Immunity from Justice: Attorney General Holder frees drug suspect and prosecutes lawman

The Washington Times ^ | November 21, 2011 | The Editors

[2ndDivisionVet]

Lady Justice has tossed aside her blindfold and tipped her scale. A border-crossing drug smuggler walks free while the officer who arrested him has been jailed. In the age of Obama, the law has been turned upside down.

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jesus E. Diaz Jr. is set to spend the next two years behind bars after being sentenced last month for what the Justice Department called deprivation of an illegal-immigrant suspect’s constitutional right to freedom from the use of unreasonable force. The unnamed Mexican suspect, who was 15 at the time of his arrest in 2008, received immunity from drug-smuggling and illegal-entry charges for his testimony against the American Border Patrol agent who intercepted him near Eagle Pass, Texas.

Mr. Diaz was nailed for purportedly lifting the teenager’s handcuffed hands over his head and putting his knee in the boy’s back. His attorneys argued at trial that the suspect bore no evidence of injury and the only marks were caused by the shoulder straps of a backpack laden with marijuana found at the arrest site. The Mexican Consulate in Texas interviewed the suspect following the arrest. Based on his account, the Mexican government urged that the agent be prosecuted. U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s Justice Department did just that.

Outraged lawmakers sent a letter to President Obama on Thursday signed by 37 members of Congress and calling the prosecution of Mr. Diaz “unfair and excessively disproportionate.” The group, led by Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, wrote, “We certainly do not condone the use of excessive or unreasonable force; however, the facts in this case do not indicate the drug smuggler was harmed during the arrest or that excessive force was used.”

Lawmakers argued that Mr. Diaz previously had been found blameless....

[2ndDivisionVet]

President Nixon was hounded from office for 2% of what we know Mr. Obama has done so far.

[gidget7]

This entire administration needs to be arrested for dereliction of duty, at the very least!

[I am Richard Brandon]

The message is being put out - “Ignore the law, do what we want or the consequences upon you will be severe.”

[Theodore R.]

Sadly, didn’t GWB pretty much do the same with the two Border Patrol agents from South TX. The American people always make the wrong choices, it seems.

[Theodore R.]

Maybe that’s why Julie Nixon is a diehard Obama supporter, but it doesn’t make sense, just like the American people as a whole.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

The group, led by Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, wrote, "We certainly do not condone the use of excessive or unreasonable force; however, the facts in this case do not indicate the drug smuggler was harmed during the arrest or that excessive force was used."

[TigersEye]

That scandal, coupled with the department’s decision to prosecute Mr. Diaz and let an illegal-immigrant drug smuggler go free, serves as a shocking reminder of the contempt with which this administration holds the issue of border security.

And the rule of law in general.

[Chode]

we are definitely through the looking glass...

[rdcbn]

The people involved in this prosecution on the payroll of the cartels

[Chode]

wouldn't surprise me one bit...

[munin]

wouldn’t surprise me one bit...

Not me either, but I think the next time the situation is
similar, a bullet might be the choice instead of a simple arest and
prosecution

[Talisker]

Sadly, didn’t GWB pretty much do the same with the two Border Patrol agents from South TX.

Yep. Protecting the Mexican Invasion is clearly a presidential priority.

[muir_redwoods]

I will never understand GWB’s decision not to pardon both of the agents and Scooter Libby as well.

[Chode]

dead men tell no tales