NoaIzumiDuty, Honor, Country, by the Investor’s Business Daily
January 23rd 2009 03:35
IBD weighed in a couple of days ago on George W. Bush’s commutation of Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos, the Border Patrol agents who were convicted in 2006 of shooting a drug smuggler as he was fleeing and then covering it up. The two have become a cause celeb for the anti-immigration right, including the Investor’s Business Daily.
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“for shooting drug-runner Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks in 1975 as he tried to flee back to Mexico”
Minor quibble, but the incident actually happened on February 17, 2005, at around 1:00 in the afternoon to be precise. It’s obviously an unintentional typo, but it is sloppy for this paper.
“But in an April 4, 2005, memo, DHS Special Agent Christopher Sanchez states that Compean believed Aldrete-Davila was armed.”
I couldn’t find the actual memo online, but it is reproduced in part in this article in the Daily Bulletin.
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What the relevant portion says is that Compean claimed that he thought Aldrete-Davila was armed, citing a “shiny object he thought he saw in Aldrete-Davila's hand”. No weapon or “shiny object” was found, and no one claims to have seen it. So it’s just Compean’s word against Aldrete-Davila’s. And this is the first time he made that claim, a month and a half after the incident. If that’s why he fired, why didn’t he say that earlier? There was no mention of it in the initial report.
Speaking of the initial report, there’s some controversy about that too. No written report was made, but according to IBD (and this claim is backed up by testimony), only an oral report needed to be made, to a supervisor.
“Andy Ramirez, who has watched the case unfold as chairman of the group Friends of the Border Patrol, told World Net Daily: ‘The Border Patrol manual specifies that only a verbal report needs to be made of shooting incidents like this. All the agents in the field were discussing the shooting incident, including the supervisors. What more of a verbal report needed to be made?’”
Ramirez himself is hardly an impartial observer, as he and his advocacy group have become famous thanks to their involvement in this case. However, the claim of supervisors being there seems to be corroborated by a Department of Homeland Security memo, so it’s possible that Ramos and Compean assumed talking to the supervisors that were there was good enough. It still seems rather sloppy, and doesn’t explain why the supervisors didn’t tell anyone or file a written report themselves. (It’s possible that no written report was required from anyone after a shooting, but that seems like an awfully stupid policy for all concerned. Who’s running this pop stand?)
“Aldrete-Davila … attempted to smuggle another 753 pounds of weed into the U.S. the following October. It's this second incident that Sutton successfully concealed from the jury.”
Actually, the jury knew that Davila was smuggling drugs at the time of the incident, and that the agents knew at the time that he was most likely smuggling drugs (before they looked into the van that Davila was driving).
Of course, the real kicker was the cover-up, which IBD mentions, but never addresses. And there definitely was a cover-up, according to a DHS memo and testimony from one of the agents who was there. Compean and another agent picked up the spent shells and compromised the scene.
Really Long Link
Really Long Link (PDF file, testamony of cover-up starts around page 40, also includes the testimony on Davila smuggling drugs)
Now, a cover-up is not proof-positive of a crime, but it’s sure a strong suggestion. As I said earlier, it’s basically Compean’s word against Davila’s, and I (like most everybody else) would normally take the word of a law enforcement officer over that of a felon. But the cover-up tips the scales. As it undoubtedly did with the jury, and probably with the New Orleans appeals court that denied their appeal.
That all being said, considering that we’ll never know exactly what happened that afternoon, Bush’s commutation may be appropriate. But if IBD wants to convince people that pardons are in order, they’ll need more than rehashed arguments that ignore inconvenient facts.
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
“for shooting drug-runner Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks in 1975 as he tried to flee back to Mexico”
Minor quibble, but the incident actually happened on February 17, 2005, at around 1:00 in the afternoon to be precise. It’s obviously an unintentional typo, but it is sloppy for this paper.
“But in an April 4, 2005, memo, DHS Special Agent Christopher Sanchez states that Compean believed Aldrete-Davila was armed.”
I couldn’t find the actual memo online, but it is reproduced in part in this article in the Daily Bulletin.
Really Long Link
What the relevant portion says is that Compean claimed that he thought Aldrete-Davila was armed, citing a “shiny object he thought he saw in Aldrete-Davila's hand”. No weapon or “shiny object” was found, and no one claims to have seen it. So it’s just Compean’s word against Aldrete-Davila’s. And this is the first time he made that claim, a month and a half after the incident. If that’s why he fired, why didn’t he say that earlier? There was no mention of it in the initial report.
Speaking of the initial report, there’s some controversy about that too. No written report was made, but according to IBD (and this claim is backed up by testimony), only an oral report needed to be made, to a supervisor.
“Andy Ramirez, who has watched the case unfold as chairman of the group Friends of the Border Patrol, told World Net Daily: ‘The Border Patrol manual specifies that only a verbal report needs to be made of shooting incidents like this. All the agents in the field were discussing the shooting incident, including the supervisors. What more of a verbal report needed to be made?’”
Ramirez himself is hardly an impartial observer, as he and his advocacy group have become famous thanks to their involvement in this case. However, the claim of supervisors being there seems to be corroborated by a Department of Homeland Security memo, so it’s possible that Ramos and Compean assumed talking to the supervisors that were there was good enough. It still seems rather sloppy, and doesn’t explain why the supervisors didn’t tell anyone or file a written report themselves. (It’s possible that no written report was required from anyone after a shooting, but that seems like an awfully stupid policy for all concerned. Who’s running this pop stand?)
“Aldrete-Davila … attempted to smuggle another 753 pounds of weed into the U.S. the following October. It's this second incident that Sutton successfully concealed from the jury.”
Actually, the jury knew that Davila was smuggling drugs at the time of the incident, and that the agents knew at the time that he was most likely smuggling drugs (before they looked into the van that Davila was driving).
Of course, the real kicker was the cover-up, which IBD mentions, but never addresses. And there definitely was a cover-up, according to a DHS memo and testimony from one of the agents who was there. Compean and another agent picked up the spent shells and compromised the scene.
Really Long Link
Really Long Link (PDF file, testamony of cover-up starts around page 40, also includes the testimony on Davila smuggling drugs)
Now, a cover-up is not proof-positive of a crime, but it’s sure a strong suggestion. As I said earlier, it’s basically Compean’s word against Davila’s, and I (like most everybody else) would normally take the word of a law enforcement officer over that of a felon. But the cover-up tips the scales. As it undoubtedly did with the jury, and probably with the New Orleans appeals court that denied their appeal.
That all being said, considering that we’ll never know exactly what happened that afternoon, Bush’s commutation may be appropriate. But if IBD wants to convince people that pardons are in order, they’ll need more than rehashed arguments that ignore inconvenient facts.
Really Long Link
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