15-Year-Old Texas Boy Charged With Murder In Deaths Of 9 Illegal Immigrants

CBS Houston/AP ^ | April 16, 2012

[Free ThinkerNY]

PALMVIEW, Texas (AP) — A 15-year-old South Texas boy has been charged with nine counts of murder among other charges after a van he was driving crashed, killing nine of the suspected illegal immigrants packed inside.

The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, appeared at a probable cause hearing Monday. He was also charged with 17 counts of smuggling a person and causing serious bodily harm including death, and one count of evading.

[fr_freak]

When you have to flee the country because of Obama’s brownshirts, I hope the Mexicans give you a break and don’t say ugly things like what you have said.

I've got bad news for you, buddy - lots of Mexicans already say that kind of stuff about the gringos. And that includes a lot that were born here. On the other hand, a lot don't say stuff like that. Spin the wheel and take your chances.

[livius]

There has historically been tension between the US and Mexico. Don’t forget that we invaded Mexico, and among their national heroes are six cadets who leaped off a tower rather than be captured by the Americans...and that a number of Irish Americans defected to the Mexican side.

But in practice, most Mexicans, once you get south of the border areas, just want to have a functioning country and are fine with Americans as long as Americans don’t do what the German tourists do (snap their fingers and yell “wapido, wapido” - rapido, rapido with a German accent - at the waiters).

But I do think we have to remember this. Going to another country can sometimes be a matter of survival, whether economic or political (and a lot of these illegals in vans are not Mexicans, incidentally), and I thought the comments on this thread were disgusting.

[ClearCase_guy]

The word "justified" is not something I would use.

I think that when nations are at war, bad things happen and people get hurt. Nothing new there. It's been going on for thousands of years.

I would say that it is only in the past century or so that people have decided that wars shouldn't involve pain or suffering. We should have nice wars and try to get our enemies to like us. This is why we haven't really won a war since 1945.

I really do see illegal immigrants as an invading army. It really does bother me that these invading soldiers do not wear uniforms.

Was Mexico "justified" in killing Texans in 1835? I don't even know what that means. All I know is that Mexico behaved in a standard way as it tried to claim land where other people lived. It's the way of the world. The United States is foolish for getting into that arena but trying to play the game in accordance with polite little rules that no one else wants to follow.

[deport]

Lucy Moreno, 33, places stuffed bears on a memorial set up at the site of a one-vehicle crash that killed nine
immigrants in Palmview, Texas, Wednesday, April 11, 2012. Moreno is an employee at Kids Rock Learning
Academy which sits across the street from where the accident occurred. The immigrants were killed in the
single vehicle accident late Tuesday night. The accident occurred a few block from where U.S. Border Patrol
units attempted to stop the vehicle. Six other passengers in the van were injured. Photo: Jerry Lara, San
Antonio Express-News / © San Antonio Express-News

After a press conference by Palmview Police, media members photograph a van involved in an accident that
killed nine illegal immigrants in Palmview, Texas , Wednesday, April 11, 2012. The immigrants were killed in
the single vehicle accident late Tuesday night. The accident occurred a few block from where U.S. Border Patrol
units attempted to the stop vehicle. Six other passengers in the van were injured. The van was towed to
a wrecker service lot. Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News / © San Antonio Express-News

[21twelve]

For sale, used van. Fixer upper. Seats 17.

[familyop]

An accident is not murder. Most of the people in politics are crazy now.

[GeronL]

A judge in Dallas was reported to be in tears when he sentenced a teen killer... I wonder if the judge will cry over the poor baby this time?

[fr_freak]

There has historically been tension between the US and Mexico. Don’t forget that we invaded Mexico...

We did, indeed, and, as with all wars, we can argue all day over who started the conflict. However, none of that is really relevant now, because, in my personal experience, those Mexicans who hate the gringos do not do so out of some lingering resentment from the Mexican-American War. Heck, other than saying "the gringos stole our land!" most don't know enough of the history of that long-gone conflict to cite it as a cause for hatred. No, they hate gringos because the racial grievance industry tells them to. It is so wonderful to be able to blame some other people for all of your own failings, or the failings of your people as a whole.

Add to that the fact that Mexico is a poor, corrupt, narco state that practically forces their own people to emigrate to make a living. However, they know crossing the border illegally is wrong. After all, Mexico, itself, does not tolerate illegal immigrants on its southern border, and deals with them quite harshly. However, if you very much want to go from your poor, corrupt country into a rich, somewhat less-corrupt country and milk it for everything, but you need to assuage your conscience while doing so, the easiest way is to claim some legitimate grievance that justifies your crime: "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us! The gringos stole our land! We're just taking it back!" But really they are just ginning up ethnic and national tensions to justify their own illegal behavior.

[KarlInOhio]

An accident is not murder. Most of the people in politics are crazy now.

But what if you are committing a crime and are driving it overloaded? I consider deaths caused because someone didn't see a red light different from those caused by a bank robber while fleeing the police running that same red light.

[longtermmemmory]

It does not matter b/c the MSM has the meme down.

No matter the ethnicity it will now be a “white” [whatever] killed a [insert pc group here] and therefore we need [x] law.

[winodog]

And I blame the USA for enforcing some of the laws some of the time which encourages illegals to cross the border in search of more money.

[Haiku Guy]

But I do think we have to remember this. Going to another country can sometimes be a matter of survival, whether economic or political (and a lot of these illegals in vans are not Mexicans, incidentally), and I thought the comments on this thread were disgusting.

It is tragic that these people died. They in no way deserved death for the crime of crossing the border illegally.

However, the situation on the border, where people are illegally crossing by the millions makes such deaths inevitable, and people live outside the law and flee the police. If we want to prevent such needless death, the best way to go about it is to control the border.

[familyop]

"But what if you are committing a crime and are driving it overloaded?"

Then you're committing a crime and are driving it overloaded.

[Darren McCarty]

Kind of a stretch for felony murder, at least in the spirit of the law, but certainly manslaughter.

[ßuddaßudd]

Isn’t 15 too young to drive in the U.S.?
Why is this our problem now? Cant we send the mexican supspect along with the mexican bodies back to mehico?

[allmendream]

Deaths that occur directly because of a felony someone is committing, even accidental deaths, can (and often will) be charged as murder.

If you and I go into a store with the intent of armed robbery and I am shot dead - you could be charged with my murder - even though I was shot by the store owner.

[bgill]

said the teen told the judge that if he didn’t drive the van they were going to kill his family.

Wanna bet he and his family are all illegal and have a long history of drugs and human smuggling. Lock 'em all up or ship 'em back, either way.

[roostercashews]

From the Texas Dept. of Public Safety:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverLicense/ApplyforLicense.htm

XXXXXX

Under age 18:

A learner license to drive allows a beginning driver to operate a vehicle with someone in the front seat that is 21 years of age or older and holds a valid license. The minimum legal driving age in Texas is 15 years of age. Please refer to the Teen Driver information for additional requirements.
XXXXXX

A hardship license allowing 15 y.o. kids to drive are not as common as they used to be, but are still seen in rural communities for kids who work on the farm or drive long miles to get to and from school.

[Haiku Guy]

I suspect the driver’s family was here illegally, and was thus susceptable to threats by organized crime figures involved in the human smuggling business. Since they live outside the law, they cannot go to the police when they are threatened, and are thus at the mercy of these thugs.

Reason #5612 to control the border.

[Mrs. Don-o]

BCW, your remark showing a sort of satisfaction for the deaths of nine human beings is a challenge. It's always a little hard to determine whether a person is trying to project a certain keyboard machismo by expressing only half-intended rhetorical brutality, or displaying a genuine depraved indifference to human life.

So, which is it? I'd like to know.

And don't come back at me as if I'm "soft on illegal immigration." I am a long-time advocate for strict enforcement, such as the Arizona and Alabama laws. But illegal immigration -- invasion --- while immoral and unlawful, is neither a capital crime nor an act of war.