Thread: Rock Assaults are Deadly Force, says Border Patrol Union

Thursday, 10 June 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rock Assaults are Deadly Force, says Border Patrol Union

El Paso, TX - June 9, 2010 - Since biblical times, rocks have been used as a crude but effective weapon to injure and kill humans. On June 8, 2010, when Border Patrol Agents were assaulted at the U.S./Mexico border by several individuals armed with rocks, they were forced to defend themselves and their fellow agents.

Border Patrol Agents are not trained, nor paid to withstand violent assaults without the ability to defend themselves. Rocks are weapons and constitute deadly force. If an agent is confronted with deadly force they will respond in kind. No agent wants to have to shoot another human being, but when an agent is assaulted and fears for his life then his hand is forced.
The government of Mexico has done their usual grandstanding where they hurled baseless accusations at the Border Patrol agents, made claims of racism, and portrayed the deceased criminal as an innocent boy who had never done a thing wrong in his life. None of these statements have any merit. Mexico bears quite a bit of responsibility whenever one of its citizens dies along the border due to its allowing criminal organizations free-reign and its refusal to police its northern border.

While the loss of this teenager’s life is regrettable, it is due solely to his decision to pick up a rock and assault a United States Border Patrol Agent. We stand behind the actions of the agents who did their duty in El Paso, and are confident that the investigation into his incident will justify their actions.

http://oneoldvet.com/

www.nbpc.net

Videos at:
http://www.nbpc.net/

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-5350--0-0.html

Nope - Mexico and the enemy within will demand that all BP agents be retrained. They will have to put down their guns and fight fire with fire - so if the weapon of choice is rocks the BP agent must respond with more rocks. This is so insane.

nothing will surprise me by what this administration will do to the border patrol. we have already seen how they dont care. all we need to do is look at what happened after the death of Agent Rosas.

did anyone say anything???

My fear is that the Justice Department will rule that it is not justifiable use of deadly force and allow him to be extradited to Mexico to stand trial.

I would really focus my defense and claim on the disparity of force aspect as he was surrounded by 4-5 subjects who could have easily overpowered him and taken control of his weapon and used deadly force on him. I think he will have better standing on that versus trying to defend one rock thrower from 50 feet away was a perceived deadly threat.

yeah we also have to remember that in el paso, its the same place where Ramos, Compean, Aleman have been prosecuted.

two for shooting a drug dealer.

one because he found false info on passport papers for his three adopted daughters. and he even told the people in charge of the discrepency.
so now, the three girls are somewhere in Mexico.

ALL three had two things in common, the judge, Kathleen Cordone and the lead prosecutor, Debra Kanof

Originally Posted by jamesw62

nothing will surprise me by what this administration will do to the border patrol. we have already seen how they dont care. all we need to do is look at what happened after the death of Agent Rosas.

did anyone say anything???

AMEN! What is also bad is who the heck will want to do this job when their lives are in jeopardy and anything they might do to protect them while doing their jobs could end them in prison because our own government will surely throw them under the bus.

Border Patrol union defends deadly force
Hits Mexico's 'grandstanding'

By Jerry Seper

8:36 p.m., Sunday, June 13, 2010

The union that represents all 15,000 of the U.S. Border Patrol's non-supervisory personnel accused the Mexican government of "grandstanding" and making "baseless accusations" against a Border Patrol agent who fatally shot a 15-year-old illegal immigrant while under assault from violent rock throwers.

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), in a statement, said Mexican officials have wrongly portrayed the unidentified agent as a racist and portrayed the "deceased criminal as an innocent boy who had never done a thing wrong in his life."

"None of these statements have any merit," the NBPC said. "Mexico bears quite a bit of responsibility whenever one of its citizens dies along the border due to its allowing criminal organizations free rein and its refusal to police its northern border."

The NBPC said the incident occurred Tuesday, when Border Patrol agents were forced to defend themselves and their fellow agents after they were assaulted at the U.S.-Mexico border by several people armed with rocks.

The agent who shot the teenager was on foot along the Rio Grande when he came under attack by rock throwers. He was a member of the agency's bike patrol.

"Border Patrol Agents are not trained, nor paid to withstand violent assaults without the ability to defend themselves. Rocks are weapons and constitute deadly force," the NBPC said.

The statement said agents will respond in kind if confronted with deadly force.

"No agent wants to have to shoot another human being, but when an agent is assaulted and fears for his life then his hand is forced," it said.

Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka, 15, was fatally shot near a railroad bridge along the Rio Grande connecting Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. He was among a group of illegal immigrants attempting to gain entry to the United States. Many in the group threw large rocks at the agents attempting to stop them.

Just after the shooting, Mexican federal police arrived at the scene and, at gunpoint, ordered the Border Patrol agents out of the area while onlookers on the Mexican side taunted the agents and hurled rocks and firecrackers at them. An amateur video of the incident is now under review by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

Under existing Department of Homeland Security policy, Border Patrol agents are allowed to use lethal force against rock throwers.

More than 200 agents have been assaulted along the border since October, mostly with rocks, and many of the agency's patrol vehicles have been fitted with steel bars and metal plates to protect the agents. The vehicles are called "war wagons."

Violence against agents along the border, according to Homeland Security records, is up 31 percent this fiscal year.

The Mexican government condemned the shooting last week in a telephone call to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and some Mexican politicians have demanded that the agent who fired the fatal shot be detained and extradited to Mexico to stand trial.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said his government also was "worried" about what he called "this surge of violence against Mexicans" along the border.

Several rank-and-file Border Patrol agents told The Washington Times that they were waiting to see what support the agent involved in the El Paso shooting will get from the agency's leadership. They noted that former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were charged and sentenced to lengthy prison terms for shooting a drug-smuggling suspect in the buttocks as he fled back to Mexico.

Mr. Ramos, 37, received an 11-year prison sentence, and Mr. Compean, 28, a 12-year sentence in October 2006 for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila in February 2005 when he was running from a van loaded with 743 pounds of marijuana near Fabens, Texas. The agents testified during their trial that they thought Aldrete-Davila had a weapon.

Aldrete-Davila later pleaded guilty to smuggling a second load of marijuana into the United States and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. On Jan. 19, 2008, President Bush commuted the sentences of Mr. Ramos and Mr. Compean, ending their prison terms on March 20, 2009.

Former Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar, now deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, did nothing to publicly support Mr. Ramos or Mr. Compean — a lack of action that earned him a unanimous 100-0 no-confidence vote by the NBPC national leadership.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called the shooting "extremely regrettable" and added that the FBI had begun a preliminary investigation into the teenager's death.

The NBPC said that while the "loss of this teenager's life is regrettable, it is due solely to his decision to pick up a rock and assault a United States Border Patrol Agent."

"We stand behind the actions of the agents who did their duty in El Paso, and are confident that the investigation into his incident will justify their actions," it said.

www.washingtontimes.com

i wonder what the mexicans would think if many americans stood on the border and just demanded them to do something, just like they did at the border last week

Assault on an officer is assault on an officer. I live in Baltimore, when somebody so much as raises a toy gun at a cop, they are almost forced to draw and (if the toy looks real enough without a orange tip) they have to fire. I don't know how many of you have been hit with rocks before, but it can be deadly. These officers were just in their actions, but the Government won't see it that way.

Our police and military are only allowed to return fire after they have been shot no less than five times in the head, or ten in the chest.