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Outgunned Agent Held at Gunpoint by Mexican Military
The item below was found at the USBP's Local 2544 Web site

August 3, 2008

A Tucson Sector Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint by the Mexican military last night south of Ajo. While we're certain that some managers within the DHS and the President of Mexico will find a way to blame the Border Patrol agent, we would like to point out that the agent was in the United States, doing his job. Mexican military personnel crossed over the border and pointed rifles at him. Backup units arrived from the Ajo Border Patrol station, and the Mexican military personnel eventually returned to Mexico. Once again, they come into our country, point rifles at our agents, and are allowed to return to Mexico as if nothing happened. One can only imagine the outrage if American soldiers or Border Patrol agents entered Mexico and pointed rifles at someone. Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years. They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of "Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States." A few years ago the Mexican military went a step further and put a .50 calibre rifle round through the rear window of a Border Patrol agent's patrol vehicle south of Ajo. Nothing was ever done. Nobody was ever held accountable. Even worse, nothing has changed. Particularly galling is the fact that the Mexican military often pulls these stunts in Humvees donated to them by the American taxpayers (although they were apparently on foot this time). We note that Border Patrol agents have historically driven worn-out, junk vehicles.

We will withhold further comment on this incident until we see how our leaders handle it. We don't have much confidence in most of them. They usually just sell us out, make excuses for the Mexican military, and invite more of the same.

It is fortunate that this incident didn't end in a very ugly gunfight.

MOre to come,......

GTC

Better watch out talking about stuff like that,.McCain and his man Lindsey Graham will get upset.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue2duZZ1yGw

Most Americans don't care. The southern border of our country is just as far away as Iraq as far as they're concerned.

And they won't open their eyes, I suppose, to see what is going on in their own communities.
When 9/11 happened I asked a friend of mine who was from New York if the people in New York would even care about it if it had happened in Kansas City or Dallas. He thought a minute then said, "Probably not". He was probably right.

From Dana Rorbacher,............

What Happened To Justice In America?
08/04/2008

What happened to justice in America? It certainly wasn�t served on July 28 when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the unjust convictions of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. As it stands today, these two brave border protectors must now serve out their full 10-plus-year sentences for shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler they encountered while he was carrying a million-dollar payload of narcotics along the Southern border in Texas. What started off as simple procedural mistakes by the agents has turned into an unimaginable travesty of justice unlike anything I�ve ever seen in my 30 years in Washington, D.C.

It�s difficult to reconcile why U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton would choose to seek out drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, in Mexico to offer him immunity, unconditional border-crossing cards and free medical care in exchange for his testimony against the border agents. Ramos and Compean did not wake up the morning of Feb.17, 2005, with the intention of committing a crime, unlike the illegal alien drug-smuggling �victim.� They put on their uniforms, strapped their weapons around their waists and pinned on their badges, as they had for five and 10 years respectively, with the intention of patrolling our borders to protect America.

It�s no secret our Southern border is a virtual war zone where our border patrol agents and local law enforcement officers are often outgunned and outmanned by the violent drug cartels. So when Agents Ramos and Compean testified they thought Davila pointed a weapon at them, wouldn�t that seem reasonable to assume given the dangerous conditions they face everyday along the border? Not according to U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who decided to give the benefit of the doubt to a drug smuggler transporting a million dollars worth of drugs who said he was unarmed rather than siding with our law enforcement officers.


Sutton�s decision to throw the book at the agents by charging them with a federal civil rights violation under the color of the law and under the 924(c) statute (unlawful discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, which carries a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence) is not only despicable, but a dangerous precedent to set for every law enforcement officer in America. There has never been another instance where this statue, originally intended as a sentence-enhancement for drug traffickers and criminals, has been used against law enforcement officers acting within their scope of official duties. Every policeman has now been put on notice: Discharge your weapon in a split-second, deadly force situation and you, too, could face 10 years in prison if an overzealous prosecutor decides your decision was the wrong one.

Despite their disapproving posture during the Dec 3, 2007, hearing where (in which my Communications Director, Tara Setmayer, witnessed the appellate judges say first hand, �it does seem the government overreacted� in this prosecution), the judges, after almost eight months of deliberation, issued a 46 page ruling in complete contrast to what happened in court. The judges questioned why the prosecutors �stacked� the charges and got the government�s attorney to admit their drug-smuggling star witness �told some lies.�. What could have possibly happened between the hearing and now?

The appellate court claims that �the jury was the fact-finder�; �the jury heard all of the evidence�the case was conducted fairly and without reversible error.� But was it really? The jury was never told Davila was more than a one-time offender; smuggled drugs while under immunity, was in possession of a border-crossing card our government gave him, four months before testifying against Ramos and Compean and that he potentially violated his immunity agreement by not giving up any information about the cartel he was working for. Sutton�s office was well aware of these facts. It successfully petitioned the trial judge to seal that information from the jury and, to the chagrin of most reasonable people, the appellate court ruled that the protection of the Davila�s 5th Amendment rights outweighed the relevancy of his additional smuggling activities.

Unless President Bush shows Ramos and Compean the same Christian charity he used to commute the sentence of his friend Scooter Libby, two wives are without their husbands, and six children will be without their fathers for the next decade. If the President does not do the right thing by Ramos and Compean, their prosecution will be one of the worst black marks on this administration. I will continue to fight for these brave men because of their willingness to die to protect all of us. For every day they continue to spend behind bars, every American should be demanding answers to what happened to real justice in America?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher represents California?s 46th District

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Put state of the art weapons on the border with the military personnel to use them, AND ALLOW THEM TO DO SO! We can kick the Mexicans ass again if we have to.

This is just an absolute heartbreaker,...........

And T.,......we DO have to,...pretty quick like.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deputy4-2008aug04,0,655304.story

Sheriff's deputy who was shot dead guarded highly dangerous inmates


Authorities are investigating whether his job at the L.A. County jail, which put him in touch with Mexican Mafia gang members, is connected to his death. They are also considering two other motives.
By Stuart Pfeifer and Tami Abdollah, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
August 4, 2008
� Discuss Article (185 Comments)

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday.

Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives. Investigators were also considering the possibility that neighborhood gang violence or a personal grudge were behind the killing.



Sheriff's deputy shot dead outside his... Photos: Photos: Deputy shot dead in...Video: Video: Off-duty sheriff's deputy killed in drive-by attack

"As of right now, all of those possibilities are on the table," said Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz.

Escalante, 27, was shot to death outside his parents' home about 5:40 a.m. Saturday as he left for work at the downtown Men's Central Jail. He was assigned to the "high power" unit, where dangerous inmates -- many of them violent gang members -- are housed in single-man cells, Diaz and Sheriff Lee Baca said.

Detectives from LAPD's robbery-homicide division were investigating the killing with the assistance of detectives from the sheriff's homicide division and the jail's gang unit. Baca said Escalante's assignment put him in touch with members of the Mexican Mafia, a gang known to direct street crime and violence from behind prison walls.

"Until we can verify anything, it has to be looked at. In a homicide of this kind, with a person who's from a neighborhood that's had some difficulty with gangs, you can't rule anything out, particularly that," Baca said.

Witnesses said they saw a white, four-door car approach Escalante shortly before gunfire erupted. The deputy, his wife and their three children were living with his parents while preparing to purchase a home in Pomona.

At Men's Central Jail on Sunday, deputies wore black bands across their badges and dress uniforms with black ties in remembrance of their fallen colleague.

"They're not taking it well," said Sheriff's Sgt. Ron Bottomley, who supervised Escalante for the last year. "It's a very sober situation. We're a family. He had two families. He was a great family man, and he had a family here. Just like his family is grieving him, so are we."

A small memorial for Escalante was set up near his parents' home at the corner of Thorpe and Aragon avenues.

Bouquets of flowers surrounded about a dozen candles that were arranged in the shape of a cross. White roses and blue carnations were left with a simple note: "In memory of Deputy Escalante."

Cypress Park, a blue-collar neighborhood northeast of downtown, has had a history of gang warfare. Earlier this year, a shooting outside an elementary school near Escalante's home touched off a fierce gun battle between gang members and police in nearby Glassell Park.

Escalante had been considered a local success story because he grew up in a neighborhood plagued by gang violence and was pursuing a career in law enforcement.

"He was this close to moving out of that neighborhood," said Bottomley, moving his thumb and index finger millimeters apart, "and getting into, for him, his dream home. It would be his first home. We're talking weeks away. He was so happy everything was going well. . . . Now are they going to have that dream home? In a matter of seconds, everything was taken away from him."

Many of the 800 employees at Men's Central Jail have been touched by Escalante's death.

"He was the cream of the crop, and that's what really hurts," Bottomley said, his eyes red and tearing up. "You've got three kids that are going to have to grow up without a dad.

"He was close to everybody. He was one of those outstanding guys that there wasn't a person in the jail that [could] say anything bad about him. He was a good, fair man, an outstanding deputy. He was fair with the inmates but firm. If I gave him orders to do something, he was saying, 'Yes, sir' before I could finish it."

Escalante, an Army reservist, was a 2 1/2 -year department veteran. Most deputies for their first assignments work in county jails for several years before they are transferred to patrol duties.

"We always try to be prepared for everything, but one thing we cannot be prepared for is when you lose somebody," Bottomley said. "And through all of it, you have to stay professional and do your job. But you know, we're all human. In some aspects we have to be more than human. . . . You still have to come in the next day and do your job, and a part of you has been torn away."

One sheriff's deputy, who asked not to be identified because he had not been given authorization to speak to the media, said guards at Los Angeles County jails often confront fear that inmates may try to harm them outside jail walls.

"You never talk about your family, where you live, your hobbies," the deputy said. "Most guys don't wear wedding rings. You don't want to give the bad guys ammo to be able to say, 'I know the name of your wife, your children.' "

It wouldn't be difficult for gang members or former inmates to follow deputies home from Men's Central Jail, the deputy said.

"They know where you work. They could just post up on the driveway and wait for you to leave," he said.

stuart.pfeiferlatimes.com

tami.abdollahlatimes.com

Times staff writers Ari Bloomekatz and Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report.

" members of the Mexican Mafia, a gang known to direct street crime and violence from behind prison walls."

.....at risk of belaboring the obvious,.....THIS is quite simply unacceptable,.........yet another example of the general malaise out in Kal.

GTC

Bad situation for USBP, i am glad the agent wasn't harmed.

I've got a friend of mine, who i was in the Army with, who went to work for El Paso, TX PD and then later went to work for the USBP at El Paso.

Sorry to hear about the LASO Deputy, these Mexican Mafia, folks are the real deal and not to be taken lightly. They'll put the hit on your azz from inside the jail, and communicate it outside and it's a done deal.

The Mexican military is assisting the drug smuglers. It's really that simple.

Don't ya think there are people in high places on this side of the boarder assisting those drug smuglers? I would believe that to be the case with the money involved.

Start treating border incursion as what they are.......ACTS OF WAR! Start shooting a few Mexican Troops and maybe they will get the point. Every Coyote or Boder Runner for Drug Dealers should be Strung up and hung from that new fence, by their necks. Les

could not agree more. I might also suggest a catapult for illegals that sneak back a second time.

So true.....

If we could just get the "foreign policy" guys to come home.....



Casey

what happened to America? we used to have a backbone and we stuck to our guns when anyone messed with us.

This photo's taken not all that far from my lurk,......

Note Mr Chertof's inpenetrable "Barrier",......

Link: http://www.americanpatrol.com/ABP/PHOTO-OF-THE-DAY/2008/ARCHIVE/080804.html

GTC

I'm trying to figure out the juxtaposition of " Unanimously passed ",.....and the material in the link following. It would seem that the " Will of their people, per their elected representantives " belongs in quotes,......and is of little moment

Link: http://www.ctl.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=87804&issue=08012008

So the material above, versus the following, I can't really make heads or tails outta' this,........but CAN tell you that "Hidden Compartments" abound,.......and are being discovered / busted almost daily,.........the vehicle safety issue is of course a different subject.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0437826120080804

GTC

I don't know about that crossfire. Seems to me an ugly gunfight is just what should have happened. Our military can be UGLY when asked.

Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5924476.html

Sorry if someone else has genned up a thread re; this long overdue event,.....but it IS within the parameters of this thread, sure certain,........

This rectal orfice was not to fat to execute,......

God Bless Texas, and Semper Coonass!

GTC

Medellin executed for rape, murder of Houston teens
By ALLAN TURNER and ROSANNA RUIZ Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 6, 2008, 12:36AM
1628Comments 263Recommend 1 2 3

Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Jose Medellin's case created international controversy when the United Nations' world court determined Texas had violated the killer's rights under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Share
Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzHUNTSVILLE � The state of Texas defied an international court and executed Jose Ernesto Medellin late Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for the killer in the 1993 Houston gang rape-murders of two teenage girls.

Medellin, 33, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 9:57 p.m., nine minutes after receiving the fatal cocktail and nearly four hours after his scheduled 6 p.m. execution.

In his final statement, Medellin apologized for his crime: "I'm sorry that my actions brought you pain. I hope this brings the closure to what you seek," he said. "Don't ever hate them for what they do. Never harbor hate."

He then looked toward the witness room in which his friend, Sandra Crisp, was watching, crying softly, and smiled. "I love you," he said.

In the adjoining witness room, relatives of the two victims watched with little apparent emotion.

Medellin, a Mexican national who spent most of his life in the United States, was condemned for the June 1993 murders of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pe�a, 16.

The girls were raped and strangled with a belt and shoelace after they stumbled into a drunken gang initiation rite while cutting through the park to get home before their curfew.

Four days after the crime, a tip from a gang member's brother led authorities to the bodies, then to the suspects.

Within three hours of his arrest, Medellin admitted his role in the gruesome murders, appalling authorities with his boastful, callous description of the night's events.

At issue in Medellin's last-minute appeal was his assertion that authorities refused his right to contact the Mexican Consulate after his arrest. By doing so, his attorneys argued, officials violated a 1963 treaty signed by the U.S. and 165 other countries that should have granted him access. His case stirred international controversy when the United Nations' high court found his rights had been violated. The court ordered the execution be stayed.

While some cheered Texas' decision to execute him on Tuesday, others warned that his death could render the treaty void, putting the lives of American citizens arrested overseas in jeopardy.

The fathers of the victims, however, expressed relief.

"It's a long time coming," Adolfo Pe�a said, "Fifteen years is a long time. I wish those two girls could've lived that long."

Randy Ertman stood with his arm around Christina Alamaraz, a close friend. He said recent media attention had been too focused on Medellin and not their daughters.

Sandra Babcock, a law professor at Northwestern University in Chicago and an attorney for Medellin, said the case was not just about one Mexican national on death row.

"It's also about ordinary Americans who count on the protections of the consulate when they travel abroad in strange lands," she said. "It's about the reputation of the U.S. as a nation that adheres to the rule of law."

Hours before the execution, death penalty supporters and opponents gathered at Huntsville's Walls Unit, site of the state execution chamber.

Elaine Jackson of Houston, who identified herself as a friend of the Pe�as, was among those supporting the execution.

"The girls didn't get a second chance, why should he?" Jackson demanded. "Why should he keep on breathing?"

On the other side of the street, Nancy Bailey was among those opposing the execution. Putting Medellin to death, she said, would flout the nation's treaty commitments and endanger Americans arrested abroad.

Medellin, who granted few interviews on death row, told a Mexican news reporter that he'd had 15 years in prison to compose his emotions. On Monday and Tuesday he visited with his parents, whom he had not seen since 2001, and spoke by phone with his younger brother, who is serving 40 years for his part in the crime.

Jose Medellin had insisted he told police he was a Mexican citizen; Gov. Rick Perry's office said he did not. In 2004, the world court, acting on a Mexican lawsuit against the U.S., ordered hearings to determine if the cases of Medellin and dozens of other Mexican nationals in custody had been damaged by the treaty violations.

President Bush urged the hearings be held. Texas, however, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that only Congress had authority to demand such hearings.

Weeks after the decision, a bill retroactively calling for the hearings was introduced in Congress. The bill, however, remains in legislative limbo.

"Outside of Texas this is a huge diplomatic misstep," said Columbia Law School professor Sarah Cleveland. "Unfortunately, I doubt the international community is likely to brush this off as simply the actions of Texas. In the international community ... the United States is responsible for Texas' actions."

Judge Cathy Cochran, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, took a different view.

"Some societies may judge our death penalty barbaric," she noted. "Most Texans, however, consider death a just penalty in certain rare circumstances. Many Europeans disagree. So be it."

Medellin was the second person executed for the attack.

Derrick O'Brien was put to death in July 2006. Gang leader Peter Cantu remains on death row. Two others, 17 at the time of the crime, had their death sentences commuted to life in prison.

allan.turnerchron.com

rosanna.ruizchron.com

1 hour 26 minutes ago
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Murdered
A manhunt is on for a gunman who shot and killed a customs agent in broad daylight in a parking lot this morning.

The unidentified agent, a member of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force, was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida in critical condition after the shooting, which occurred about 8:55 a.m., police spokesman Sgt. Bryan Davis said.

His death was announced around noon.

It is not known if the shooting outside the postal service's South Florida Processing and Distribution Center at Pines Boulevard and Dykes Road had anything to do with the agent's job, or if it was a random act of violence.

Davis said police are actively looking for the gunman, who is described as between 45 to 55 years old, with a full head of gray hair. He was wearing a short-sleeve, green plaid shirt and last seen driving eastbound on Pines Boulevard in a 2005 gray-green Chrysler 300 four-door sedan.

About 200 federal, state and local law enforcement agents are participating in a dragnet for the gunman, Davis said.

Officers canvassed businesses in the area, looking for any surveillance video tape that might show the shooting or the suspect.

A statewide alert has also been issued.

About a hundred officers assembled at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office near the post office, many of them in bullet-resistant vests. A Blackhawk helicopter from the federal Department of Homeland Security made several stops there to pick up officers.

"We're just going to saturate the area," Davis said. "We'll just start turning over every rock."

Davis said officers responding to the shooting found the agent laying next to his black Chrysler 300 sedan.

The agent was shot once, but Davis would not say where.

The victim worked in internal affairs with Customs and Border Protection, said agency spokesman Jose Castellano. He had no further details.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program coordinates local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to combat drug-related crime in targeted regions.

South Florida, including Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties, was designated for the program in 1990 because of the area's high level of drug trafficking.

The lobby of the postal service center, where people can drop off mail, was closed. However, Davis said the sorting area was open.

The center is one of three mail distribution centers in South Florida. The others are in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at at 954-493-TIPS, Pembroke Pines police, 954-431-2200, or go online to: www.browardcrimestoppers.org.