Illegal aliens in Utah, along with the Obama administration and amnesty advocacy groups, are mourning the forced resignation of Utah's pro-amnesty Salt Lake City police chief, Chris Burbank, who abruptly surrendered his gun and badge following his mishandling of a sexual harassment case.
Burbank's resignation comes after former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, another darling of illegal aliens, pro-amnesty groups, and the Obama administration, was charged with nine felonies, including bribery, illegally accepting gifts, and obstruction of justice.
Burbank put a deputy police chief on paid leave in order to allow him to qualify for his full pension rather than demoting or firing him for what Burbank himself determined to be substantiated claims of sexual harassment by three female officers.
Burbank has frequently been paraded out by the White House and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to make the argument that, in order to gain the cooperation of illegal aliens, law enforcement officers have to give illegal aliens a pass on being illegally in the United States and on virtually all other crimes that they commit.
Burbank is also a favorite of the pro-amnesty crowd. He is a member of the National Immigration Forum's (NIF) Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force and has appeared on multiple panels organized by the NIF to advocate for the non-enforcement of laws when they apply to illegal aliens.
Appearing on an NIF panel in Salt Lake City with then-Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, Burbank openly justified the use of fraudulent documents by illegal aliens and made light of illegal alien-driven felony identity theft. Burbank even laughed out loud when someone in the audience shouted out the address of a store selling illegally obtained Social Security numbers to illegal aliens. Burbank's statements, coupled with Shurtleff's silence sent the message, made clear that those buying, selling, and using fraudulent documents (all felonies) had nothing to fear from law enforcement in Utah. Burbank and Shurtleff also sent the message just as loudly and clearly to the parents of the estimated 80,000 Utah children who have had their Social Security numbers used by illegal aliens that nothing will be done to protect them.
In addition, Burbank was among those praised by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) for putting his name to an amicus (friend of the court) brief supporting President Obama's executive amnesty on the grounds that blocking it would make it harder for police to do their jobs and negatively impact public safety. During a video conference sponsored by NILC, Burbank described the executive amnesty as a "fantastic first step". His actions were also applauded by America's Voice and the Immigration Policy Center, two other organizations that support total amnesty for illegal aliens.
All this leads one to ask what type of individual supports amnesty for illegal aliens? Is it the type that supports sexual harassers? Or is it the type who is accused of taking bribes, extortion, and sacrificing citizens whom they are sworn to protect in order to get a job with a prestigious law firm?
In the cases of both Burbank and Shurtleff, it appears that they sincerely believe that they have been given the power to determine who the law favors rather than seeing their roles as upholding the rule of law and doing their best to ensure that there is equal justice under law.
Burbank apparently saw nothing wrong with throwing victims of sexual harassment under the bus in order to protect a colleague or in using taxpayer funds to pay the harasser his full salary for doing nothing until his full pension kicked in. In addition, Burbank never had, and still does not have, any problem with turning his back on tens of thousands of innocent Utah children who are victims of identity theft perpetrated by the same criminal illegal aliens that he favors and protects.
Shurtleff reportedly didn't hesitate to throw homeowners under the bus so he could ostensibly get a job with a law firm that would allow him to continue advocating for illegal aliens or to reportedly accept gifts or "ask" people who were under investigation by his office to provide huge campaign contributions to himself and his allies.
Are Burbank and Shurtleff a purely a Utah phenomenon or are they symptomatic of a wider behavior pattern? For example, do those who support illegal aliens have a greater propensity to ignore the rule of law and to take the position that equal justice under law is simply not possible? Do they place certain individuals or groups above others based on personal beliefs and preferences rather than treating all people equally under the law until such time as laws they disagree with are changed? And is this an indication that the United States system of justice is becoming more corrupt and moving closer to the highly corrupt systems that are found in the home countries of illegal aliens?