posture

He “did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and ... he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness,” officials said last month.

“So we go into a more defensive posture, and the number one priority in that is human life.”

The department’s relatively tolerant posture toward undocumented people dates back to 1979, when then-Chief Daryl F. Gates responded to a wave of illegal immigration by trying to keep lines of communication open between officers and the communities they police.

He “did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and ... he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness,” officials said last month.

They retreated into a defensive posture about the issue and then capitulated to the right by signing on to a highly restrictive border security bill early in 2024 that Trump and his allies nevertheless cynically torpedoed.