Houston Police Department Sgt. Joslyn Johnson, whose husband was shot by an illegal immigrant named Juan Leonardo Quintero, is suing the City of Houston – not for money, but in an attempt to facilitate a change in the city’s policy dealing with illegal immigrants.
On Sept. 21, 2006, HPD officer Rodney Johnson was shot and killed, leaving behind a wife, three daughters and two sons. ‘
On the night of June 29, 2008 Gary Gryder, an HPD officer of 23 years, was struck by a drunk driver and killed, leaving behind a wife, two children and two grandchildren.
In March of this year, HPD officer Rick Salter was shot in the line of duty. Fortunately, Officer Salter’s wounds were not fatal.
Finally, on Tuesday June 23, HPD officer Henry Canales, a veteran of 16 years, was shot and killed while conducting an undercover investigation. Canales is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
All are tragedies, but what do these four incidents have in common? All of these officers and their families have been the victims of the city they served ‘- the City of Houston.’
It was the policy of the City of Houston, a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, which contributed to the deaths and maiming of these officers. All of the officers were the victims of crimes committed by individuals that were in this country illegally.
Now it is the widow of one of these officers, Sgt. Joslyn Johnson, who is attempting to ensure these incidents can be avoided in the future.
Sergeant Johnson is suing the city.
Johnson’s attorney, Ben Dominguez, has stated that the lawsuit seeks to ‘reverse the policy that prevents HPD officers from communicating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine whether a person is criminally here illegally.’
Rodney Johnson’s life could have been spared if this policy had not been in place. His murderer, Quintero, had been stopped and released three separate times by HPD prior to his fatal shooting of the veteran public servant.
The policies of the City of Houston stood in the way of HPD discovering Quintero’s immigration status. Ultimately, an officer was killed because of this policy.
It must also be noted that Sgt. Johnson has filed three other lawsuits, including one against the City of Houston for the policy of having only one officer on patrol without a partner, and another against Quintero’s employer, Robert Lane Camp.
Of these two, Robert Lane Camp has already reached an undisclosed settlement, while the other suit is still pending.
Though Mayor Bill White and the chief of police claim the city is not of the sanctuary variety, the evidence is mounting to suggest the opposite.’
One may wonder, at what point will it become more politically expedient for the upper echelons of city officials to allow HPD more tools to enforce the law rather than cater to the pro-illegal immigrant pressures in a predominantly Hispanic city.’
It seems the world may never know. Hopefully this latest lawsuit will bring some progress on the issue and end the needless losses of life of our brave men and women in uniform.
