Posted on 07/17/2007 7:45:39 PM PDT by LouAvul
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Border Patrol agents should be allowed to shoot at fleeing drug traffickers, a Republican senator suggested Tuesday.
The patrol's deadly force rules were questioned at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing concerning the conviction of two agents who shot a fleeing, unarmed drug trafficker and covered it up.
"Why is it wrong to shoot the [trafficker] after he's been told to stop?" asked Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma.
Johnny Sutton, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said the Supreme Court has ruled that using deadly force in that way is illegal. Agents also may not know if the fleeing person is a trafficker, he said.
Agents can return fire to defend themselves, their partners or other people, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said.
Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Alonso Compean are serving 11- and 12-year federal prison sentences, respectively, for the 2005 shooting of drug trafficker Osvaldo Aldrete Davila on the Texas border near El Paso.
Two other agents involved in the incident have been fired and one was forced to resign, Aguilar said.
The agents' convictions and tough sentences have become a cause celebre among some media members and members of Congress. Some lawmakers want President Bush to commute the agents' sentences.
"I think this is a case of prosecutorial overreaction," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the only Democrat at the hearing.
But Sutton defended the prosecution.
"Border Patrol agents are American heroes. They arrest 1 million people a year. Somehow they are able to do that without shooting people in the back," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Well, idiot, if our guys were allowed to truly enforce the law, they wouldn't have to arrest 1 million invaders. It's called a deterrent.
Aren't we supposed to be waging a WAR ON DRUGS?
If so then the rules of engagement should be similar. In a war, if the enemy is retreating, you mow him down, you shoot him in the back, you prevent him from regrouping.
Prior to 1985 it was perfectly legal to shoot a fleeing felon. I believe it should still be legal, especially at the border.
sutton is one of the problems, the other is bush.Both are wrong bigtime on this border problem.
Coburn will be remembered and looked upon favorably for that.
And he immediately resigned? . . .
If we allow our guys to shoot the illegals, that might act as a disincentive to flooding them in here and the Establishment won’t like that. So the good Border Patrol agents hvae to sit in prison to make it clear that doing your job is unacceptable, courtesy of Johnny Suttonifong and his boss, El Presidente.
A country that won’t let armed border guards shoot at fleeing dope smugglers isn’t at all serious about defending its national sovereign integrity. (Like that’s a news flash.)
Just letting the skip over the line to hurl rocks and abuse at the guards, while planning their next dope run, is no way to defend a nation’s borders.
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