Did anyone catch the story behind the Border Patrol incident?
Evidently two officers were charged and sentenced to 11 and 12 years respectively for shooting a drug dealer on the border.
Lou Dobbs on CNN did a story on it tonight, and from his point of view, and with related material, it seemed ridiculous to me (in addition to Dobbs and many others). There has been a huge call for this to be appealed.
Then I heard the Prosecutors story, and it shed new light onto the incident.
Basically, one side is saying that the officers believed the dealer (driving a van stocked with pot) was pulling a gun, when they shot him in the ass.
The same side is furious over the fact that the dealer had immunity in this situation, and everyone is baffled as to why the Government was pushing to have this trial happen.
The opposing view was that the dealer had been smacked against the head with a shotgun, which knocked him into a ravine. He took the chance to run, and the officers shot fifteen rounds his way (one hitting). The complaint was that he was already searched, and that the officers promptly covered up the facts.
To add to the confusion, the jury decided that the officers were guilty, and now three members of the jury are saying they actually believe the officers to be innocent, but felt pressured into finding them guilty.
First off, I think that those jury members deserve to get the 15 rounds. What weak morons.
The rest it incredibly murky. Especially at the upper-government levels.
Have any of seen this story and what do you think?
I wonder if the jurors are saying that because the entire right wing noise machine (and the noise machine from fake populists like lou dobbs) has been on their ass since the moment the verdict was read.
I am not a current fan of the right-wing…but what leads you to tie this to them? Border weakness, etc?
I worked for the Denver Police for awhile. I learned a few things. One was that a large percentage of cops are really shady. Another was that criminals really are pieces of shit most of the time.
I apply that to this situation. I don’t think there will ever be a clear-cut ending to it.
Yea, and according to the prosecutor (I saw him on O’Reilly, I think it was), the criminal was a piece of shit and the cops really did do something shady, and got busted for it. Just because some criminal is a piece of shit doesn’t mean the cops have a right to do whatever the fuck they want. They were experienced and knew this, but they did it anyway.
I totally agree with the fact that being a shithead criminal doesn’t rate Federal Officers exceeding their authority.
Despite that…both sides are going to say whatever it takes to look like either the good guy or the innocent guy. The dealer really did get away with alot on this one, and that sucks.
Having been in the military and in civilian law enforcement, I know that if you ever engage someone, the automatic response has been pumped into your head so often that it is automatic. “I felt that my life was threatened”. Naturally, the two officers keep spouting this, thanks to their legal team and their leadership.
The criminal on the other hand will constantly attempt to look the “Oh, yeah I was doing a kinda bad thing…smuggling pot and all…but these guys were beating me, abusing my rights and then they shot me for no reason”. Again, their legal team and their leadership has put that in their head…along with years of simply being a criminal and reciting this.
I’m never happy to see an indisputably bad person go free or catch a break, but I really really believe in due process. Cops aren’t judges and have to be held accountable when they exceed their authority or just act shady.
I don’t even know that these are bad cops per se. “It ain’t like they was tramps or loafers or bad men. They were just hardworking boys that was foolish. If they was given over to wickedness in a regular way…”
