By: Alejandro Castellano
Last Wednesday on February 19th, 2014 a border patrol agent shot and killed a suspected undocumented individual who was said to have thrown a rock at the agent in question. This event has created some ripples through politics as the Mexican government has, “condemned” the actions by the Border Patrol officer and asked for the “results of the investigations.” Although it is too early to tell what the outcome of this situation will be, this altercation is something that is a part of new disturbing trend in border patrol enforcement. The new disturbing trend would be the use of lethal force. A Cnn article gave this statistic, “Since January 2010, at least 28 individuals have died as the result of an encounter with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, said the activist group Southern Border Communities Coalition…” The rising trend points towards Border Patrol’s lack of coercion methods outside of lethal force. This lack of methods is due to outdated practices and lack of training or equipment.
Other policing agencies utilize, “pepper-ball guns” in order to subdue potential suspects and the Border Patrol should do the same. This day and age there are way too many ways to disable a violent individual without using lethal force and the laziness the agency has displayed regarding those practices is appalling. Even on shows like, COPS, you see suspects taken down by bean bag shotguns and Tasers so it is unreasonable that another government policing agency doesn’t have those same resources and training. If the agency does not choose to shape up soon, then they will face degradation of their Legitimacy as enforcers of the law along the proximity of the U.S.
So while the past shootings the Border Patrol have committed have been deemed lawful for the time being, as we move forward from this recent situation a look should be taken into other coercion tactics. Non-lethal tactics are employed by many of the other law enforcement agencies and if the Border Patrol would like to keep their legitimacy in the public eye then they should do the same.
Sources:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Shooting-San-Diego-Border-Patrol-Otay-Truck-Trail--245985161.html
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/20/us/california-border-rock-throwing-death/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/us/california-border-rock-throwing-death/index.html?iref=allsearch
The facts of the case here are no doubt unfortunate, but I'm not sure the border patrol agent was unjustified in shooting the suspect if a rock was thrown at him. Of course its a tragedy and it is always better to non-lethally deal with such situations, but when one commits an act of physical violence against a cop, is a typical outcome.
ReplyDeleteDerek Chin
I agree that non-lethal methods should have been used in this situation, but rock throwing at an armed law enforcement agent is probably always a terrible idea. In the article it described a trend of rock throwers when trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican border and my thoughts then turn to why are these people all throwing rocks? It appears that the Mexican authorities are highly suspicious of this growing trend as well. Is it something the border police are doing to incite the rock throwing? Its hard to imagine anybody throwing rocks at a law enforcement agent unprovoked.
ReplyDelete-Alex Logan