Texas Deputy to pay price for defending self

Dallas Blog | Tom Pauken:

“U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who received a lot of criticism from a number of Republican Congressmen for prosecuting two U.S. border agents who shot at an illegal drug smuggler fleeing apprehension, is back in the news again for prosecuting a Texas deputy sheriff who fired shots at a car bringing illegal immigrants into the country.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Once again, Dallas Blog relies on a single source for details on a story that fits its political bias, this time the right-wing Moonie newspaper Washington Times. It took only a little Googling to turn up a more fair and balanced account (no, not from Fox News, d'oh) that includes even a single quote by the prosecutor of the case. This is from MySA.com:

"The law says you cannot use deadly force to stop a car unless it poses an imminent threat to the officer or another person. If the car is going away from you, it's not even a close call," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baumann, who prosecuted the case. ... "When you do wrong as a policeman, we think we need to tell you it's wrong, so other policemen will not shoot into cars. It's not an OK way to stop them," Bauman said.

According to testimony at trial, the deputy was standing by the driver's door. The deputy fired into the left rear tire, then the right rear tire, as the driver drove away. The deputy claimed that this constituted self defense. The deputy's claim is unquestioned by the Washington Times and is reported as fact in the Dallas Blog headline. A jury that heard all the evidence thought otherwise. It decided the deputy's claim wasn't supported by the facts and that the deputy's action was unlawful.

This is a case where the right wing doesn't like a particular law and wants sheriffs, prosecutors, judges and juries to ignore the law. The irony is that their campaign to enforce laws against illegal immigration would be less hypocritical if they would start respecting the law themselves.