Border Partol Agents face 20 years for doing their jobs!?

Question

Border Patrol agents face 20 years for doing their job!
cluex4 (0 ) View Listings | Report Aug-14-06 16:09 PDT
Talk about egregious miscarriage of U.S. justice!!
When Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos pulled the trigger last February, all he knew was that his partner was lying on the ground behind him – bloodied from a struggle with a fleeing suspect – shots had been fired and now, it appeared, the drug smuggler he was pursuing had turned toward him with what looked to be a gun in his hand.

In the split-second he had to respond, Ramos determined the course of his and his partner's lives – federal prison for the next 20 years for assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharging of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, violating civil rights and obstruction of justice.

Ramos, 37, is an eight-year veteran of the U.S. Naval Reserve and a former nominee for Border Patrol Agent of the Year.

On February 17, he responded to a request for b

..
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On February 17, he responded to a request for back up from agent Jose Alonso Compean, 28, who noticed a suspicious van near the levee road along the Rio Grande River near the Texas town of Fabens, about 40

miles east of El Paso.

Ramos, who headed toward Fabens hoping to cut off the van, soon joined a third agent already in pursuit.

Behind the wheel of the van was an illegal alien, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila of Mexico. Unknown to the growing number of Border Patrol agents converging on Fabens, Aldrete-Davila's van was carrying 800 pounds of marijuana.

Unable to outrun Ramos and the third agent, Aldrete-Davila stopped the van on the levee, jumped out and started running toward the river. When he reached the other side of the levee, he was met by Compean who had anticipated the smuggler's attempt to get back to Mexico.

"We both yelled out for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop, and he just kept running," Ramos told California's Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Aldrete-Davila crossed a canal.

"At some point during the time where I'm crossing the canal, I hear shots being fired," Ramos said. "Later, I see Compean on the ground, but I keep running after the smuggler."

At that point,

At that point, Ramos said, Aldrete-Davila turned toward him, pointing what looked like a gun.

"I shot," Ramos said. "But I didn't think he was hit, because he kept running into the brush and then disappeared into it. Later, we all watched as he jumped into a van waiting for him. He seemed fine. It didn't look like he had been hit at all."

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."

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

Over 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.

Sanchez followed up with a call of his own to the smuggler in Mexico.

In a move that still confuses Ramos and Compean, the U.S. government filed charges against them after giving full immunity to Aldrete-Davila and paying for his medical treatment at an El Paso hospital.

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, say

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. Ramos and Compean will be sentenced next month.

"How are we supposed to follow the Border Patrol strategy of apprehending terrorists or drug smugglers if we are not supposed to pursue fleeing pe

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."

"This is the greatest miscarriage of justice I have ever seen," said Andy Ramirez of the nonprofit group Friends of the Border Patrol. "This drug smuggler has fully contributed to the destruction of two brave agents and their families and has sent a very loud message to the other Border Patrol agents: If you confront a smuggler, this is what will happen to you."

The El Paso Sheriff's Department has increased its patrol

Answer 1

It's disgusting. It's not right at all.

Answer 2

If he broke the law, he goes to jail. If didn't break the law, if his shooting was justified or in self-defense, then he'll be acquitted.

That's the way the legal system works.

You're quoting a news report which is quoting a press release. Read the 20+ cartons of documents that they're going to draw the evidence from, hear every eye witness, sit on the jury -- then you'll be in a position to tell if this is justice or a travesty.

The idea that people want to put political pressure on courts to ignore the legal system is completely at odds with the entire concept of justice. The jury determines guilt or innocence, not the mass media.

That's the way the legal system works.

Answer 3

I keep on telling everyone that the federal government is trying to open it's borders with Mexico and Canada to create 1 SINGLE union.

This will in turn destroy this soveriegn country and create a complete disaster!

Everyone that knows of this-- in office will benefit from it, while everyone else stays at the bottom of the ladder, keeping competitive employers, persons at an all time low, as to keep decreasing distractions from the government's outlook.

The U.S. government does not care about it's people. They do not care about illegals. They only care about money and power.. And this story further proves my theory that could be the largest conspiracy that ever existed.

Question asker, if you would please contact me and give me a link to that story, I'd be greatly appreciated.

--Rob

Answer 4

This case shows how corrupt our Congress and President are concerning illegal aliens and the illegal alien invasion of the USA..... they do not care, they are corrupt, they are aiding and abetting this criminal activity. We pay Bush over $1000 a day to act in the best interests of the country.... Clinton was likewise paid..... what do we get? INVADED, borders that are NOT secure....., robbed, culture being destroyed by illegal aliens, murders, 29% illegal aliens in our prisons..... Something is ROTTEN in Washington DC..... that something is the overpaid buttwipes we call politicians.

Answer 5

There is a grassfire petition circulating to ask for a pardon, and some congressmen have agreed to review this. Contact your congressmen.

Or, look at Socalrogueling's Q&A page, she has the info there.

Answer 6

it truly is a criminal offense to shoot at a fleeing motorized vehicle. you recognize more beneficial effectual as a police officer. in the experience that they are prosecuting him it truly is for an effective reason. He injured a passanger not the man driving. The passenger wasn't doing something to threaten him.

Answer 7

Just is not right what goes on in the USA, I am from here and I really do not understand all that goes on in this country its getting where it is not as pretty here as everyone thinks > I really don't like that we as the people do not have what our fore fathers fought for, our freedom...... oh really don't need to get into all this bs

Answer 8

i dont know why, sounds like a tuff job like being a cop or in iraq with the army, desicions like that should always be backed up,

Answer 9

I signed the very petition DAR mentioned.

Answer 10

take a sedative and go to sleep man.