If you can envision observing your own funeral from a lofty seat in the gallery, you know the sensations coursing through Police Chief Scott Bixby at Monday evening’s City Council meeting.

Officially making Culver City a sanctuary city proved exactly the opposite of the experience that earlier had been framed by Mayor Jim Clarke, a nominal backer of the shift. He foresaw a quick, automatic-style discussion before goi8ng ahead with the real business. Instead, there was a four-hour spectacular.

While most of the Council overtly accepted Mr. Bixby’s frequently invoked vow that immigration never has been, is not and will not be on the Police Dept.’s to-do list, one member, Meghan Sahli-Wells was skeptical. She was unwilling to take a chance that the chief’s word was bankable.

She fought to tighten the Word Wall around illegal immigrants so securely that no one could bore through the barrier, whatever weapon such a person may be armed with.

When our Constitution was knitted together, the Founders, according to surviving eyewitnesses, did not examine each word, like a constantly turning and churning Rubik’s Cube, as Ms. Sahli-Wells did.

When Vice Mayor Jeff Cooper said that present Police Dept. practices are sufficient to protect illegal immigrants, the expression of disagreement on Ms. Sahli-Wells should have been captured by Mr. Rembrandt, had he been in Council Chambers. A quick canvas showed he wasn’t.

(To be continued)