Border Patrol Uproar

Here's the email that's floating around. I'm sure you can find this information in a variety of forms. The web and the media is abounding with info about of it:

Two U.S. Border Patrol Agents are serving decade long prison terms for attempting to apprehend a known drug smuggler for illegally crossing our border with more than 700lbs. of drugs!

Almost as outrageous is that the illegal alien drug smuggler, who was given free medical care, and immunity for testifying against the agents is now suing the U.S. for $5 million -- claiming his civil rights were violated!

The first thing that comes to my mind is ... "Huh???!!!" In what world are Border Patrol Agents put in prison for doing their job? The whole thing struck me as bizarre, so I had to look further.

There was a link in my email to a site called grassfire.org that was spearheading a petition to get these two guys pardoned. So I looked at the website. They had a link to a story from WorldNetDaily (WND) about the story, explaining how the wrong law was used to convict the agents. (See, that's not helping me at all. We have a law that is similar to "convict border patrol agents for doing their job", but not quite the same.) So I looked at the story. In that story there was a link to an earlier interview with the prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. (And it is not a "friendly" interview.)

So I look at the interview. And here I find a completely different story. It appears that these guys weren't arrested, tried, and convicted for doing their jobs. Instead, it appears that they were arrested, tried, and convicted for shooting an unarmed man, hiding the evidence of the shooting, and filing false reports. Now, it is just my suspicion, but I'm thinking that nowhere in the job description of the U.S. Border Patrol will I find anything resembling "Shoot unarmed people and lie about it."

Now, I'll be honest. I don't know all the facts in the case. I do know that there is an uproar over this. I do know that people are angry at the government for prosecuting these two agents and angry at the president for not pardoning them. I do know that there is almost zero information being offered about why it is that they were prosecuted. I'm not suggesting that these officers were right to be prosecuted, and I'm not suggesting that they should be freed. I'm asking that people take a few minutes, examine both sides, and calm the rhetoric. Surely I'm not the only one thinking "Something is not right with the story we are being told on the 'free these guys' side." Let's not fall victims to the emotional assault.