Justice Isn’t Just Blind, It’s Stupid.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld seven of the twelve charges against Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and José Compean, including one with a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years for discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence. Romas and Compean were convicted two years ago of shooting an unarmed illegal immigrant and lying about it.
In the appellate decision, it states:
“The two men were engaged in routine law enforcement along the United States- Mexico border near Fabens, Texas, when they became involved in chasing an alien drug smuggler driving a van as he speeded toward the Mexican border. After the drug smuggler abandoned the van and began to run on foot toward the Mexican border, the agents gave chase, fired their weapons at him several times, and hit him once, but the wound did not prevent his escape into Mexico.”
Furthermore, it states, “At trial, the facts were sharply and hotly disputed. The government’s evidence showed that the agents had no reason to shoot the drug smuggler—that he had abandoned his van loaded with marijuana, that he was running on foot back to Mexico, that he posed no physical threat to either officer, and that he was shot in the buttocks. It is well established that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not permit officers to shoot a fleeing suspect unless the suspect poses a threat to the physical safety of the officers or to the public.”
In upholding the juries verdict, the judges said in concluding remarks, “We conclude. For the most part, the trial of this case was about credibility, and although the jury could have gone either way, it chose not to believe the defendants’ version of the crucial events of February 17.”
It sounds like we need to change our Constitution. The two Border Patrol officers were protecting our National Border from criminals like this smuggler, whom they said had fired a weapon at them. Since the smuggler escaped and took his gun with him, it is then the word of two officers against one criminal smuggler. Yet they lost?
They lost for the same reason they suffered their first conviction: The Bush administration wants a NAFTA America, wide open borders with us and Mexico, and did his best to intimidate our Border Patrol from enforcing the law. When this situation came up, Mexican pres. Vincente Fox asked Bush to prosecute our agents and Bush readily complied. He sent Federal Prosecutor Johnny Sutton to personally persecute these two men, and did in fact present lying witnesses and suppressed evidence.
It was this latter that gained the two a new trial. What convicted them both times is that they failed to report the firing of their weapons. Since they didn’t kill the smuggler, they had no weapon of his as proof that they were fired on, and knowing the trouble they could be in without having that proof at hand, they decided to not report it. The prosecutor claimed that this proved their guilt and talked a jury into believing it.
The bandito was only shot in the ass, yet our Border Patrol agents are doing ten years for it instead of being given the benefit of the doubt. In fact, they should never have been prosecuted.
I was unaware that our Constitution prohibited firing on fleeing criminals. Considering the dangers our country faces today, that needs to be repealed. Thousands of unarmed civilians have been gunned down by police in our country without them ever being prosecuted or even found to have been acting in error. It was always my impression that officers could shoot at fleeing suspects, because they always have. If the law doesn’t apply to them, then it should apply even less to those who are protecting the sanctity of our nation from invading criminals.
That two of our Border Patrol agents should be sent to prison for shooting an admitted alien smuggler, who then was given free access across our borders and proceeded to smuggle his load of drugs right back in again, and get away with it, is insane.
George Bush has thus given the Mexicans a mandate to walk right in with heroin, cocaine, crack and crank and whatever else, without fear, along with any terrorist who’s attended one of many Mexican training camps to teach them Spanish and how to blend in, in our society.