Ramos and Compean’s Sentences Commuted by Bush
January 19, 2009 by Jenn Sierra
Filed under News and Opinion
FoxNews is reporting:
On his last full day in office, President Bush commuted the controversial sentences of two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug runner in 2005.
The imprisonment of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean had sparked outcry from critics who said the men were just doing their jobs and were punished too harshly. They had been sentenced to 11- and 12-year sentences, respectively.
Their sentences will now expire on March 20 of this year…(more)
This is good news, in that Ramos and Compean will at least be getting over a decade of their lives back. Considering, however, that they should not have been in jail in the first place…this is hardly “justice.”
Also see: Michelle Malkin – Lame duck surprise: Bush commutes sentences of Compean/Ramos
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Agents Ramos and Compean’s conviction was not only a gross miscarriage of justice and a violation of common sense, but was also unconstitutional and, therefore, unlawful, as the article linked below argues in great detail:
The Blessings of Liberty
http://tinyurl.com/koywm
And to all those who are (wrongly) suggesting that an unusually harsh sentence was necessary to prevent abuse of power by Border Patrol agents, consider this.
Mistreatment of border violators, and this includes drug smugglers who shoot at BP agents, are as rare as total eclipses of the moon, and once they happen, they are being reported and broadcasted coast to coast on all major TV networks.
On the other hand, border violations are overwhelming the existing means of enforcement and are on the rise. Up to four million intruders a year illegally crosses the American-Mexican border headed north. This, however, is not news that you would see on MSNBC or CBS, and the perpetrators, if at al caught, are being given a slap on a wrist for the damage that they have inflicted to our country.
Deterrence of criminal acts is one of the main objectives of the punishment. Judging from the results, punishments of border enforcement personnel must have been more than adequate deterrent, while punishments of the border violators were not.
So, if you are so concerned about lawbreaking that may get off hands, soon, the logical conclusion should be to go after the border violators, and not the Border Patrol agents, with harsh punishment that would discourage others for disrespecting our country, its border, and the laws.