How Much Abuse Should Officers Take?

This is the attitude fostered by Neo-Libs and their Mexican counterparts.

How Much Abuse Should Officers Take?

I was told long ago that my first duty was to be sure to be able to go home at the end of the day. As the instructor at the DEA Academy told me and my fellow Basic Agent students back in 1978, the government was spending a lot of money training us and our families needed us so taking unnecessary risks was wrong on several levels. I adhered to that piece of advice and, when I became a supervisor, strived to ensure that the people under me adhered to it as well. The job had its moments however but despite some very fascinating times, I and those in my charge always got home safely because we planned it that way and, oft times, we were just plain lucky. Some of my friends were not so lucky. The announcements of their deaths in the line of duty were always time for reflection on them, their lives and their families and the job.

The point made in the linked opinion piece is extremely valid. The public sends men and women out to stand guard, many times in the dark of night in lonely places, with little more than a radio, a weapon and a partner. The criminals they face are not always 25 years old. Some are teenagers like the boy killed while trying to bash in the head of the Border Patrol Agent with a thrown rock. What I disagree with in this case is that everyone is looking at the U.S. Border Patrol, the Department of Justice and the United States for answers and corrections when both the answers and corrections lie south of the U.S.-Mexican border. If the Mexican government was providing the proper environment for business in Mexico there would be jobs and growth in that country. If the Mexican government were protecting the rights of the people rather than exploiting them, there wouldn't be the tremendous exodus from Mexico along our southern border. The problem lies with the Mexican government and not with the United States. The people are fleeing north looking for jobs and opportunity. It causes problems for us but we are not the cause for that lies squarely in the lap of the Mexican government.

The teenager that died in the shooting was well on his way to "career criminal" status. He was not the happy, baseball-loving, loyal, obedient son as his parents would now present him to the press. Despite his young age, he was a budding criminal, preying on people who only wanted help sneaking into the United States. He was allowed to operate on the Mexican side of the border by Mexican officials who do all they can to facilitate the smuggling of humans into the United States. He had already been arrested on several occasions and, because of his age, sent back to Mexico without even a slap on the wrist. His blood is on the hands of the Mexican officials who turn a blind eye to human smuggling. His blood is on the hands of Felipe Calderon. 

Felipe Calderon should fix his own country first before trying to tell the United States how to run ours.

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