Posted on 01/22/2005 1:21:27 PM PST by wagglebee
MIAMI (AP) _ A federal judge has set a Monday trial date for the claims of a dozen people who said they were wrongly assaulted by federal officers during the raid that removed Elian Gonzalez from his family's home.
The plaintiffs say they were innocent bystanders who were gassed and beaten outside the home during the early morning raid on April 22, 2000.
U.S. District Judge Michael Moore set the trial date Friday.
"I think the public's going to be surprised that elderly people were gassed while praying the rosary," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which represents 11 of the plaintiffs.
The federal government's attorney did not return a message seeking comment Friday.
Elian was one of three survivors of a November 1999 shipwreck that killed his mother and others fleeing Cuba. He was turned over to his Miami relatives while his custody situation was resolved.
The raid took place after government officials said the family refused to return the boy so he could be taken back to his father in Cuba.
The "lawyering up" did him a lot of good, didn't it? Since I've never heard ANY claim that the folks in that house were armed, would you care to explain the excessive use of force in getting him out? Puzzles me how many people don't seem to care what was done that night. And as I recollect, the appeals process was short circuited by the snatch and grab.
This incident put President Bush in the White House.
the wheels grind slowly, but they do grind.
Stop putting refugees from Communism in the same category with illegal Mexicans. Cubans have a large social support network, so little Elian wouldn't have been a drain on the system as you suspect.
Besides, if it weren't for Jackboot Janet's fascistic treatment of the Gonzalez family, we wouldn't have won Florida in 2000.
And I know someone who says he misses how peaceful it was during the Clinton years ....
And what of the "large social support network"?
Do they have jobs or are they just Cuban?
A support network must needs be durable beyond welfare and WIC.
The Little Havana Gonzalezes were in direct violation of a lawful order from the DOJ. No US Court ever decided that it was appropriate for the Court to intevene in an area of obvious Executive purview.
Cubans dominate the business community in Miami-Dade County. Remember that the largest wave of Cuban immigrants who came to this country in the 1960s-1970s were from the upper and middle classes. A large business community, combined with substantial social support networks (mutual aid societies), have made other ethnic groups (blacks) jealous of Cubans relative success.
It is ABOUT TIME!!
Well they cannot be prosecuted for criminal charges but civil suit is likely. I hope they win big. What happened was COMPLETELY wrong.
Mexicans have such a "large social support network" here that they are able to send 14 billion USD back to the motherland each year.
That IS what the law says about Cuban immigrants.
The Cuban community in South Florida is by and large solidly middle and upper middle class. Elian Gonzalez's uncle has purchased the house where Elian lived and turned it into a museum, they are hardly paupers.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2000/11/5/233738.shtml
The remittance issue is a stupid one that only lower class populist idiots would emphasize. The problem with the illegal Central Americans and Mexicans is their drain on social services (hospitals/schools).
And that is a wonderful & joyous thing for our country isn't it?
I'd rather not get banned today so I shan't continue this.
The same people who were always accusing John Ashcroft of trampling on people's rights had no problem with Janet Reno's handling of Waco, and the Elian Gonzalez situation.
I work with quite a few Cuban immigrants in my line of work. I get the distinct impression that most want to return to Cuba. My guess is that Little Havana will empty rather quickly when the time to return comes.
Remember that the largest wave of Cuban immigrants who came to this country in the 1960s-1970s were from the upper and middle classes.
Elian **bump**
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