Posted on 01/23/2007 2:23:54 AM PST by NapkinUser
Though President Bush hasn't promised a pardon, he at least has agreed to review the case against two border agents convicted of shooting a suspected drug smuggler.
And though we wish Bush had chosen to review the case before the two had already been incarcerated, we hope he won't take too long to grant the two El Paso, Texas-area Border Patrol agents a pardon.
"According to a jury of their peers, these officers violated some standards," Bush said last week, a day after Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean turned themselves into federal custody.
But after the public uproar over the verdict, Bush said he plans to take a look at the evidence the jury had before weighing in himself. That is a just decision.
And yet, whether or not Bush agrees with prosecutors that the two did something wrong, the punishment of 11 years in prison for Ramos and 12 years for Compean is far worse than the alleged crime.
The agents' lawyers argued that the agents, who fired on suspected drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila after a foot chase across the Texas-Mexico border in February 2005, did so because they believed he had a gun in his hand.
Aldrete-Davila had fled a van the agents were pursuing.
They shot him in the buttocks. It later turned out that the van held more than 700 pounds of marijuana, worth nearly $1 million. But prosecutors were able to prove to the jury that Aldrete-Davila did not have a gun; that the agents could not have known at the time that he was a drug smuggler, and that the agents were not authorized to pursue him anyway.
Prosecutors argued successfully that the agents violated Aldrete-Davila's civil rights. But it is particularly outrageous that after the suspect fled across the border, the U.S. Attorney's Office brought him back to the United States, promising him full immunity and medical treatment, so that he'd testify against the agents. Now he is suing the Border Patrol for $5 million.
The nature of the case against the agents, who were convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for the nonfatal shooting, is so outrageous that it has brought about the first ever attempt at a congressional pardon. The Ramos and Compean Act, authored by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, has been signed by more than 70 congressmen. And petitions seeking a pardon have garnered more than a quarter of a million signatures.
And yet, the final decision on a pardon rests with the president.
We ask that Bush waste no time in reaching a conclusion that Ramos and Compean were, first and foremost, doing their job of trying to secure the safety of the border. And that they should not be punished with time in prison, especially when Aldrete-Davila's freedom comes at their expense.
Dirty cops.....
From your FR homepage,
"I am fiscally conservative but somewhat liberal on social issues...especially on the topic of immigration. No apologies offered."
Send those "dirty cops" down, for what -- interrupting your labor supply?
prosecutors were able to prove to the jury that Aldrete-Davila did not have a gun
The salient argument is over whether the two Border Patrol officers knew he didn't have a gun.
Considering that he was trying to take a shotgun away from one of them at one point, that's a very thin argument.
Even if he didn't have a gun, and we don't know he didn't, and even conceding arguendo that the two Border Patrol men knew he didn't have a gun -- the argument is still a red herring! He was ordered to halt by LEO's, he ran, he was told to halt, shots were fired, and he still ran, and then he fought with the LEO's.
When do people start getting free swings at LE, and when do they get to wrestle them for their firearms?
This is all bogus. The guy resisted arrest, assaulted an officer, and tried to disarm him. Plus he had a ton of drugs in his vehicle discovered during later investigation. And that's not even bringing in his priors.
One of his female relatives living in the U.S. complained to the U.S. Attorney's office, where she had a contact.
Which raises the question of how is it that people in the U.S. Attorney's office know the families of drug dealers socially.
The suspect was confronted while he was at the bottom of a ditch. The LEOs commanded him to walk up and as he neared the top, one swung the butt at him and tripped.
As the other LEO was drawing his weapon, the perp ran...back toward Mexico...and was shot at.
Bush, as usual, dazzles us with his knowledge of the facts. /s
Anyone who wants to believe that a drug trafficker is illegally smuggling nearly 800 pounds of narcotics across the border without some sort of firearm is simply naive.
To Bush, the drug smuggler is just some poor Mexican trying to get to America where he can earn a living.
If he pardons them he'll wait until after the 2008 elections.
I'm hopelessly liberal on immigration. They took the nerve to get across the border to work here....let them stay. Give them citizenship.
That is more than you'll get from a lot of the illegal alien butt-kisser republicans, who pretend that their view is conservative (see: Wall Street Journal and Weekly Standard.) Still the citizenship thing is extreme, not even president Bush, as bad as he is on this issue, goes quite that far.
I think he'll do it before then. I think that his purpose with this persecution of those two agents is to send a message to the border patrol - show up, collect your paychecks and do nothing to impede the invasion, or else you get the same treatment as these two guys. Also, he's sending a message to the rest of the dregs of the western hemisphere to hurry up and get here for the next amnesty.
Every day the border is unsecured is another town's worth of criminal alien invaders in place to become US citizens when they finally legalize them. If he can drag out the process for another two years, it'll be 40-50 million of them and not the 30 million or so that are here now.
Either way, I hope our childen like living in the 3rd world, because the next round of amnesty is going to see that that's what this country becomes over the next several decades.
You know, it boggles the mind that the US attorney's office would go after the illegal drug smuggler to take down the US border patrol. If you are sneaking into the US to commit a crime getting your a$$ shot off and escaping after being caught is a plus.
And now he will become wealthy with the help of OUR US Attorneys. Please tell me this is a joke.
George Bush has become the enemies of this nation's newest BEST FRIEND.
MAN SHOT WHILE TRYING TO SMUGGLE DRUGS INTO COUNTRY!
Case closed
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/22/ldt.01.html
TJ Bonner with the border patrol explains this mess well,especially the SECOND arrest of the perp for smuggling drugs.
CNN aired 1/22/07
BONNER: But facts of this case do not bear out Mr. Sutton's version. The medical evidence from the army colonel who removed the slug shows that that person wasn't running away. He was turned at the agents just like they said pointing a gun at them. In essence, Johnny Sutton took the word of a drug smuggler over the word of two sworn law enforcement officers.
DOBBS: And took on, really, quite a vigorous prosecution here. Because that really is the only evidence he had. Is the word of that drug dealer.
BONNER: Right, not just a prosecution, it was a persecution of two innocent men.
DOBBS: The idea that this could happen is just, to me, astonishing. Let's go to another aspect of this. In which Sutton says, "My office would have much preferred see Aldrete convicted and sent to prison," referring to the drug smuggler that had to be given extended immunity because have been given immunity on the million dollars of drugs in the incident with Compean, subsequently had to extend that to another effort to bring more drugs into the country, "because the agents could not identify him, found no fingerprints, could not tie him to the van and did not apprehend him after shooting him, the case against Aldrete could not be proven."
BONNER: Well, Johnny Sutton had no problem locating him in Mexico and offering him immunity, why couldn't he issue a warrant for his arrest?
Certainly he would have been back in the new future as soon as law enforcement officials found him, charged him with that and throw him in prison.
DOBBS: The idea that this Border Patrol is now, actually notice has been served. U.S. Attorney's Office doesn't care about $2 million in drugs. Doesn't care about an illegal alien drug smuggler but does care about two agents who serve the public, served honorably in the Border Patrol. There's no -- now, let's get this straight. There's no previous blemish on either of these agent's records is that correct?
BONNER: That's correct.
DOBBS: They've been described as rogue agents by those pushing this investigation. Do you know how that could come to be?
BONNER: Only if you believe the word of a drug smuggler over the word of two agents and ignore all the physical proof can you come to that conclusion. It's just remarkable that they would grant this drug smuggler immunity, not once but twice for smuggling millions of dollars worth of drugs into the country. It sends a terrible message not just to the Border Patrol, Lou, but to every law enforcement officer in America.
DOBBS: You have suggested that there is evidence that was not presented in the trial that would basically have given these men their freedom. What is that evidence? Why wasn't it presented?
BONNER: This was sealed evidence. There is evidence and I'm not sure if I can really get into this because some of the evidence has been under a gag order and those who are aware of the evidence were threatened with contempt of court.
DOBBS: By whom, the judge?
BONNER: By the judge, yes.
DOBBS: And the federal court on a criminal trial, they're threatened with contempt of court.
BONNER: Yes.
DOBBS: Why?
BONNER: One can only wonder. It seem it's you know, I'm not one of these black helicopter conspiracy people. But one can only wonder.
DOBBS: Well, let's go beyond wonder. Why -- can you give us a sense of what this information goes to?
BONNER: Well, some of the information goes to the sealed indictment regarding the second load of marijuana, of about a thousand pounds of marijuana. DEA agents were involved in that arrest. And there were other people who were called as witnesses for the defense but not allowed to testify.
DOBBS: But not allowed to testify. For reasons of? I mean ...
BONNER: For reasons I can't even begin to imagine. Why not give these agents a fair trial and give them the opportunity to present their best case?
DOBBS: And how many people would know about what is in this sealed evidence?
BONNER: I would imagine that there is a fair number of people because it was a fairly large bust. So you had DEA agents involved. You had other co-conspirators.
BONNER: That is the reality, Lou and it's a very sad reality for every American that there are forces at play that want our borders wide open.
BONNER: I would like to see the president of the United States pardon these men. Every day they remain in prison, they're in jeopardy. Right now they're in lock-up, isolation for 23 hours a day, Lou. It's criminal what has happened to these two fine heroes.
DOBBS: And we know where the responsibility rests. T.J., thank you very much. T.J. Bonner.
Now to be clear, we have asked and we did ask U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton who prosecuted this case to join us here on this program. He's declined.
many thanks for your post!! folks need to read this daily until full pardon is given to these two heroes, who are by their suffering this 'legal' abuse drawing the attention of this nation to the real peril: anyone can enter our country, just anyone!!!
these two were charged under a statute that does not apply to the facts of the case; see Worldnetdaily.com for full info!
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