Lawmakers beg Bush to help (convicted border patrol) agents

[sabra]

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1376982.php

Lawmakers beg Bush to help agents
Rohrabacher says officers who shot drug smuggler should be hailed as heroes.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher joined 48 other Republican lawmakers Thursday in sending a letter to President Bush urging him to commute the sentences of two border patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler at the border.

Border patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are scheduled to go to prison next month. Ramos was sentenced to 11 years and Compean to 12 years. The two border patrol agents were convicted of shooting an admitted drug smuggler in the buttocks as he ran away from them near the Rio Grande river in February 2005.

"We're pleading with this president," Rohrabacher said. "We are begging him to commute these sentences or give these two border patrol agents a pardon."

Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, called the two agents heroes. "Because of their actions, more than a million dollars in illegal drugs were stopped from being sold to our children. Bringing felony charges against them is a travesty of justice beyond description."

...

"Being a United States border patrol agent is not a license to shoot people," Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton told reporters after the two were convicted. "It is especially not a license to shoot unarmed … suspects who are running away from you."

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Fuck these two murderers

may they rot in jail forever.

And fuck the murderers who are trying to get them free.

[Connie_Corleone]

2. Suspect isn't dead. He was shot in the butt.

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Fuck them anyway.

They are obviously working for rival smugglers.

[anotherdrew]

9. WTF? n/t

[harpboy_ak]

11. Not, murderers, brave border guards DOING THEIR JOB

These guys were convicted of using "excessive force" TO STOP A KNOWN DRUG SMUGGLER FROM HAULING DRUGS ACROSS ***OUR*** SOVEREIGN BORDER. They were doing the job they were hired to do, and are being persecuted by an out-of-control US Attorney who should have used taxpayer funds to PROSECUTE THE SMUGGLER, NOT THE BORDER GUARDS.

This idiot US attorney decided it would be easier to get a conviction of the guards than the smuggler, so he gave the fucking Mexican crook immunity so he could testify against the smugglers? THE CRIMINAL HERE WAS THE SMUGGLER, not the guards!

The problem is that all the big landowners/farmers in that area want cheap illegal Mexican farm labor, and don't want an effective Border Patrol.

I rarely agree with that right wingnut Rohrbacker about anything, but this time he's right. Bush has already refused to pardon these guards or give them back their jobs, but he pardoned a convicted drug dealer as a Christmas present.

I only hope that when Bush is convicted of war crimes and lying to the American people, that he ends up in the same cell block as these innocent border guards.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Well we know dubya is going to be granting some pardons

that we won't agree with. Sounds like a good one to start with.

But no, I agree these men are murderers.

[Connie_Corleone]

4. The man did not die.

[loves_dulcinea]

6. rule number one

a suspect that is running is not an immediate danger and is not subject to deadly force.

[eddiebosox]

7. 12 years is pretty harsh

12 years is pretty harsh, but they need to do SOME time. I mean they shot a fleeing suspect. Sure it was in "the butt" and thats makes it sound innocous, but it could just as easily have been in the back of the head. I'd wait until 2008 and then commute the rest of their sentence.

If you commute it now it sends the message that shooting unarmed mexicans coming across the border is OK.

Of course, if this was a cute red heaired irish immigrant waitress whose visa ran out and was running from a cop when she got pulled over and got shot, would Dana Rohrbacher and all teh other GOPers demand a pardon?

[anotherdrew]

10. cops get away with it all the time, all the time. n/t

[iam]

8. Another example of

conservatives willing to destroy, (this time it's the rule of law) so they can score political points with al qaida (the base). Anything that is a political winner will be championed by conservatism no matter how destructive to civilization. Conservatism is a plague upon decency.