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 Solís 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.

Border Patrol: "Our arrests aren't really arrests."

Via Terry Bressi, a report in the Nogales International about a possibly unlawful stop, arrest, and search by the Border Patrol.

Pima Medical Institute student Iris Cooper turned around to return to Patagonia to retrieve her forgotten textbooks and was pulled over by the Border Patrol. Maybe seeing someone perform her maneuver gives "reasonable suspicion" for a stop and maybe it doesn't, but as Bressi notes, standards of probable cause for detaining her for half an hour in handcuffs and searching her vehicle probably isn't in order.

Here's the hilarious part:

Agent David Jimarez, a spokesperson for the Border Patrol, said agents more than likely thought they had pulled over a smuggler and that Cooper was cuffed for both their safety as well as her safety. He said that often smugglers will try to run away if they think their vehicle is going to be searched. “The handcuffing doesn’t necessarily mean that she is being placed under arrest,” said Jimarez, referring to Cooper.

"Yeah, you're in handcuffs, you're not free to go, and it's not an arrest because we don't call it an arrest." I suppose it's better than facing prison time for having been punched in the face by Border Patrol, but still both stupid and unbecoming of agents of the law in a liberal republic.

It looks like La Migra might be getting thumped again.

However, Dan Pochado, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona told the Weekly Bulletin/Nogales International that 99.9 percent of the time such an act would indeed be considered an arrest.

"When you are handcuffed that is effectively an arrest because you are unable to leave voluntarily,” Pochado said. "From the information given, it appears that the level of force here would arise to an unreasonable seizure and a violation, therefore, of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution."

"Pochado" here is actually "Pochoda", and is no lightweight.

Shooting men in the back: Arizona and California

While the videotaped Oakland murder of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle has captured the public's attention, let us not forget that right here in Arizona, by all eyewitness accounts, Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett did the same to Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera.

In AZ, where many of the less educated believe that police should Not Be Questioned because They Are Here To Protect Us, eyewitness testimony be damned, the case ended in two mistrials. The California matter is made slightly more clear by videotape--or not, as how to treat the testimony of witnesses who later saw video is unclear--but it'll be interesting to see how the conclusion of the cases differ and to what extent the less submissive (albeit leftist) culture of Northern California effects the differences.

I have personal connections to the Bay Area--I've been splitting my time more and more between here and there--and would like myself and the people I love to be able ride the BART without fear of negligent or deliberate summary execution by 27-year-old cops who don't know when to keep the gun in the holster. Condolences go out to the Grant family and, of course, to the Riveras, along with a hope that the latter prevail in their lawsuit.