Posted on 08/28/2008 1:44:28 PM PDT by djsherin
I heard Glenn Beck talking about them the other day and I was thinking about their situation... what did these men do wrong?! They are in prison for doing their jobs. This goes beyond tying one hand behind our border patrol agents' backs; this is like lopping their arms off and kicking them on the ground.
These men literally did nothing wrong yet they sit rotting in federal prison for more than a decade. The leaders of the country they swore to protect have betrayed them both and have left them to a horrible fate. I can think of no reason they shouldn't be let out immediately. I even read that some Democrats have argued for their release. The 2 men themselves won't seek a pardon because to do so would admit guilt. They are troopers to be sure.
I pray for these men and their families. No one that does their job and enforces the law should be convicted solely on the statements of a foreign national drug runner. This case disgusts me and further erodes my confidence in our leadership. I hope Ramos and Compean know that they have our support. I can only imagine the bitter resentment they feel, and if they aren't bitter or resentful, they are better men than I could ever be in that situation.
Then you agree that they were justly tried and convicted?
The administration has an open borders agenda and will enforce that agenda by any means necessary even if it destroys border patrol agents (and our nation) in the process.
Ramos and Compean destroyed their own careers all by themselves.
Their Keystone Kops handling of Aldrete-Davila was an embarassment and their removal made border security automatically more effective.
If the agenda was truly "open borders" then the President would have promoted Ramos and Compean and packed the border patrol with as many Ramoses and Compeans as he could find.
If you do believe the testimony of a drug smuggling, illegal alien over two American Border Patrol agents, we have nothing more to discuss. The beliefs upon which you base your strained arguments have no credibility.
If their appeal finds that they were justly tried and justly convicted, then either the appeals court is in cahoots with the prosecution to frame the defendants - or the defendants were not wrongly tried and not wrongly convicted.
If you do believe the testimony of a drug smuggling, illegal alien over two American Border Patrol agents, we have nothing more to discuss.
False dichotomy.
Under oath, Agent Ramos and Agent Compean and drugrunner Aldrete-Davila and Agent Juarez all gave conflicting testimony.
Ramos and Compean could not get their story straight between them and their own colleague's testimony impeaches them.
So we have four witnesses: one drugrunner (naturally untrustworthy), two border agents who deliberately tampered with the scene (and are thus demonstrably untrustworthy) and one border agent who did not tamper with the scene.
The most trustworthy individual present at the scene was Agent Juarez, and his testimony clearly indicates that Compean blatantly broke the law.
Compean did, but I don't remember anything saying Ramos didn't. I know he didn't pick up his brass. What did you hear he removed from the scene?
That wouldn't be considered tampering with the evidence because even if the incident was properly reported, the gun wouldn't have been left at the scene.
Ramos didn't tamper with the scene like Compean did.
You might as well say that Ramos shouldn't have removed himself from the scene.
By not reporting the incident, Ramos violated regulations, but his were acts of omission rather than consciously destroying evidence.
Both are wrong, but one can be considered a crime, while the other tends to be a work disciplinary issue.
And the fact that the other two criminals couldn't consistently describe what sort of firearm the drugrunner had in his hand.
There was some distance between the Border Agents and the illegal smuggler, and the Border Agents were viewing the scene from two different perspectives. Often "eye witness" accounts are among the least accurate, some differences are to be expected.
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And the fact that no physical evidence was recovered from the scene that would indicate that he was armed.
Likewise, there's no physical evidence that you didn't ______ (Fill in the blank). Should we throw you in jail?
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And the fact that he was shot from behind.
Only in Johnny Sutton's twisted little mind. The illegal smuggler was shot in the side of his butt. That wound would exactly fit the profile offered to the Border Agents if the illegal smuggler had a weapon and was turned to shoot at our Border Patrol.
OK, Mr. Nifong-Sutton. How much are the dope barons paying you?
It's settled then. You are completely incapable of making a reasoned argument for your point of view.
The differences are radical.
The two border guards who fired at Aldrete-Davila claim he had a gun. The border guard who didn't fire claims that he did not.
Compean paints a picture of himself as heroically wrestling with Aldrete-Davila in hand-to-hand combat. Ramos and Juarez didn't see anything like that - just the wiry Aldrete-Davila easily outrunning the obese Compean.
Compean says he charged Aldrete-Davila with his shotgun. Ramos says that Compean didn;t charge, but swung his shotgun at Aldrete-Davila stock first, holding his weapon by the barrel (apparently firearm safety, telling the truth, filing reports and doing crunches are all skills alien to Compean).
The stories are all very different, and only the accounts of Juarez and Aldrete-Davila reconcile and make sense.
The illegal smuggler was shot in the side of his butt. That wound would exactly fit the profile offered to the Border Agents if the illegal smuggler had a weapon and was turned to shoot at our Border Patrol.
It would also fit if Aldrete-Davila was scrambling over hilly scrubland to get to the Rio Grande.
It's pretty clear from all of Aldrete-Davila's actions that day that his primary objective was getting out of dodge. Nothing that we know about him suggests that he had the physical courage to get into a gunbattle with four armed border agents. The last thing standing between him and his escape to Mexico was Compean. According to Compean, Aldrete-Davila decided to have a fistfight with him rather than draw a weapon, and then ran from the fistfight after throwing dirt. According to Ramos and Juarez, Aldrete-Davila ran right past the slow-moving Compean without confronting him and hightailed it for the river.
Compean's story makes no logical sense and is not corroborated by his two colleagues' testimony.
And apparently you aren’t capable of conducting a fair trial with all your tentacles stuck into corrupt governments and drug cartels, Mr. Murtha.
The record is clear that you are defending two lying criminals.
All the epithets you use will never amount to a grain of truth.
It would also fit if Aldrete-Davila was scrambling over hilly scrubland to get to the Rio Grande.
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In virtually no scenario can I picture it being faster to run or scramble away sideways than running away forward.
That tells me something else was happening when the illegal smuggler presented his side profile to the Border Agents as he was fleeing from them.
It's clear you and I will not agree on this, good day to you.
If one were running on a tabletop rather than actual terrain, maybe.
As a cross country runner I can tell you that the shortest distance between two points isn't always a beeline.
I would also point out that a pursuer does not necessarily follow precisely in his quarry's footsteps - you speak as if the physical conditions of the situation were Aldrete-Davila fleeing down a ramrod-straight, three foot wide tunnel. In reality he was fleeing across hillocky scrubland trying to find the quickest path to the Rio Grande.
The shot that wounded him entered the side of his buttocks and proceeded along his pelvis to rupture his urethra.
If Aldrete-Davila was at 11:58 or 12:02 in Ramos' view instead of dead-ahead 12 o'clock, Ramos' shot could easily have entered at the exact same point as it did without Aldrete-Davila doing anything but running for the border.
Again, the scenario described by Ramos and Compean strains credulity.
Think over the situation.
Aldrete-Davila's only concern is escape - he abandoned the drugs, he didn't turn his vehicle around to confront the border officers. He drove his vehicle as far as he could get with it and then abandoned it and made a run for the river.
At that point, the only thing standing between him and the river was Compean. If he was armed, the most logical thing to do would be to draw his weapon and take Compean out before Compean could shoulder his shotgun and fire. Taking Compean out would eliminate the one thing standing between him and Mexico.
Instead, Aldrete-Davila does not draw a weapon but tries to run past the shotgun-armed Compean, allowing Compean plenty of time to shoulder and aim. Compean claims that at this point he himself slipped and dropped his own shotgun trying to close with Aldrete-Davila and says that at that point Aldrete-Davila assaulted him and wrestled with him and then threw dirt in his eyes. So we are to believe that Aldrete-Davila, who supposedly was armed, was standing within yards of a self-disarmed Compean and did not draw his weapon but decided instead to get into hand-to-hand combat with Compean who was phsyically larger than himself?
Really?
And then, only after Compean had been able to rearm himself with a shotgun after a fight did Aldrete-Davila remember that he had a weapon in his possession and then - when he was already past Compean and very close to the river and safety - he decided to turn around and start shooting at a growing crew of border agents?
Give me a break.
The only way matters could have realistically unfolded was as related by Agent Juarez - that the scrawny Aldrete-Davila managed to run past the comically out-of-shape Compean, that Compean apparently tripped or slipped or somehow went down on the ground, and that he then took aim on bended knee with his shotgun at a fast-fleeing Aldrete-Davila, emptied his weapon and then reloaded and emptied it again - probably out of embarrassment and frustration at his pathetic performance.
Most likely Ramos - a better shot with a more accurate sidearm - responded to Compean's barrage of shells instinctually, and winged Aldrete-Davila.
At that point, Compean realized that he had screwed up what should have been an easy collar, had illegally fired at a fleeing suspect and that his illegal fire had tricked his buddy, Ramos, into doing something that might get Ramos in trouble.
So Compean picked up some of his brass, got another agent to help him clear up the scene and refrained from filing a report - a report that could only make him look incompetent or criminal or both.
When confronted with the unreported incident and taken by surprise by the fact that it came to light, Compean lied to his superiors using the only version of the story that could potentially keep him out of jail - claiming that Aldrete-Davila had what appeared to be a gun and had turned to fire on him.
Using Occam's razor, that is the only rational scenario.
And the jury and two courts agree.
“All the epithets you use will never amount to a grain of truth. “
May you never find yourself under the same miscarriage of justice suffered by Ramos and Campeon.
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