The only reasons that the appeals for Ramos and Compean have gone this far is because of the highly political climate regarding border security issues since September 11, 2001. The families of these men are using a current political hot issue in order to try and glean some sympathy for these agents. There is no point or basis in law that provides for former border patrol agents to receive any more consideration than anyone else who has been convicted of a crime that they did commit.
They knew what they did was wrong, that’s why they tried to cover it up. It is wrong to call these guys heroes; that is exactly what they are not. They shot this man with his back turned while he was running away, as if it was sport. In essence they tried to give him a death sentence for transporting marijuana. They were given something that they did not intend to give the unarmed man they shot, a fair trial. In my opinion, people could recognize that what they did was a crime against humanity and they have shown no remorse for it, not even an admission of misjudgment. They simply say they did nothing wrong; well a jury hearing all the evidence said they did. This was a man, not an animal, although animals deserve better too.
Whatever the U.S. Attorney’s offices motives were, they did their job. It’s hard enough to live peacefully along our borders without gun-happy border patrol agents running amok. How are we supposed to stand on our nation’s borders with authority with this type of behavior prevailing? For many, many years Americans have made fun and lived in fear of the Mexican police and now these two have undermined the authority of all those who wear that uniform here in the United States.
There had to be some reason that we may never know, for why Ramos and Compean did what they did. Perhaps other crimes had been planned, but they were discovered too quickly. Only they know for sure and they are not to be believed anymore than the guy they shot, they are all criminals.
This system may not be perfect, but it’s all we got and its better than most countries, and it doesn’t help matters when those that are sworn to uphold the laws just use the uniform to practice machismo. If the shooting had been on the up and up, there would have been no attempted cover up and Johnny Sutton would not have become involved at all. When any other criminal is convicted of a crime, their prosecutor is not subject to a media trial or even questioned about his judgment. It was not just one man that convicted and sentenced these men.
As far as the harshness of the sentence goes, the men and women who do this job have to know that they are representatives and ambassadors for a great nation and not just a bunch of thugs. Therefore Ramos and Compean committed a far greater crime, that could have much worse complications for our nation should such behavior be allowed to continue and spread. Members of our own armed forces know this all too well and the U.S. Attorney’s office was right to prosecute.