Border Patrol Use of Force Questioned in Report They Tried to Keep from Congress

Los Angeles Times
gets its hands on an investigation into border patrol practices
by the Police Executive Research Forum, a “nonprofit research
and policy organization in Washington that works closely with law
enforcement agencies” that was “allowed to examine internal Border
Patrol case files on 67 shooting incidents from January 2010 to
October 2012.”

Some findings from the Times:

Border Patrol agents have deliberately stepped in the path of
cars apparently to justify shooting at the drivers and have fired
in frustration at people throwing rocks from the Mexican side of
the border, according to an independent review of 67 cases that
resulted in 19 deaths.

The report by law enforcement experts criticized the Border
Patrol for “lack of diligence” in investigating U.S. agents who had
fired their weapons. It also said it was unclear whether the agency
“consistently and thoroughly reviews” use-of-deadly-force
incidents.

And our brave border protectors wanted to make sure we, or our
elected representatives, never found out:

House and Senate oversight committees requested copies last fall
but received only a summary that omitted the most controversial
findings — that some border agents stood in front of moving
vehicles as a pretext to open fire and that agents could have moved
away from rock throwers instead of shooting at them.

The Times obtained the full report and the agency’s internal
response, which runs 23 pages. The response rejects the two major
recommendations: barring border agents from shooting at vehicles
unless its occupants are trying to kill them, and barring agents
from shooting people who throw things that can’t cause serious
physical injury….

Mexican authorities have complained for years that U.S. border
agents who kill Mexicans are rarely disciplined and that the
results of investigations are not made public for years.

J.D. Tuccille blogged earlier today on Arizonans attempts to rid
themselves of
an internal “border checkpoint.”

Just a thought: we could cut a vast number of the reasons any of
these confrontations happen in the first place with saner drug laws
and saner paths for the legal ability to work in this
country.