Posted on 01/24/2005 3:14:19 PM PST by Nice50BMG
|
Mon Jan 24, 2:28 PM ET
|
|
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.
|
|
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.
Sources please.
BTW...Is it "anti-immigrant" or anti-"illegal"-immigrant?
Sources please.
FMCDH(BITS)
If they're so proud of their handiwork they should want the public to know who they are.
A good rule of thumb for life is never participate in anything you'd be ashamed for the world to know you did.
What these guys did was pretty gutless. I should hope that they are troubled by it, but I doubt it.
I wish I could remember my latin but Horace (or Ovid - can't remember which)had a great quote. Basically it translated to - "The evil doer hates the light".
Very applicable in this instance.
Rest assured that most people do not have to think very hard on this issue as most realize that it was also Christians who Clinton went after in Kosovo. The Democratic Party has well-established itself to be anti-Christian and growing more so each day.
Muleteam1
I know the term jackbooted thug is overused on FR. Nonetheless, I can't think of a more apt illustration of the term than those federal agents who kidnapped little Elian Gonzalez. Those federal agents are/were hoodlums; cowards operating under color of authority (and maks) accomplishing an act that is so clearly morally wrong that any of them should have bowed out rather than follow orders. They should be exposed so that this travesty of law enforcement excess, so symptomatic of the Clinton administration, will be a warning to future federal agents willing to rough up law abiding citizens just because they can.
Ruby Ridge was Bush I.
Good. Sue them blind.
"Rest assured that most people do not have to think very hard on this issue as most realize that it was also Christians who Clinton went after in Kosovo."
I noted that RR was before Clinton...however, the investigation and what others would call a cover-up did occur under Reno's watch.
I tend to think it's because she was completely incompetent and over her head, like most of Bubba's Cabinet.
As a libertarian, I support open borders & free labor mobililty.
HOWEVER,
I also support
1. full 2nd amendment rights
2. right of private property owners, including ranchers & farmers, to use LAND MINES to stop illegal tresspassing, esp. if they are near the borders
3. elimination-privatization of welfare & charity
4. privatization & defunding of public education
The problem seems to be "freely-moving" but very low skill laborers, who come in & then IMMEDIATELY sponge up tax monies (in emergency rooms, classrooms, etc).
Not-so "cheap" labor, after all - is it.
If they just came in but stayed OFF the welfare/public subsidies, I'd be a happy libertarian. That goes for AMERICAN ("legals") too, BTW.
>:/
Try a couple hundred immigration threads. Calls for bringing troops home and massive hunts for aliens are common.
Send the bill to the Dem party!!
Yeah. Thanks for such precise backing for your ridiculous statement, and for clarifying the "legal" vs "illegal" question. You're a piece of work. Blanket statements with no evidence. dan rather, take heart, there are more like you.
FMCDH(BITS)
.
Thank you for the Heads-up.
Here's our Elian Trial Discussion from the weekend:
Elian (Gonzalez) Trial Set for Monday
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1326283/posts
.
If I remember correctly, they went to a substitute judge late at night for their warrants.
You just can help but tell lies.
Yes he is.
I would, if I thought it would work. But it won't work, so I don't support it.
Illegal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.