolating from the 2008 AAA study, which reported that 20 percent of crash deaths are caused by unlicensed drivers, an estimated 500-plus of those deaths were connected with that particular kind of lawbreaking.

Yet Hispanic supremacists like Mayor Villaraigosa are happy to sacrifice hundreds of lives in order to make the lifestyles of their alien co-ethnics more agreeable.

And the no-impound devolution is part of a general dismantling of auto safety in California. Last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill ending vehicle impounds at highway checkpoints. The legislation was authored by the well known friend of illegals, “One Bill” Gil Cedillo. He has been making efficient use of his final days before he terms out, having also authored the California DREAM Act which takes millions of taxpayer dollars to fund the college educations of illegal students.

Cedillo hopes to crown his Sacramento career with a last hurrah: driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, which would certainly cause many additional traffic deaths from illegals who drive drunk or poorly.

But Cedillio is not the only enemy of law and public safety in the state capital. Far from it. His kindness toward illegals has been passed to Assembly Member Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) who carried a state-wide version of the Los Angeles anti-impound policy, AB 1993.

After all, critics had pointed out that LA’s action violated state law. That could be easily fixed in all-Democrat Sacramento!The bill passed the Assembly 46-24 in May, and moved along to the Senate.

However a funny thing happened on the way to Gov. Brown’s desk. The legislation was voted down 7-2 in the Senate Transportation Committee on June 26. Perhaps it made a difference that law enforcement officers testified, along with victim father Don Rosenberg.

Plus, the bill’s author Fiona Ma admitted she wasn’t aware that unlicensed drivers kill people at five times the rate of licensed drivers. That remark may have made a negative impression on senators.

The Main Stream Media didn’t report the hearing, but the John and Ken show interviewed Rosenberg the same day to find out what happened  [LISTEN].

So a terrible bill has been stopped. But it may be back in another session, given California Democrats’ fondness for enabling crime and endangering citizens.

We may be seeing America’s disturbing future in California: the idea of public safety as a basic job of government is becoming phased out whenever it interferes with the expression of the uber-ideology of “diversity”—and Reconquista.

When the police chief of a major city can support a policy, which will absolutely cause preventable injury and death, in order to accommodate to a powerful ethnic faction, a line has been crossed.

California should take down the statues that portray Justice as a blindfolded woman holding a scale and a sword. The new diversity-minded “Justice” is peeking out to make sure that extra deference is given to ethnic groups anointed as “victims” by the Left.

Brenda Walker [Email her] is a writer living in Northern California who publishes the blog, LimitsToGrowth.org.