Maywood 'different from other cities'

Former LA Weekly writer Matthew Fleischer, now a senior editor at CityBeat, debuts in the paper with a piece on the city of Maywood and its controversial mayor, Felipe Aguirre, who is facing a recall vote next Tuesday. Sample:

The drama began in the winter of 2006, when Aguirre helped pass legislation that prevented police from conducting random DUI checkpoints within the city limits. Aguirre argued that the real purpose of the checkpoints had nothing to do with drunk drivers, and everything to do with rounding up undocumented immigrants, who make up almost a third of the town’s population. Removing the checkpoints made Maywood a defacto sanctuary city for the undocumented, who, provided they followed traffic regulations, were free to drive unlicensed without fear of police.

The move made Aguirre an overnight media sensation—a hero to the immigrant rights community and a galvanizing figure for Minuteman-types across America. Maywood found itself headline fodder for the nation’s major dailies, and Aguirre appeared on Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC show, CBS News and NPR.

The heat generated by Aguirre’s performance boosted him into the mayor’s office. Now, with Aguirre up for recall, Maywood’s sanctuary status may be in jeopardy.

Some of the backstory: "Last year, City Beat’s Jeffrey Anderson reported that Maywood police manning the DUI checkpoints were impounding cars for infractions as minor as driving with an out-of-state license. Those caught up in the checkpoint web sometimes had their cars impounded for up to 30 days, and were often forced to pay hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in fees to Maywood Club Towing....Anderson reported that the FBI was investigating Maywood Towing for offering kickbacks to both the Maywood City Council and to the Maywood Police Department....Last year, the Los Angeles Times found that nearly a third of the Maywood’s 37 police officers either had ethical violations on their records when they were hired, or had run into legal trouble since joining the force."