Amid protests and a flurry of last-minute efforts by congressmen, two border patrol agents are scheduled today to begin long prison sentences for shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler who was granted full immunity to testify against them.
"This is the worst betrayal of American defenders I have ever seen," Rohrabacher (congresssman R-CA) said of the president. "It's shameful this was done by someone who is in the Republican Party. He obviously thinks more about his agreements with Mexico than the lives of American people and backing up his defenders."The California lawmaker, who has helped lead efforts to obtain a pardon, charged the Bush administration has been playing a "cruel game." Initially, he said, officials insisted the agents could not be pardoned because they had not filled out the proper paperwork. But Rohrabacher told WND the White House did not explain to the public that the agents were being required – without justification, he contended – to first admit guilt.
TJ Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing 1,500 agents, argued failure to report the discharge of a firearm is an administrative offense that, at the most, merits a five-day suspension.
"How that translates into 11- and 12-year prison terms is beyond me," he told WND. "They fired at someone they believed had a weapon. He resisted their commands, assaulted one of the officers and then wheeled around and pointed something at them. Logic would say it would be a weapon.
"After all the Monday-morning quarterbacking, I would have to come to the same conclusion," Bonner said. "He's a drug smuggler, for God's sake."
The Department of Homeland Security sent an investigator to Mexico to offer the smuggler, Aldrete-Davila, full immunity in exchange for his testimony against the agents. Now, Aldrete-Davila is suing the U.S. Border Patrol for $5 million for allegedly violating his civil rights.
2 comments:
According to the U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted the agents, the man they were chasing didn’t actually have a gun, shooting him in the back violated his civil rights, the agents didn’t know for a fact that he was a drug smuggler, and they broke Border Patrol rules about discharging their weapons and preserving a crime scene.
Even more broadly, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof said, Ramos and Compean had no business chasing someone in the first place.
“It is a violation of Border Patrol regulations to go after someone who is fleeing,” she said.
So, “fleeing arrest” (for trafficing in drugs across national borders) is acceptable.
WTF?
quote: “How are we supposed to follow the Border Patrol strategy of apprehending terrorists or drug smugglers if we are not supposed to pursue fleeing people?” he continued. “Everybody who’s breaking the law flees from us. What are we supposed to do? Do they want us to catch them or not?”
So then shooting someone in th back is OK in this country now? Firing a total of 15 shots (missing 14 times), at one point stopping to reload before shooting some more, then after hitting him, leaving him there (not bothering to follow through with the arrest)... all OK now?
We need to focus on the facts and step away from the emotion... we don't need law enforcers who break the law... on the border or in our home towns.
Some background here: www.thinkinboutstuff.com
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