EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/
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BORDER RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: THROW ROCKS, WE'LL SHOOT YOU DEAD: DEFEND YOURSELF, WE'LL CHARGE YOU
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />Consider this: In one case a man performing his duty enforcing the immigration enforcement laws of his country feels threatened by a rock thrower half a block away and shoots across the Rio Grande at him.<br />In another, just a few miles away from the border, a father feels threatened by an unmarked SUV and a suspected trespasser who sits in an unmarked SUV next to his property in the wee hours of dawn and orders his sons to shoot the intruder.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipYnom4sYDD998qmaE12ljUcB95krnGQl-lvtuO8Sfskps-KXJE-rl2CBvrctUJHsIQsMH_0QbsPdMvvTeP6W3daoAVB-KItmuRhSipUA2TP31dwGIcPKigSmlXf_fTH-iNN_u3YPAaIE/s1600/border+patrol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipYnom4sYDD998qmaE12ljUcB95krnGQl-lvtuO8Sfskps-KXJE-rl2CBvrctUJHsIQsMH_0QbsPdMvvTeP6W3daoAVB-KItmuRhSipUA2TP31dwGIcPKigSmlXf_fTH-iNN_u3YPAaIE/s320/border+patrol.jpg" width="320" /></a>In the first case, the alleged rock thrower dies. In the other case, the suspected intruder survives, and only later does it turn out that he was a Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on surveillance.<br />In the following days, a spokesperson for ICE defends the actions of the agent who loitered by private property and alarmed the shooters, two brothers and their father.<br />Pedro Alvárez and his sons, Arnold Alvarez, 18 and another son,16, fired at ICE agent Kelton Harrison's vehicle and chased the agent as he sped away. Prosecutors say Harrison had been watching for an anticipated drug deal. His condition is improving. Alvarez and his sons are facing serious criminal charges, including attempted capital murder, after they shot at Harrison and another agent who was parked outside their home in Hargill, along the Texas border.<br />Relatives of the family shot because they were afraid someone was going to break in their home.<br />Amparo Ramírez, the family's mother, told a San Antonio newspaper that no attempt was made to notify home owners of surveillance activity.<br />"They thought it was somebody breaking in," Ramírez said. "The ICE didn't identify itself. The kids explained what they did."<br />In the case of the Border Patrol agent who shot at the Mexican national across an international border because he felt threatened is defended as justified, and cite one case in Hidalgo county where an agent was injured by a rock thrown by someone across the river. Now the say that there was yet another man who was seen pointing a gun at the agents, not the rock thrower who was shot to death. That man has neither been identified nor found.<br />The question then becomes: If the agent is justified in shooting at someone throwing rocks from another country across the river because he feared for his life, aren't the actions of the sons defending their property from an identified armed stranger justifiable as well?<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIA5Wz8toUzt_fGa3PPS3gRHlnAftr0TeFm0pSgpMS5ylYpVTGxGNvBiJ3RFNLj4dFzv-rZhRDJ-pmUcqWwgWNK3ML72h7aVhyFJBESuoKXYj5tp26n4PukI32v_e_0RMiREIP2-K5Oi0/s1600/hargill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIA5Wz8toUzt_fGa3PPS3gRHlnAftr0TeFm0pSgpMS5ylYpVTGxGNvBiJ3RFNLj4dFzv-rZhRDJ-pmUcqWwgWNK3ML72h7aVhyFJBESuoKXYj5tp26n4PukI32v_e_0RMiREIP2-K5Oi0/s320/hargill.jpg" width="320" /></a>Of course, perhaps the ICE honchos knew that the rock thrower had been a first draft pick for the Houston Astros pitching staff and could throw a rock on a straight line more than half a block away with unerring aim we wouldn't be so picky. But if they did and didn't tell us, then we've been kept in the dark.<br />The trigger happy nature of federal employees and members of the military carrying weapons on the border with nebulous rules of engagement has resulted in several confrontations that have resulted in death. The first well-known incident was the one involving an 18-year-old Hispanic goatherd who stumbled across a squad of armed camouflaged Marines who though he was shooting at them and shot him dead in 1997 near Redford, Texas.<br />In that case, the Pentagon decided that the soldiers were acting in self-defense and feared for their lives when they shot the teen.<br />Yet another involved the recent shooting of a rock-thrower in El Paso in 2010. In that case, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican boy across the Rio Grande. Investigators said the agent fired after being attacked by people throwing rocks.<br />Last summer, Border Patrol agents seizing 4,000 pounds of marijuana in March near Roma got into a shootout with drug smugglers. In that incident, it also was not known whether anyone on the Mexican side had been hit. Authorities said Border Patrol agents and Rangers with the Texas Department of Public Safety exchanged about 300 rounds of gunfire with suspected drug smugglers. Officials said the suspects threw rocks at U.S. lawmen in that incident, too.<br />With the border crawling with armed lawmen and the military and the violence spilling over across the border, it'll only be a matter of time before these type on incidents become commonplace. If someone feels threatened in the Wild West atmosphere created by the militarization of the border so many groups have advocated, what else can we expect?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-895729725926489831?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/07/rules-of-engagement-on-border-throw.html
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