Friday, March 19, 2010

Yet another summary execution allowed in Cochise County

Word to the wise: Don't turn your back to Border Patrol agents in Cochise County. The back is where they like to shoot people.

And the County Attorney will not prosecute. First there was the Nicholas Corbett matter, which admittedly involved hung juries. Now, according to the Daily Star, an assistant CA has ruled that the shooting of Jorge Alfredo SolĂ­s Palma was legally justified.

Let's step through this. Solis hides under tree. Solis refuses to come out. Solis flees. Solis throws some rocks while fleeing. Solis is shot and killed. Perhaps that assistant county attorney has never thrown anything in his life: throwing one way while running the other, that's not a credible attack, certainly not one that justifies shooting under most use-of-force regulations.

There's more in the Sierra Vista Herald: the above narrative is oversimplified. But reading the Herald report, two things become clear: (1) It's not at all certain that Solis wasn't shot merely because there the agents were exasperated (2) the County Attorney's office didn't get to review the recordings that could possibly establish probable cause.

Instead, the Cochise County Attorney used the Border Patrol's reports to establish whether or not to prosecute Border Patrol agents. Does anyone else see something wrong with that? Were there no objective evidence, it'd be understandable, but that's not the case.

No comments: