The republican party is FURIOUS!!! at Bush on two border patrol agents going to jail..

[bigdarryl]

over a piece of shit Mexican drug dealer who shot at them and they shot back and are now headed to Federal Prison for 12 years each.the republicans want a pardon ASAP. i agree with them on this one. with all the Clinton/Obama media blitz and the war this case hasn't been covered much by the media. not even AAR has covered it on how the republicans are going against there own President. CNN showed 3 republican congressmen who were smacking Bush down WOW total smack down.

[ret5hd]

1. Gotta be more to the story than that...why don't you give us a link...

so we can read about it ourselves.

[bigdarryl]

3. I have no link just saw it on Lou Dobbs he had a segment on it the Feds.

protected the drug dealer in fact i think they even gave him amnesty.

[Esra Star]

19. Were these "agents" official? If so then the problem is with the

level of training they received.
If the training is found to be the problem, then incarceration is not apprporiate.

[w8liftinglady]

2. I saw that!Lou Dobbs is right on this one.

They are crucifying tese agents.This dealer was probably Shrub's connection.

[w8liftinglady]

4. here's a link

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

[Burnsey_Koenig]

10. There is so much more to it than that......

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52545

The officers didn't follow protocal, didn't file a report and broke many regulations and violated a Supreme Court Directive. AND they were convicted by a JURY in TEXAS. Read the whole story. I am not defending the decision, but the LAW applies to everyone, not just those we wish it applied to.


<b>The commotion and multiple calls for back up had brought seven other agents – including two supervisors – to the crossing by this time. Compean picked up his shell casings, but Ramos did not. He also did not follow agency procedure and report that he had fired his weapon.

"The supervisors knew that shots were fired," Ramos told the paper. "Since nobody was injured or hurt, we didn't file the report. That's the only thing I would've done different."</b>

Had he done that one thing differently, it's unlikely it would have mattered to prosecutors.

More than two weeks after the incident, Christopher Sanchez, an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, received a call from a Border Patrol agent in Wilcox, Ariz. The agent's mother-in-law had received a call from Aldrete-Davila's mother in Mexico telling her that her son had been wounded in the buttocks in the shooting.....

At trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof told the court that the agents had violated an unarmed Aldrete-Davila's civil rights.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is a violation of someone's Fourth Amendment rights to shoot them in the back while fleeing if you don't know who they are and/or if you don't know they have a weapon," said Kanof.

Kanof dismissed Ramos' testimony that he had seen something shiny in the smuggler's hand, saying that the agent couldn't be sure it was a gun he had seen.

Further, Kanof argued, it was a violation of Border Patrol policy for agents to pursue fleeing suspects.
"Agents are not allowed to pursue. In order to exceed the speed limit, you have to get supervisor approval, and they did not," she told the Daily Bulletin.

Those shell casings Compean picked up were described to the jury as destroying the crime scene and their failure to file an incident report – punishable by a five-day suspension, according to Border Patrol regulations – an attempted cover up.

The Texas jury came back with a guilty verdict. Conviction for discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence has an automatic 10-year sentence. The other counts have varying punishments.

"How are we supposed to follow the Border Patrol strategy of apprehending terrorists or drug smugglers if we are not supposed to pursue fleeing people?" said Ramos, who noted that he only did on that day what he had done for the previous 10 years. "Everybody who's breaking the law flees from us. What are we supposed to do? Do they want us to catch them or not?"

He also noted that none of the other agents who had responded to the incident filed reports that shots were fired and, besides, both supervisors at the scene knew they had discharged their weapons.

"You need to tell a supervisor because you can't assume that a supervisor knows about it," Kanof countered. "You have to report any discharge of a firearm."

[Evergreen Emerald]

5. I heard they shot him in the back.

I think there is more to the story. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52545

[bigdarryl]

6. bullshit he shot at them and they fired back and he was running end of story.

[Evergreen Emerald]

9. is it ok with you to shoot someone in the back who is running away?

The article: "The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is a violation of someone's Fourth Amendment rights to shoot them in the back while fleeing if you don't know who they are and/or if you don't know they have a weapon," said Kanof."

[Howardx]

11. end of story?

how do we know thats the story?

[Burnsey_Koenig]

12. If all you know is what Lou Dobbs said.....

Then perhaps you might want to look at the whole story and see the actual facts in the Texas Jury decided case.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52545

[Frustratedlady]

7. Lou Dobbs has covered this case extensively for several months.

Bush has refused to pardon them, even though senators and many other people have pleaded with him. He wouldn't even answer the Congressmen's letters. They are furious, and rightfully so.

[BoneDaddy]

8. I happen to agree with the repubs on this one

totally ridiculous.

[ret5hd]

13. Lou Dobbs is a bigot...and here's a link to the rest of the story:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/breakingnews/ci_5031310

(If they are such brave defenders of the fatherland, why did they try to hide what they did? Why didn't they repot the incident?)

<snip>
Ramos and Compean were convicted by a jury of violating the civil rights of a drug smuggler they shot in the buttocks in 2005 near Fabens as the man was fleeing to Mexico. They were also convicted of tampering with evidence for not reporting the shooting and for picking up shell casings. The trial lasted more than two and a half weeks.
</snip>

(If they were shot at, why didn't they say so, instead of claiming they "saw" a gun?)

<snip>
Supporters of the agents say the government should not have offered the drug smuggler immunity in exchange for his testimony and should have believed the agents when they said they saw a gun in the drug smuggler's hands.
</snip>

(Apparently, U.S. attorneys are calling these guys LIARS!)

<snip>
The U.S. Attorney's office sent a release today meant to debunk myths they said are circulating around the case, such as "The agents were just doing their jobs."

"An agent is not permitted to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away," the release says. "There was no credible evidence that the agents were in a life-threatening situation or that (the smuggler) had a weapon that would justify the use of deadly force. In fact, Border Patrol Agent (Oscar) Juárez, who was at the scene, testified at trial that he did not draw his pistol because he did not believe there was a threat. He also testified that Aldrete did not have a weapon and was almost to Mexico when Agent Compean began firing at him."

The U.S. Attorney's Office also addressed the criticism that the government let the drug smuggler go free.

"Because the agents could not identify him, found no fingerprints, could not tie him to the van (full of marijuana) and did not apprehend him after shooting him, the case against (the smuggler) could not be proven," the release said.
</snip>

[bigdarryl]

15. Well the Feds rules on law enforcement officers needs changing.

[ret5hd]

16. Which one? The one about shooting unarmed fleeing people?

[sandnsea]

14. Gun 'em down in the streets

That's the kind of country I want to live in, by gawd. :sarcasm:

[madville]

17. The way I heard it

The government claims that the agents shot him in the back and that he was unarmed, no gun was ever found. They also claim the agents picked up their bullet casings and altered the scene of the shooting before a routine investigation could take place. The government did give the drug smuggler immunity for his testimony against the agents, he was in a van with 750 lbs of pot on the US side of the border.

On the other hand it was just a drug smuggler. I don't care about pot that much, less harmful than alcohol, but there is such a huge amount of meth, coke, heroin, etc coming in from Mexico you probably couldn't pay me enough to be in the Border Patrol. Those agents get hung out to dry if they screw up and ignored when they do good, plus there has always been a history of corruption in that agency do to all the money thrown around in the illegal drug/illegal immigrant trade.

[eFriendly]

18. The Border Agents got what they deserved.

Statement of United States Attorney Johnny Sutton regarding the
conviction of former Border Patrol Agents Compean and Ramos

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/press_releases/2006/Sutton%20statement%20re%20compean%20and%20ramos%20conviction.pdf

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Disturbed]

22. RWingers are going bonkers over this.

The feel that Govt. Agents should be able to shoot people in the back and be called heroes for doing so.

[ret5hd]

21. Well, c'mon BigD...tell us where we've got it all wrong!!!

[htuttle]

23. I heard Dick Cheney shot a man in the face just for looking at him funny!

That's what I heard!

[oasis]

24. Back-shooting rogue cops should be on trial for attempted murder.

They should thank their lucky stars for getting off light.