Dave Hardy points to this Fox News article that has an astonishing revelation in the case of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Terry:
Terry told us contrary to Border Patrol claims that bean bags were not deployed that night, she claims sources inside the agency have told her family, “Eight bandits came down the trail, Brian’s team yelled, ‘Policia, Policia,’ and he said they started retreating. These eight bandits. But then two of the border patrol shot the bean bags and then they opened fire.”
Imagine you’re running contraband over the border, and a group of men are charging down a trail yelling “Police! Police!” but actively firing their guns. What’s your reaction going to be? I’m going to go on a gut feeling that the police don’t actively fire firearms at suspects unprovoked and am going to make the eminently reasonable assumption that I’m being ambushed by other banditos yelling “Police!” to keep me from shooting back. Either way, hearing crack of gunfire and probably hearing the rounds break branches on the way out, it’s not unreasonable to take defensive action at that point, even if you’re smuggling contraband over the border.
If this was an approved tactic, someone needs to answer for it, because it’s extremely irresponsible. Not only does it put the border patrol agents in jeopardy, the gunman in this case could have a plausible self-defense claim. Even if they were police, shooting preemptively, not in self-defense, is murder, and how can a reasonable be expected to tell the difference between live rounds and bean bags?
Even if they were police, shooting preemptively, not in self-defense, is murder….
No. Police are exempt from murder. The courts make sure of that if they even get charged with anything in the first place. There are plenty of cops who have mudered people in cold blood or killed them any multitude of ways. A lot of vehicular homicides as well. Should be in prison or even on death row. But since there the only ones they get a free pass. When it comes to police murdering innocents justice does not exist for the victims or there family.
Shawn: However, the fact that self-defense is an unalienable right, going so far as to allow criminals let alone “civilians” to shoot and kill police who are trying to murder them or their’s (or sure look like they’re doing that), has upon occasion been upheld in the courts on these grounds. I can think of one case of each in NYC and I think Florida respectively.
“…and how can a reasonable be expected to tell the difference between live rounds and bean bags?”
Well, for one, Bean Bag and Less-Lethal rounds generally are nearly silent. They make a noise, but that noise couldn’t be described as a “bang” so much as a “poof”. Not even a pop. Shotguns are less loud than, say, a rifle or a pistol, but there’s no mistaking the sound of a bean bag for buckshot being fired. You’d also know if you got hit with one, obviously.