Where do you get the idea that they tried to cover up anything? Within minutes after the incident other agents along with their supervisor were on the scene. Do you think that all of the agents there were involved in a drug deal gone bad?
The justice department tried to convince a group of congressmen that these were bad agents. They haven't been able to deliver any of the "evidence" they claim to have. They wouldn't have lied to the congressmen, would they?
There have been various excuses as to why the trial transcript isn't available five months after the trial. Maybe the trial transcript shows things the "justice" system isn't proud of. Maybe someday we'll know.
Where do you get the idea that they tried to cover up anything?
There's a dead rat in this case somewhere, stinking up the facts. I read the case history by what the jury saw and it gave the jury a reason to convict.
It's the American justice system. The President has very little to do with it, particularly the element of blame like so many here have chosen to do.
The old cliche, “If you haven’t walked a mile in their shoes…,” applies here when discussing these Border Patrol Agents. Let’s face it, these Border Patrolmen work in a war zone where everyone, both Border Patrolman and drug trafficker, are armed. Drug traffickers will not hesitate to either brandish a firearm or fire on Border Patrolmen just to cause the Border Patrolmen to back off. Now why, you may ask, would a Border Patrolman not return fire when shot at or threatened? The simple answer is that it is just not worth the hassle the Border Patrolman must endure in the aftermath of the shooting incident. The preservation of the scene, waiting for arrival of the shooting investigation team, the myriad of paperwork that must be filled out, the two weeks administrative leave, no overtime can be earned while on admin leave, and the endless questions by the “Headhunters” who question every facet of the shooting, makes firing his weapon a dreaded option for a Border Patrolman.
So, why did this Border Patrolman fire on this drug trafficker when the drug trafficker brandished his weapon and fled? This is all supposition on my part, but he probably fired because the drug trafficker had just struck his partner and friend, leaving him lying there bleeding in the dirt before he fled.
So, why didn’t the Border Patrolman properly report the shooting? It was probably because he didn’t think he had hit the drug trafficker and it just wasn’t worth the two weeks of hassle he would have to go through if he did report it. Besides, if it ever came to light that he had fired his weapon and had not reported it, the punishment would be 15-30 days leave without pay, so what the heck, it was worth the gamble, or so he thought.
Never in their wildest dreams did these Border Patrolmen think the Bush Administration would search for and find a Mexican drug smuggler in Mexico who had been shot in the rear end, claim it’s the same drug trafficker the Border Patrolman shot at, offer him immunity for smuggling drugs into the U.S., bring him back to the U.S. to testify against them in an attempted murder trial, and they would be sentence to 10-12 years in Federal Prison. How were they to know that George Bush, in an attempt to gain the Hispanic vote would engineer an “Alice in Wonderland” scenario such as took place with this trial? How was the GOP to know that this travesty would be one of the major factors that will cost them the White House in 2008?