Posted on 01/24/2005 3:14:19 PM PST by Nice50BMG
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Mon Jan 24, 2:28 PM ET
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MIAMI - A trial opened Monday in a $3 million-plus lawsuit by 13 people who say they were injured or traumatized when federal agents seized a screaming Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives' home.
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The opening witness was neighbor Maria Riera, who testified that she clutched her chest and thought she was dying when an agent doused her with tear gas during the April 22, 2000, raid to reunite the 6-year-old boy with his father in Cuba.
The 13 neighbors and protesters are seeking up to $250,000 each, claiming that agents used excessive force during the armed raid.
"I was stopped by a gentleman on my left approaching me with a shotgun," said Riera, who lived across the street from the home where the boy had lived since shortly after he was rescued from a shipwreck on Thanksgiving Day 1999.
She said a black-garbed agent wearing a mask ordered her to "stand back" or he would shoot, adding a word of profanity. She said she complied, but a second agent approached with a gas gun as she stood in her driveway and left her in a gray cloud of tear gas.
A total of 108 people sued over the raid, but U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore limited the case to people who were not on the Gonzalez family property and were beyond police barricades.
Elian, now 11, was one of three survivors of a shipwreck that killed his mother.
The raid took place after the family refused to return the boy so he could be taken back to Cuba.
Then you should support President Bush's guest worker proposal.
Very well said. I have problems with those who think that it is OK to have ILLEGAL immigrants because our country was composed of LEGAL immigrants.
LEGAL immigrants is what our country was composed of. Typical LIB counter; Our country was made from immigrants. Yes, LEGAL immigrants. Get legal, then we will welcome you. ILLEGAL, then you are fair game, like coyotes. (watch out for the eco-nut response).
Don't you think the pain of having family members arrested and sent to a foreign country is just as severe for the family members regardless of where they are from?
Any pictures of Elian's hot-looking Aunt?
I love the picture !
I truly think it was much more serious than just dramatics. So much of the hostility we see today towards Christianity and conservatism is a direct result of the attitudes these people fostered in the 1990s.
Up until 1993, the attack on the WTC was one of the worst attacks on our soil. But instead of seeking out these terrorist murderers, it was only a few months later that Clinton's cops surrounded the compound at WACO. I don't remember the exact date, but it wasn't too long after this, that ClintonCo was going after the Freeman in Montana.
This was an administration that literally looked at Christian Fundys and seperatists as a greater danger than the Muslim Fundamentalist who were already attacking this country. This hatred was further fueled after the OKC bombing when Clinton specifically said that right-wing hate radio was responsible for the actions of people like McVeigh.
The irony is that it was Clinton and company's own hatred...and actions, at places like Ruby Ridge, Waco etc. that may have perpetuated the acts of some at OKC. Sadly, they continue to perpetuate this same hatred with their vitriolic rhetoric and condescending tone.
If there was ever an example needed to show the Left's disdain for those that think differently than them, the actions of the Clinton Administration proved that point...and more, as they had more disdain for the citizens of this country than they did for its enemies.
What did the courts decide about Elians' legal status?
Morality and legallity aren't always the same for me, especially when the laws are constantly changing.
I learned right from wrong from my parents and my church, not from law school.
Why, it’s not like its a secret. The Agents worked for the US Border Patrol’s Tactical Unit known as BORTAC which at the time was under the DOJ/INS. They carried legally authorized warrants and executed the mission in under 2 minuets without anyone getting hurt.
They did not ask to be there, nor were they violating any laws. They had orders and warrants in hand and executed them without passion or politics. They did not know who was in the house and there was a real possibility of a riot breaking loose.
I don’t like communist or the Clintons but I actually believe Elian had to go for the sake of countless US citizens struggling to recover their children from around the world. If we had allowed him to stay we would be violating our own laws, treaties and policies in terms of family reunification.
Maybe Elian will return to the US someday and exact some revenge......wonder how that cute little tyke is doing...:(
ILLEGAL
I should note that while Clinton wasn't in office when RR happened, these attitudes still exist at all levels.
Yes, that is the justification the Democrats used to send Elian back to Cuba. What's your point?
I remember a funny story that Matt Drudge told in last years of the Clinton Administration. Someone printed up a T-Shirt with that infamous picture of the agent pointing a gun at a screaming Elian. Matt wore that t-shirt under his tuxedo jacket and went to the White House Correspondents dinner (someone brought him as a guest). He ran into Janet Reno in the hall and she saw his t-shirt and became very flustered.
I feel sad for Elian but that raid probably helped W carry Florida in the 2000 election
Then you should support the laws of this nation. That is what you swore to do right?
Bush is proposing new legislation which I oppose. It's not a done deal yet, and it is a reasonable position to oppose it, if I think it is wrong.
Why would I support increasing the numbers of foreign nationals coming into our nation, when it is crystal clear we can't assimilate or keep track of those who are already here?
I was traumatized just watching it on television. I have never been more ashamed to be an American than watching Clinton/Reno steal a motherless 5-year-old boy at gunpoint, drug him, and put him on a plane to Communist Cuba. And the use of the military to get one kid out of a house in a poor neighborhood in Florida is the epitome of overkill.
What a horrible, horrible day that was. If it had any silver lining at all it is possible that 538 Floridians may have been convinced by that to kill the Clinton/Gore Crime Machine (tm) before it embarrased our country still further.
In short, these are people outside the perimeter of operation who were roughed up, smacked around, tear-gassed, or otherwise harmed by jackbooted thugs (who, otherwise, inside the perimeter of operation were legally authorized agents of the law).
Some of the INS folks are going to end up in and out of court for years and years over this (no matter who wins the case), and they will, at some point, be identified, and when that happens they will be of no practical use for INS or it's successors.
When that happens (in the federal government), the history of it is that the employee will be treated like cr*p and left twisting slowly in the wind. For many of them their lives and those of their friends and relatives will be at risk.
It's a doggone shame none of the officers in on the Elian raid had been properly informed of their real long term risks for participating in this particular project.
Because you just said that immigration was a good thing.
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