Posted on 09/23/2007 8:30:12 PM PDT by NapkinUser
The latest issue of Texas Monthly magazine examines the case of former Border Patrol agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos and questions why conservatives are celebrating them as heroes.
Compean and Ramos are serving 12 and 11 years in prison respectively for shooting and wounding a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
The case has become a cause celebre among conservatives and groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against criminal intruders. Many are angry that the drug dealer — who entered the United States illegally — was offered immunity to testify against the officers.
Members of Congress have asked President Bush to pardon the agents and the prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, staunchly defended his office at a Senate hearing earlier this year.
The Texas Monthly article says that — in an effort to push a tough line against illegal immigration — talk radio shows, CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight, and conservative blogs “glossed over nearly all of the damning facts at trial” including that Ramos and Compean ommitted the shooting from the official report of the incident and did not offer a self-defense explanation until a month after it happened.
“Set against the backdrop of the national debate over immigration, a new narrative emerged, one in which Ramos and Compean were recast as ‘American heroes,’ unjustly persecuted by a government that cared more about amnesty for illegal immigrants than about border security,” the article says.
The story, titled “Badges of Dishonor” also says that Dobbs opined about the case on more than one hundred broadcasts.
Texas Monthly has for several years been a water bearer for lefties.
Give us a break Texas Monthly. Who reads you anymore, anyway.
I remember, many many years ago, when it was actually a middle-of-the-road magazine. Granted, that was 20 or so years ago. Lately, it has been little more than our state’s version of Pravda.
Hey, they shoot illegals and drug dealers, don’t they?
Every Texan should use that “magazine” for toilet paper.
Hey, I don’t want that publication to soil my backside.
Can we trade Texas to Mexico for Cabo?
Sorry, but Texas Pravda Monthly doesn’t speak for the rest of the state.
It’s always been a liberal rag.
Hit the nail right on the head. I remember when it was too.
Texas Monthly has for several years been a water bearer for lefties.
Thats all I needed to know......
The “Dan Rather” texas.
Heroes? I don’t know that I would call them heroes, but why do they have to be heroes to be entitled to justice? I don’t need to call them heroes to say that they were unjustly tried, convicted, and imprisoned.
“Texas Monthly” is a Left Wing rag that is worthless. It’s mostly ads with a few Liberal articles dispersed therein.
Not taking the side of Texas Monthly or illegals, but these two guys were nothing but shake down artists. They deserve to rot in prison. They were part of the illegal immigrant/drug smuggling problem.Use your minds not your emotions on crap like this, these guys were very dirty cops
Ever notice that the Ads are for high-end luxury goods and top-dollar real estate and resorts. I guess that only the lefty snobs are allowed to enjoy their money.
I imagine that growing-up in Wharton was hell on ol’ Dan. A Marxist tool surrounded by decent working folks.
Yep! The ads are almost all for “High End” stuff.
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