SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Students mad at Republic police should also decry sanctuary cities

Nov 26, 2018, 4:14 PM

Republic...

The small town of Republic, WA. (AP)

(AP)

Local high school students are furious at the police chief in Republic, Washington. It’s a rural town in North-Central Washington, hours west of Spokane and east of Winthrop. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, with a long ways in between houses — and often, in between houses and the cops.

When I-1639 passed a few weeks ago, it did a lot of things. Now 18, 19, and 20-year-olds cannot buy some of the most popular sporting rifles in the world. Also, if your gun is stolen and used to commit a crime, you can be prosecuted.

Rural people tend to raise their kids with a healthy respect for guns and gun safety, and some feel that it’s not up to a bunch of Seattle-area liberals to tell them how to live their lives. As KIRO Radio’s Hanna Scott reported, Republic police chief, Loren Culp, announced that he is not going to enforce this initiative because it directly violates the state constitution.

RELATED: Dori: I love what a police chief in Republic is doing

After the initiative passed, Culp wrote the following on the Republic Police Department’s Facebook page:

The Republic City Council declares that all federal and state acts, laws, orders, rules and regulations past, present or future, in violation of the U.S. and/or State Constitutions are not authorized by the said Constitutions and violate the true meaning and intent as given by the Founders and Ratifiers and are hereby declared to be invalid in the City of Republic, shall not be recognized by the City of Republic, are specifically rejected by the City of Republic and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in the City of Republic.

So now, the Puget Sound student activists who were the faces of I-1639 are furious at the police chief for choosing which laws he will enforce.

I have a few questions for these high school students. Are you against sanctuary cities like Seattle, Everett, and Burien? Because in creating sanctuary cities, the political leaders have decided simply not to enforce certain federal laws that they don’t like.

Unless the high school kids who are railing against this Republic police chief are also willing to equally rail against Jenny Durkan, Dow Constantine, Bob Ferguson, Jay Inslee, and all of the radical left who have put sanctuary policies in place, then they are nothing more than a bunch of hypocrites.

RELATED: Lt. Col. Oliver North questions logic of I-1639

If you believe that the Republic police chief is wrong for not enforcing the law, but the liberal politicians in the Puget Sound are right for not enforcing the law — simply because of your political ideology — then you’re a hypocrite. And for the record, I said the same thing about the Republic police when this first broke.

As much as I agreed that the new initiative is unconstitutional and admired the police chief’s stance, I asked if he should have to enforce the new law as part of his job — just as I want our local politicians to enforce communicating with ICE and deporting illegals, as our laws mandate.

This is the problem with the left. If I disagree with the law, I don’t enforce it. If I like the law and you don’t enforce it, then you’re a horrible, evil person.

And by the way, speaking of sanctuary policy — let’s look at what it has brought our country. A 43-year-old named Jose Abarca, a repeat illegal alien from Mexico who had been previously deported, was just sentenced in Maryland to 25 years in prison for raping a deaf woman at gunpoint two decades ago. He had previously been deported, but he came back into the U.S. in 2017 illegally to get back to his wife and kids.

In another recent case, an illegal alien was arrested for multiple counts of rape after trying to get into the U.S. with a girl he claimed was his daughter. It turned out that the two were not related, and he was repeatedly sexually assaulting her. But, we can’t separate families, so we couldn’t separate these two people who appeared to be related.

RELATED: Dori’s listeners react to I-1639 passage

Let me get back to my point. To the high school kids who are aghast at the Republic police chief for choosing not to enforce I-1639, maybe, before you point your finger at a town in North-Central Washington, you should point your finger at your own Puget Sound cities and counties with public officials who don’t enforce the laws that they don’t like.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to supporters during a campaign event at the Brookland-Lakeview...

Associated Press

California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Gavin Newsom’s secret is no secret here in South Carolina. They were selling “Gavin 2028” buttons outside his events this past week as he trekked across the state that will hold Democrats’ first presidential primary. His allies, the state party chair, college presidents and pro-Newsom activists all openly hinted at his […]

5 hours ago

FILE - People embrace near the scene of a shooting outside the Islamic Center in San Diego, May 18,...

Associated Press

Parents of San Diego mosque gunman say a mental health facility failed to heed FBI warning

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Just days before two teenagers carried out a mass shooting at a San Diego mosque, federal law enforcement officials warned the parents of one of the shooters that their son was making concerning comments about school shootings on the dark web, according to new details included in a recently filed lawsuit. […]

9 hours ago

Venus Williams, left, and Serena Williams, of the United States, look on as they play against Hao-C...

Associated Press

Venus and Serena Williams put on a show in thrilling U.S. Open return, in photos

NEW YORK (AP) — The Williams sisters returned to the U.S. Open doubles court, thrilling a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd with a three-set battle that came down to the final points. Venus and Serena Williams fell to Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint in a dramatic tiebreaker.

13 hours ago

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Wa...

Associated Press

Trump’s first major midterm money move: A $10M Texas Senate ad blitz

BRIDGEWATER, New Jersey (AP) — The political group associated with President Donald Trump is spending $10 million on television and digital advertisements in the Texas Senate race, according to a Saturday filing with the Federal Election Commission. This is the first significant spending in a premier general election contest by MAGA, Inc., and reflects how […]

15 hours ago

Associated Press

Robin Morgan, feminist, poet and editor, dies at 85

NEW YORK (AP) — Robin Morgan, a wholesome child star of the 1940s and ‘50s who grew up to become an all-American radical as a poet, essayist, editor and second-wave feminist, has died. She was 85. Morgan’s death was confirmed Saturday by the Women’s Media Center, an organization she cofounded with Jane Fonda and the […]

16 hours ago

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is seen, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in Washingto...

Associated Press

Kennedy Center renews call for Trump-backed shutdown after part of a ceiling collapses

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chunk of ceiling fell inside a main hallway of the Kennedy Center, according to a spokesperson who said the damage underscores the need to shut down the historic arts venue for renovations sought by President Donald Trump. No one was injured when a piece of the ceiling inside the Kennedy Center’s […]

16 hours ago

Dori: Students mad at Republic police should also decry sanctuary cities