Posted on 09/16/2004 10:16:04 PM PDT by Conservative Firster
TWO VIDEO LINKS ON RIGHT HAND SIDE PLAYLIST!!
An FBI agent shot an acquaintance of a border watch group member while trying to serve an arrest warrant, FBI officials said Thursday.
The shooting happened about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday in a grocery store parking lot in Douglas along the southeastern Arizona border with Mexico.
According to the FBI, the agent was trying to serve an arrest warrant on Casey Nethercott of Douglas. Nethercott is a known member of Ranch Rescue, a group that works to protect private property along the southern U.S. border.
Ranch Rescue and several other unauthorized groups have been patrolling along the border looking for illegal immigrants, raising concerns among migrants rights groups about potential abuses.
At the time, Nethercott was with 22-year-old Kalen Riddle, also of Douglas.
Charlene Thornton, special agent in charge of the Phoenix FBI office, said that "actions taken by Nethercott and Riddle led one of the FBI agents to fire his weapon."
The FBI would not elaborate and said it won't release the name of the agent who fired the shot, in keeping with FBI policy.
Riddle was airlifted to a Tucson hospital, but FBI officials did not know his condition.
Nethercott was arrested Wednesday and is in federal custody. An FBI spokeswoman confirmed agents searched Nethercott's Douglas ranch on Thursday afternoon.
The warrant the FBI was trying to serve alleges that Nethercott threatened Border Patrol agents.
According to the warrant, Nethercott refused to pull over for Border Patrol agents on Aug. 31. After a slow-speed chase, the warrant said that Nethercott entered "a compound in Douglas occupied by members of Ranch Rescue." Riddle was identified as one of the people there.
Agents said the Ranch Rescue members were heavily armed and had night vision equipment.
After Border Patrol agents yelled for Nethercott to show his hands, the affidavit says Nethercott refused, and responded:
"I'm going to take care of this myself, we're going to have a shootout."
The affidavit does not say how the standoff ended.
There was no listing for Riddle in Douglas. A phone message left Thursday at a residence listed for Nethercott was not returned.
Nethercott, 37, has a criminal record. He was convicted of assault with a firearm in California and was on parole when he joined Ranch Rescue.
In June, he was also found guilty by a Texas jury of felony firearm possession. The jury was deadlocked on a second charge that accused Nethercott of pistol-whipping an illegal immigrant near a Texas ranch.
Douglas rancher Roger Barnett, who is not part of Ranch Rescue, supports the measures Nethercott took to stop illegal immigration.
He compared the shooting of Riddle to Branch Davidians, who fought federal agents in Waco, Texas.
"Citizens have to get out and protect themselves," Barnett said. "And this is what it leads to."
"If they weren't simply overstaying their visas and stretching immigration regulations then they wouldn't have been able to fly 3 airliners into buildings and a 4th into the ground killing 3000 people and throwing the world into World War IV."
Nethercott was acquitted of the felony assault charges. He DID NOT assault the border intruders in Texas.
I'm beginning to think that something goes seriously wrong with the mind when a small group of men gather together in an isolated area with a stock of weapons.
Right or wrong, for whatever reason they are doing it, do they somehow think that if the government decides, right or wrong, to come get them - they can simply shoot their way out ?
The only way you have a chance of beating the government is with lawyers - do these fools actually think they are going to win a pissing contest with the Feds ?
The problem with illegal "lawn clippers and dishwashers" is they breed, the increase of which automatically become citizens of the United States. Current law states that we must educate them in the public school systems at taxpayer expense. They also receive the whole gammit of taxpayer funded social programs. They create a need for dual language teachers in the system that costs more money. And most importantly, just why do they think they have a right to subvert the current immagration laws by jumping to the head of the line?
If he coasts to reelection, they'll no longer be illegal.
Where would you get the impression that I am not outraged by that?
Why would I bring that up on this thread?
Nothing in that article was about that.
I prefer to stay on topic.
I don't like all of the illegals coming into the country either.
But my comments were based on my reaction to a couple of posters blaming the agents and calling the thugs "law abiding citizens".
The article had tons of information in there that made it clear these guys were not innocent citizens.
That's what my comments were about.
Looks to me like the guy was a convicted felon, had a warrant for yet anohter arrest out on him, and put up a struggle. I don't see the problem.
That's not the info I'm getting from folks that worked with Casey and Jack Foote
You're being way too calm and reasonable here. That's never going to fly in one of these immigration threads where logic and reason are poor substitutes for rabid hysteria.
Sorry, I don't see enough information in the article to justify the assumptions made.
I don't believe I mentioned Bush, but yeah whatever, good buddy.
You're going against the Ranch Rescue groupthink.
Read your own tag line good buddy (and I mean that, good buddy)
Convicted felon on parole refuses to stop for Border Patrol Agents in high smuggling traffic area.
Drives to compound where armed friends are waiting.
Refuses to comply with Border Patrol Agents and threatens a shootout.
BP Agents back off and notify FBI of the encounter.
FBI secures an arrest warrant through a federal magistrate (legally and constitutionally)
FBI servers warrant in accordance with law and during the process a second individual does something (not stated in the article) and ends up shot.
I think that Ranch Rescue needs to reconsider who they are associating with if the want to have any credibility. We all understand and support what they are trying to do, however we also know the kind of people who tend to flock to these kinds of issues.
Nothing will discredit Ranch Rescue, it mission and all the other people trying to bring attention to this problem more than allowing Al Sadir wantabies to run amuck turn Arizona into Iraq.
My sources tell me otherwise. I guess we're agreed on one thing, they went whacko when they went "militia" and there are differing stories about how things operated inside their organization.
The year the Dallas Cowboys won the Super Bowl for the first time since Landry's time, the victory parade in downtown Dallas degenerated into a riot. Teenagers who left school to go to the parade went on a rampage, overwhelming the police on hand. About an hour after the riot commenced, there was a Dallas PD unit running a speed trap about 15 miles north of downtown. I have no idea why this police officer was not sent downtown to help stop the rioting. It was, however, a poor use of police resources in a crisis. Similarly, having the Border Patrol shutting down these private militias, whose goal supposedly parallels that of the agency, is a poor use of its limited resources.
The rightful anger of Border Patrol agents and their families should rather be focused on the politicians who are not serious about tightening control over the borders of this nation.
I just put 2 and 2 together. Its not that hard.
Well if it makes you feel any better I think Kerry is a lot worse than Bush
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