Ends and Means
Tim Dees
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
This business of sending two Border Patrol agents to prison is ugly, no matter how you look at it. When truly bad guys get their just deserts, we all feel a little better. Retribution is one of the most natural rationales for punishment. In this case, not even the immigration rights folks are throwing parties, because the whole thing is just sad, and it’s hard to distinguish the victims from the victimizers.
The president may be considering a pardon for the BP agents, and that might be the best solution. No matter what, these guys aren’t likely to be back in law enforcement. A pardon would allow the U.S. Attorney and the Customs and Border Protection administration to save face, and the former agents could get on with their lives. But even though there’s some sympathy in my heart for the agents, I don’t think they’re heroes, either.
Don’t think for a moment that I believe the Border Patrol is a bad outfit with no heroes. These men and women have one of the most difficult and thankless jobs in law enforcement, an industry that could make “difficult and thankless” work pretty well on a coat of arms. They’re bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon. It would be difficult enough if all they had to do was catch people coming across the border so that the justice system could deal with them. But the justice system doesn’t deal with them—it just ships them back across the border, just barely, so that they can make another stab at it the next night. The people they arrest are bedraggled and oppressed, not bloodthirsty marauders leaving pain and misery in their wake (well, some of them will if they get the chance, but I’m talking about the crossing-the-border part). And although it’s clear that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime, it’s very easy to see the situation differently when you’re a Patrol Agent seeing nothing but human misery, day after day. The Border Patrol is now the largest federal law enforcement agency, and even if we doubled their roster, they would still be overwhelmed.
Aggravating the situation is a system of micromanagement that attempts to administer frontier posts in the boonies from air-conditioned offices in downtown DC. Very few, if any, have ever been Patrol Agents. At least, most police chiefs and sheriffs have worked a patrol beat or two, even if they didn’t do it for very long. Not that this stops them from stepping out in costume now and again. Not too long ago, a CBP deputy commissioner was interviewed on a news show while wearing a BDU uniform with four embroidered stars on each collar. [See comment below] Wow–I wonder how many stars the big commissioner gets?
But, I digress, mainly because this problem has so many bad sides to it. The agents who got the Purple Shaft might have been pursuing good ends, but their means were less than golden. They saw someone that was someplace they didn’t think he should be, and when he saw them, he took a cue from Taco Bell and headed for the border. He even made it. The agents took a few shots at him, although there was no evidence he was armed or that he shot first. One of the shots hit the malefactor in the butt. Now, in most other law enforcement settings, that would have been classed as a “bad shoot.” The officers who did the shooting would have been real concerned for their jobs, and maybe even looking at jail. But the agents aggravated the situation by policing their brass and deciding between them that no one needed to know about this. It might have ended there, but the guy with the government lead in his rear knew somebody that knew somebody, and the agents eventually had to come clean.
Take this same scenario and transplant it into downtown LA (motto: The Police Are Always Wrong), and the cops would have to be put in jail to keep the community from lynching them. There would be nothing good or noble about it. And when the analysis is reduced to the relevant factors, leaving out the political and emotional elements, there wasn’t anything noble about the conduct of the BP agents, either. Law and policy are pretty clear on this. You don’t shoot unless the person you’re shooting is offering a deadly threat, and if you shoot someone who is running away, you had best have a really good story to put in your report. Here, there was no threat, there was no story, and there was no report.
I really do hope the agents get pardoned, because keeping them in prison isn’t going to accomplish a thing. The incident has already served its deterrent effect to remind anyone else who was considering shooting people and then covering it up that this is a bad way to pass the afternoon. The former agents aren’t a threat to society, and they’ve lost their careers and pensions. They’re a high liability for the Bureau of Prisons people, who manage a population of folks who get extra points for shanking a former patrol agent. But don’t hold these guys up as martyrs. We’re the good guys not only for what we do, but for the way we do it. When you go off the reservation the way that these two men did, the ends don’t justify the means.
I have to say I agree with this article. My gut reaction, as always is to side with the cops whenever something like this happens. They were there, we werent, and as a military officer who comes from a family with numerous law enforcement members, I am very aware that appearances can be deceiving. This is especially true when everything we know about the situation came from the media (prior to the trial). Now that the trial has happened, and the real story has come out, I am still sympathetic to the patrol agents. As mentioned, they have a tough job, but those of us in the military/law enforcement/public service volunteered knowing our jobs would be tough. We knew that we would be held to a higher level of scrutiny, and rightly so. As they often say in politics, its not the crime, but the cover-up that gets you in trouble. These guys would have been in hot water if they hadnt covered up the shooting no doubt, but I dont think they would have been facing a decade in prison. I didnt like the way that the media and the government seemed to be taking the smugglers side on all this, offering him immunity and such. I thought that they should have said, “OK, you want justice, you come over and testify, but as soon as you are done, we are going to try you for your crimes as well”. He probably wouldnt have come over under those circumstances, but offering him immunity just eats at me. The patrol agents should have been fired for violating department policy, and that would have been that. These are guys who by all accounts have distinguished records, I doubt they are going to be career criminals. My heart goes out to them and especially their families, but integrity is the most important of core values for law enforcement in my opinion. If you dont have integrity, I dont care about your other talents, I dont think you have place in LE. I hope the President pardons these guys, for pretty much the same reasons listed in the article.
What many people don’t know is that this same scumbag was caught once again after the original incident, this time with half a ton of drugs. The judge refused to allow this incident to be divulged at the agents’ trial.
“They saw someone that was someplace they didn’t think he should be..” No. They intercepted a smuggler entering the country illegally. In this case, with several hundred pounds of drugs. Like most of law enforcement, you are ignorant of what really occurs on the southwest border every day. By the way, the path of the bullet was from his left buttock to his right thigh… indicating that he was was turned toward the shooter at the time of impact.
He has been caught smuggling dope since then, that is true. He should have been tried as well, no doubt. The fact of the matter is though that these two agents knew BP Use of Force/Deadly Force policy. The senior agent definitely knew it and yet they still violated policy and attempted to cover the incident up. Had it been reported as it should have been, they most likely just would have received time on the beach.
You’re missing the point. How do you know the drug smuggler wasn’t armed. Just because he said so doesn’t make it true. Even family members of the drug smugglers have said that he always carried a gun. This prosecution is an absolute disgrace. It makes me wonder how much the drug cartels paid to dissuade other border patrol agents from going after them.
Tim, I love your columns and look forward to them. I even save them to train my troops from. However, this time I have to disagree with you.
I know the hell Border Patrol works it. I’ve been there and worked beside them, and have dear friends in Border Patrol. They’re amazing men and women who go out every day to fight a battle they know they’ll never win, but they do it anyway. About the time I feel unappreciated, I call my friend Damon on the Border Patrol and I feel a hell of a lot better about my job.
However, the fact remains that the Border Patrol Agents gave up their integrity.
As law enforcement officers we make nothing, we fix nothing, we operate nothing. Our stock in trade to the government and the people is our integrity. The agents gave up their integrity when they policed their brass and attempted the cover up to save their own asses. If they’d have ponied up and said, “Hey, we f****ed up…” they’d have been disciplined for violating policy, maybe even dismissed, but they’d have walked away with their integrity intact. As a leader myself, if my troops come to me up front, honestly, with their integrity intact, I’m still going to be pissed, but I’ll fight tooth and nail to mitigate the impact on them.
No matter how noble and justifiable their intent, Tim, they still gave up their integrity and attempted to cover it up.
I know the perils of supervisors not reporting things and how things get screwed up real fast. I did a few years for 2nd degree murder in California. Read my story and if you’re a cop, NEVER lie, never cover-up for your partner, keep a copy of every report you write.
Tim,
A slight correction aside from the Patrol Agents situation. That wasn’t the Deputy Commissioner, it was the Asst. Commissioner. He came up through the ranks and has close to thirty years in the Agency. The CBP Deputy Commissioner is the same. The only significant appointee in the agency is the Commissioner who came up through the Secret Service, 28 years, and then served as the FLETC Director prior to his appointment to CBP.
Editor’s Note: I appreciate the correction and clarification.
It doesn’t matter if he HAD a gun or not, as to whether the officers’ shooting was legal- they probably had no reason to think he had one. These pigs deserve to go to jail for life- in fact, maybe all cops should be put in prison for life.
Editor’s Note: Oddly, some of us feel the same way about people like you.
Hey, stupid Editor, people like me? what am I like, dumbass?
Editor’s note: There’s no point in stating the obvious when people are so eager to do it for you.
If we can believe that this drug dealer did point a gun at the border agents then they had every right to defend themselves. They also (according to some) Did not believe that he had been hit and being as there were 2 supervisors they felt they had reported the incident. But the real story here is how the prosecution hid evidence from the defense and did not turn over exculpatory evidence that alone denied them a fair trial. We still hold that you are innocent till proven guilty but that is not possible if the deck is stacked against you. How do you prove the drug dealer had a gun when he made good his escape. The border patrol does not allow a written report only verbal so just what crime are they guilty of policing brass??? Give them 5 day suspension and put them back to work. Just my opinion