As someone who has followed stories of police brutality and police shootings for around five years, the story of the border patrol agents, Compean and Ramos, who were prosecuted for shooting a drug smuggler struck me as very strange. There are a number of groups with some major resources (i.e. personalities on Fox programs (fox youtube video), people who have access to president Bush (youtube video of press conference)), as well as various other groups (mostly anti-immigrant groups) who are campaigning for the pardoning of the two border patrol agents involved in chasing and shooting Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a drug smuggler (i'd usually say "alleged" drug smuggler because of my skepticism about law enforcement, but as far as i know, no one has contested his drug smuggling, including himself).
Why do i find the prosecution of the agents strange? Well, because anyone who has been paying attention to the number of shootings of armed and unarmed individuals by police knows the cops hardly ever get punished. The circumstances hardly matter in any case. The "justice" system has proven that cops are virtually immune from punishment. When was the last time you heard of a cop shooting a drug smuggler and facing over 10 years for it? Especially if the drug smuggler was only shot once and didn't die?
In my mind, police and border patrol, both being law enforcement, are given similar responsibilities, privileges, and social worth. Based on how people are reacting to this story, I'm seeing that border patrol seems to be given even more worth by certain people, based not only on the fact that the border patrol agents are called heroes (youtube video of press conference), but also on the accusations of treason placed on the "justice" system as well as Bush if he doesn't give the agents a pardon.
A Texas jury convicted the pair of assault with serious bodily injury; assault with a deadly weapon; discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence; and a civil-rights violation. Compean and Ramos also were convicted of four counts and two counts, respectively, of obstruction of justice for not reporting that their weapons had been fired.(Source).
The more I read about this story, the crazier it is.
The government brought the charges after Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican national, agreed to testify against the agents in exchange for a grant of immunity in a possible drug case after an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General. (Source).
What was the U.S. government's interest in defending the civil rights of a mexican drug smuggler meanwhile otherwise treating immigrants like shit? Although I have no concrete answers, i think it's worthwhile to consider the corruption of the drug war. You know, the CIA's involvement in bringing cocaine/crack into ghettos (narconews.com, guerrilla news network video), the corruption involving Columbia (plancolumbia.org) and have you heard about the House of Death (narconews.com, the Guardian)? The main allegation that's coming out of the House of Death controversey is that ICE and higher-ups knew about people being killed- but it didn't matter because they were mexican. Meanwhile their informant was being paid by the u.s. at the same time he was involved in the murders. A mexican involved in the drug trade is allowed to commit crimes while mexicans and mexican americans are disposable- allowed to be murdered (or perhaps given prison sentences?). I can see a pattern...
Why was the drug smuggler worth defending? What are the circumstances surrounding the U.S. government's decision to pursue this case and grant Adrete-Davila immunity? Why does the mexican drug smuggler have more value to the government than two mexican-american border patrol agents? How does race play into this? In what way is the mexican government involved?
It's interesting when, as an anarchist, I find myself having similar skepticism about justice and policy as anti-immigrant people do- although definitely for different reasons. I don't think a border patrol agent can go around shooting people in the ass (or anywhere) for whatever reason. But i am suspicious of the government's motivations for prosecuting them. Just as I'm more than suspicious of the government's motivations for being part of NAFTA, FTAA, for building a expensive token fence on the border, etc. There are various accusations about the u.s. government being in cahoots with the mexican government. No matter how much of this is true and no matter how much corruption is going on- this should have no bearing on the individuals who migrate from or reside in mexico. My motivations are in the interest of freedom for all people, whereas the anti-immigrant folks are interested in maintaining a white supremacist order that keeps promising whitey their piece of the pie while denying it to others (that's a simplistic way of saying it- i go more into depth in the 3rd to last paragraph of this post if you're interested.)
So while groups are planning their rallies to convince bush to pardon the agents, consider their motivations as well as the government's. If you go out there to protest the anti-immigrants' rallies on this case, I want you to go out there with an idea about what your position is on the case. Consider the complexity of the situation- the history of abuse by law enforcement allowed by the government, the fact that the guy was a known drug smuggler, the involvement of government agencies in the drug trade as well as the drug war, and why the anti-immigrant folks would stand up for two agents who a jury found broke the law.
