Robert Rosas was doing what Border Patrol agents do every day. Chasing people who were trying to sneak across the Mexican border. Alone. In the dark. This time, though, his everyday courage ended in tragedy. Rosas was shot in the head after a struggle with one of the intruders.
Let's mourn and honor Robert Rosas for doing every day something that most people, even most cops, would not be willing to do -- police the border without a regular partner and with backup that won't arrive in time if things go bad.
Then let's capture and execute the man who committed this crime.
Let's mourn and honor Robert Rosas for doing every day something that most people, even most cops, would not be willing to do -- police the border without a regular partner and with backup that won't arrive in time if things go bad.
Then let's capture and execute the man who committed this crime.
The single most incredible fact I learned on an undercover run with the Border Patrol in that same area where Rosas was shot a few years ago was that the Border Patrol have a policy against partners. Why, I asked? Because we can't use weapons easily, I was told, and if we have to, we might lose both agents due to the numbers we deal with. This wasn't a CODEL, you may guess... I got honest answers.
I couldn't believe it. We have a policy of setting our BP agents up as sitting ducks on the border.
It makes it hard to get frustrated with them then when they don't do their job well, or try to cover what they are not doing.
But any day, we must respect their mission and the risks they take to do it well.
Posted by: Janice Kephart | Sep 10, 2009 at 09:47 PM
oops, has, not have...
Posted by: Janice Kephart | Sep 10, 2009 at 10:30 PM