The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
These guys were career CBP, NOT new hires. That means ALL CBP is trained and held accountable to the same level as them, and has been for over a decade.
It’s probably not a training issue, it really is a culture and accountability matter. Certainly the training isn’t going to give any real effort to trivialities like “Constitutional rights” and “Due Process,” but that’s not the root of the problem. They’re not blatantly violating constitutional rights because they don’t know any better. They’re doing it because they don’t care and they KNOW , rightly or wrongly, that the worst any of them will face for it is a slap on the wrist and a veil from the public eye. They know that in all probability their superiors will be mad about the OPTICS of murdering someone in the street, they’ll be mad that they got CAUGHT executing someone in cold blood, not that it happened in the first place.
This culture of iron fisted brutality is exactly the sort of thing anyone who could be described as “Career CBP,” especially given recent events, would embrace as a loosening of restraint rather than the abject amoral, unconstitutional abuse that it is.
I do think it’s super important to point this out. This wasn’t a greenhorn or a training failure. This was done by people who have been in there for a long time. This speaks to the caliber and type of person ICE and CBP have been hiring for years.
I still don’t buy this wasn’t intentional. Nobody puts 10 bullets (in 2 separate rounds of firing) in somebody who’s already been disarmed and incapacitated by accident. Even for Border Patrol that was excessive. Definitely not the first time they’ve encountered protestors, but the first time a “border czar” happened to be waiting in the wings with the promise this could all be over so quickly if local police would just start rounding people up and handing them over to DHS so that “ICE and Border Patrol could stop putting themselves in danger.”
I’ve seen enough bad cop videos of situations escalating out of control for this not to be a surprise. Our military is trained better at de-escalation tactics than our domestic forces.
These guys were career CBP, NOT new hires. That means ALL CBP is trained and held accountable to the same level as them, and has been for over a decade.
It’s probably not a training issue, it really is a culture and accountability matter. Certainly the training isn’t going to give any real effort to trivialities like “Constitutional rights” and “Due Process,” but that’s not the root of the problem. They’re not blatantly violating constitutional rights because they don’t know any better. They’re doing it because they don’t care and they KNOW , rightly or wrongly, that the worst any of them will face for it is a slap on the wrist and a veil from the public eye. They know that in all probability their superiors will be mad about the OPTICS of murdering someone in the street, they’ll be mad that they got CAUGHT executing someone in cold blood, not that it happened in the first place.
This culture of iron fisted brutality is exactly the sort of thing anyone who could be described as “Career CBP,” especially given recent events, would embrace as a loosening of restraint rather than the abject amoral, unconstitutional abuse that it is.
This along with things like border patrol operations covering 100 miles inland from every border needed to be fixed years ago IMO.
I do think it’s super important to point this out. This wasn’t a greenhorn or a training failure. This was done by people who have been in there for a long time. This speaks to the caliber and type of person ICE and CBP have been hiring for years.
I mean I figured it was the case that whoever shot him wasn’t just some rookie, but DHS was even attempting to leak to the press this was just a big whoopsie on account of the new guys being inexperienced, unprofessional, and startled easily.
I still don’t buy this wasn’t intentional. Nobody puts 10 bullets (in 2 separate rounds of firing) in somebody who’s already been disarmed and incapacitated by accident. Even for Border Patrol that was excessive. Definitely not the first time they’ve encountered protestors, but the first time a “border czar” happened to be waiting in the wings with the promise this could all be over so quickly if local police would just start rounding people up and handing them over to DHS so that “ICE and Border Patrol could stop putting themselves in danger.”
Homan has been pushing this bullshit since last summer. If they can’t round people up in the safety of jails, they’ll just have to invade communities.
Same goes for the one who shot Goode, he’d been ICE for 10 years.
I’ve seen enough bad cop videos of situations escalating out of control for this not to be a surprise. Our military is trained better at de-escalation tactics than our domestic forces.