A stench in the nostrils of every thinking American
by Doug Patton
from a Town Hall Blog
For George W. Bush, the case of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean is a stench in the nostrils of every thinking American who loves justice.
One night in February 2005, Mexican drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila drove his van illegally across the border from Mexico to the United States carrying 743 pounds of marijuana. When confronted by Agents Ramos and Compean, Aldrete-Davila tried to flee back across the border. The agents, thinking they saw a weapon in the suspect’s hand, opened fire, hitting him in the buttocks. He continued to flee and managed to escape back into Mexico.
Federal prosecutors gave Aldrete-Davila blanket immunity to return to the U.S. and testify against the agents. Ramos and Compean were subsequently convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and violation of civil rights.
Ramos got 11 years in prison. Compean got 12 years.
California Congressman Dana Rohrbacher said the case was “the worst miscarriage of justice that I have witnessed in the 30 years I’ve been in Washington. The decision to give immunity to the drug dealer and to throw the book at the border patrol agents was a prosecutorial travesty.”
It also turns out that this low-life drug smuggler re-entered the United States at least 10 different times in 2005 and that he was caught smuggling drugs while he was waiting to testify against Ramos and Compean. These facts were not brought up at their trial.
I have praised George W. Bush for keeping this nation safe from another terrorist attack since 9/11, for his tax policies and for two solid nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. But I also have been critical of his weak immigration policies and for his profligate spending during his two terms in office, and I have been extremely disappointed in his willingness to give away the store in these ridiculous corporate bailouts. Overall, if I had to grade him as a president, I would give him a C-minus.
But I will lose my last ounce of respect for this man as my president if he does not pardon Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean before he leaves office. These men put their lives on the line for us just as surely as our brave troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and justice demands a full presidential pardon.
—-
Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.
___
Footnote by Rense Johnson:
When runamuck Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald cooked up a conviction against Vice President Chaney’s assistant Scooter Libby, stingy President Bush, who could have pardoned Libby, chose instead to commute his sentence, which kept him out of jail, but left him still saddled with the $250,000 fine to pay, Bush couldn’t bring himself to do the right thing. Perhaps it’s in his DNA.
Comments