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Video Captures Another Border Killing
It's a muddy cell phone video, taken from a difficult angle, but the audio recorded on the modest device, is both revealing and chilling: the contents cast doubt on claims by the U.S. Border Patrol, regarding the death of a Mexican national who died in custody after being beaten and electric-shocked by federal agents on May 28.
This video is stoking anger already simmering along the U.S.-Mexico border in part fueled by the June 7 shooting at the El Paso/Juarez crossing where a U.S. Border Patrol agent killed an unarmed Mexican junior high school student after a brief chase and scuffle. That case also involved a cell-phone video that appeared to contradict the self-defense claims of the Border Patrol.
In the May 28 incident, about 20 federal agents at the San Ysidro entry port at Tijuana, near San Diego, violently subdued and electric shocked Anastasio Hernández Rojas, a 42-year-old father of five U.S.-born children. He died three days later from his wounds in a case that the San Diego County coroner has ruled a homicide, indicating an act in which a person is killed by another person.
Capt. Jim Collins of the San Diego Police Department echoed the account given by federal agents that Border Patrol officers struck Hernandez Rojas with a baton and fired a Taser into his body at close range only after agents had taken his handcuffs off and he became unruly.
Customs and Border Protection released a formal statement claiming the victim "became combative," forcing officers to use the electric shock Taser to "subdue the individual and maintain officer safety."
But other eye-witness accounts and the cell-phone video appear to contradict that account.
Humberto Navarrete, a medical student from Chula Vista, California, told San Diego Police, and human rights investigators that he was walking over the International Bridge from San Diego to Tijuana, with a friend, at about 8:30 p.m. when he heard the desperate screams of a man coming from just below the bridge where he and his friend were standing.
In a press conference and a series of interviews with local press and law enforcement, Navarrete said Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was handcuffed at all times, even as he was being beaten and tasered by Border Patrol officers.
"What we heard first...was a male voice," Navarrete said, "asking for help, saying everything in Spanish: ‘Ayudenme por favor, necesito ayuda, estan golpeando'. [Help me please, I need help, they are hitting (me)]... We were on the top of the bridge, they were at the bottom, so obviously it was a really loud voice."
Navarrete began to film and record with his cell phone.
"I saw that he was subdued, he was defenseless," said Navarrete. "When he was subdued, they began beating him and he began screaming for help. More U.S. agents in other patrols arrived and just got out of their vehicles and began attacking him with blows, until one of them made a sign and all withdrew from the man. It was then they applied the first electric shock."
While the visuals are grainy and hard to follow, the voice that was identified as that of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas was heard pleading for mercy in Spanish " Help me, please no more, help me gentlemen, help me!" Another witness, recorded by the cell phone, is also heard yelling at the agents to stop the beating. "Enough, let him be," said the voice.
"One of the agents had a knee on his back," said Navarrete, "the other agent had his knee on the back of his neck. All the time Anastacio was screaming for help, everything in Spanish..they were also hitting Anastacio on the ribs, right and left sides of Anastacio. What I also noticed from Anastacio is that he wasn't resisting, he wasn't fighting or moving at all.
An Independent Investigation
The ACLU, Amnesty International, and over 30 other human rights and immigrant rights groups have now called for a congressional investigation into the killings. In a June10, letter to House Judiciary Committee chairman, John Conyers, the groups requested a formal "oversight" hearing "on the lethal and excessive use of force" by U.S. law enforcement "along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"In recent weeks there have been at least two unjustifiable deaths on the U.S.-Mexico border at the hands of Customs and Border officers," the letter said. "Excessive, lethal force is always unacceptable, but it is particularly troubling now as 1,200 National Guard are being deployed to the southwest border. ... Meaningful security cannot coexist with law enforcement cultures of impunity and recklessness."
Brittney Nystrom, director of policy at the National Immigration Forum, one of the organizations seeking an independent investigation, said the killings underscored the need for immigration reform.
"The deaths of a young boy and a middle-aged father at the hands of U.S. immigration agents," he said, "are grave tragedies and we grieve the loss of their lives and the lives of so many others who have needlessly perished on both sides of our border while Congress and the President debate the ‘right timing' for fixing our immigration system."
"It is clear, however," Nystrom said, "that the disproportionate and questionable use of force by border agents is to blame for the unnecessary deaths, calling into question the propriety of [Department of Homeland Security's] use-of-force policies. Excessive use of force must not be tolerated."
Tensions and mistrust at the border have been escalating. On June 22, members of the Border Network for Human Rights, an 11-year-old community organizing group with about 4,000 members, held an angry but peaceful protest in front of the Offices of the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso. It was the second demo on the El Paso side since the killing of the teen.
Three hundred protesters halted local rush-hour traffic at one point and chanted "Asesinos uniformados, que sean encarcelados,(assassins in uniforms should be jailed)."
Fernando Garcia, BNHR's director, told the El Paso Times, there is little hope that the Border Patrol and the FBI will conduct an independent and honest investigation, saying "There was a distrust, and it's at the lowest ever at this point." BNHR also signed onto the letter calling for a congressional investigation into the two killings.
In San Diego, Enrique Morones, founder of the Border Angels, and a former vice president for the San Diego Padres, met with members of Human Rights Watch this week about the recent Border Patrol killings. Morones said there appears to be a clear pattern of cover-up, which includes the destruction of evidence, and the failure of one law enforcement agency to thoroughly investigate another.
In the case of the killing of the teen in Juarez, dozens of eyewitnesses were forcefully dispersed from the foot bridge by Border Patrol agents who made no effort to take names or statements. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Witnesses of Border Killing Dispersed."]
"Independent of law enforcement, we need to have independent agencies investigating these types of crimes, Morones said, "You want to have outside agencies involved in these types of things because they're not going to be biased, they're not trying to protect their own. Nobody's above the law, whether you have a badge, whether you have a title."
"But what happens is, [the agents] keep getting the benefit of the doubt, time and time again, and we're not going to tolerate it. Anastacio Hernandez didn't get the benefit of the doubt, Sergio Hernandez didn't get the benefit of the doubt."
Morones in San Diego and activists in El Paso said they are seething about continuing attempts by the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to demonize and blame the victim of violence that appears to be initiated by law enforcement.
"Soon after the boy was shot in El Paso, Fox News was reporting that he was on a most wanted list of teen smugglers. Anastasio Hernández Rojas was portrayed by the Border Patrol, as out of control on drugs," Morones said.
"They're trying to dehumanize them as they usually do - ‘oh, they're smugglers, they had drugs in their system.' Whether that's true or not has nothing to do with it. Does that mean that anybody that's [accused of] committing a crime should be shot? Of course not."
Morones says the situation the day of the Beating Death in San Diego, is similar in the apparent attempts by Law Enforcement and the Border Control to prevent a thorough investigation and possibly destroy evidence in the form of cell phones and video tape.
"In the Anastacio Hernandez case," Morones said, "there were several people that were filming because they were walking over that land bridge that goes over Highway 5. ...The authorities in the area, the law enforcement authorities - Border Patrol, Customs, security ... went up to people and said ‘let me see your cell phone' and they erased the video, which is against the law.... But since they know that they were wrong, they wanted all that evidence erased, thank god Humberto's video survived, and we know that there's others out there that have survived."
Navarrete himself can be heard on his cell phone recording yelling at the officers to stop, and questioning one of the officers about the brutal nature of the beating. "He's not resisting" he says to one of the Border Patrol officers, "Why are you guys using excessive force on him?"
"I don't know what's going on over there" the agent replies, as the pleading voices of Anastasio Hernández Rojas is muffled and goes silent, "but obviously he's doing something. He's not cooperating."
"He's not resisting. He's not even resisting," Navarrete repeated.
30 Comments so far
Show AllI first learned of police brutality as a young man during the Vietnam era, in Santa Barbara, California. My good friend, Scott, marched in a peace march dressed in his marine uniform. The police rushed him in the parade and immediately began to beat on him. The police quit hitting Scott when spectators who knew their names started yelling at them to stop (Santa Barbara was a smaller town then). Scott was taken to the county jail and then turned over to military police, who later took him to military jail at Port Hueneme. Three points of interest are in this short incident : 1) I stuck flowers in the grated window of the military police van as it drove away with Scott, national television news made him the first flower child of the Vietnam war, he was soon released from jail because there was no law against what he did; 2) Some of the police were older siblings of high school friends, though no different than any of us, they were willing to be violent toward those they were trained to hate; 3) Police and military will with no pangs of guilt turn violent attention to the clear thinkers among us who move closer and closer to understanding and then substituting a sustainable culture for the old bought out corporatist governments. It is imperative that we devise a new way that is more fun and is attractive to the neighbors among us who might otherwise bust heads if so ordered by the oligarchy.
Thanks, Mathew Scott for your insight. I often wonder how it is we will get those who do the tasering and killing to realize whose side they're really on. With all due respect, I wonder what the average IQ is for our servicemen and police officers? Not that it has anything to do with morality as we can see that most of our government and corporate criminals are quite clever, indeed. The problem I see is that those who wield the guns and high tech weaponry are beholden to the powers that be, both economically and psychologically. They have been trained and indoctrinated with the official story line. The real question that remains for me is how do we get the police and military people to see the light? Where else can these people find work? Isn't it hard to get people to see the truth, when their paycheck depends upon them not seeing it? I see no future age of enlightenment within our police and military apparatus. So long as those with the guns and badges serve the enemy, what hope is there for justice and nonviolent change? Seriously.
Why this article does not reference the video, I do not know. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtdf-WRhMoU
This awful event reminds me of the Rodney King beating. Racist cops, video footage... Take II.
Too many wearing uniforms feel powerless; yet because they own savage tendencies(and live in a culture that celebrates the use of force) the abuse of power becomes second-nature to them.
There is only a sliver of difference (in character and astrological "destiny") between a criminal and a police officer. Frequently both make use of the same tactics; but due to our black/white cultural indoctrination, too many presume that the one wearing the uniform has the RIGHT to use violence. Woe to any society that worships "the uniform."
The example set by leadership moves on down the political "food" chain. When presidents arrogate to themselves the "right" to assassinate would-be dangerous suspects, and when torture is given a pass, then the society starts to slip further and further towards the deranged sensibilities preferred by sadists and professional serial killers.
The pinacle of this moral debacle is seen in the fact that the US military, the world's most merciless killing machine, cannibalizes half the U.S. budget. When so much money is devoted to the ways and means to slaughter, then the preciousness of life is utterly lost. This approach is also seen in the way a Mars-rules species of technology is let loose against the earth Mother, and the kingdoms of life. The wound bleeding in the Gulf is a constant reminder of the short-sighted anti-life ethos that runs this nation.
IF persons in power could really look themselves in the mirror and stop in their tracks, make amends, turn the ship of state away from constant, unceasing carnage to persons, places, and living beings... there would be an iota of chance that the karmic boomerang that's only begun to hit this land of the slavishly free would lose some of its stinging impact.
To see daily acts of calamitous ill will projected at persons of other lands, in so-called defense of "our" borders, in Wall St decisions that inevitably starve the poor, in boundless amoral acts of ecocide... the death toll continues to amass in a pyramid of corpses, each of which, the lords of karma demand to be accounted for.
Yogananda, Edgar Cayce, Ruth Montgomery, Mary Summer Rain, Rajneesh, Joseph Murphy, Charles Fillmore, Baird Spalding and so many visionaries took pains to explain that the law of karma would not be mocked, that whatsoever a nation (or individual) elected to do to others, would return in greater measure to impact its perpetrators.
The gaping oil wound is a perfect karmic response to the war fought for oil... the loss of lives and ecosystems (to our nation) is only in its beginning stages... but still, is there any appearance of a lesson learned? If history survives this era, the record will preserve the arrogance, ignorance, greed, and diabolic lack of respect for life that marked so many leaders in these tragic times.
"The gaping oil wound is a perfect karmic response to the war fought for oil... the loss of lives and ecosystems (to our nation) is only in its beginning stages... but still, is there any appearance of a lesson learned?"
If by gaping oil wound you are referring to the BP oil spill crisis, I would have to disagree. The BP oil spill would be more of a karmic blowback to capitalism which allowed this to happen and this isn't the first time BP ran into trouble. In 1965, the Sea Gem oil rig under BP collpased. There were a few other major accidents, explosions, and safety violations under BP since 2005. At no time did BP ever get punished. I hope this major spill marks the beginning of the end of capitalism but I doubt it. In my area, after BP in April, traffic congestion got worse in my area and this past week, we're getting Code Orange Air Quality alerts on the Weather Channel and still no lessoning of traffic congestions. Traffic congestion on I-66 was reported as late as 2AM ! I would expect lots of traffic in the summer time but not to where it gets overwhelming even during off hours.
"I hope this major spill marks the beginning of the end of capitalism but I doubt it."
Ya never know.
As fallout from the Macondo/Gulf oil spill accumulates, we are seeing the loss of thousands of jobs in fishing, shrimping, clam and oyster farming, tourism, hotels, restaurants, etc. All those people will be defaulting on bank loans, mortgages, car and boat loans, and credit cards. The communities these people live in will see a pretty steep drop in their local tax base, and other businesses will start to fold. This will cause widening ripples through the national and possibly world economies.
And what will happen to England? BP is it's single largest Corporation. If BP goes into bankruptcy, the UK economy (which is just entering harsh Iceland/Greece style austerity measures) is likely to completely crater, taking down the VERY fragile coalition Government with it. London hasn't been called 'Reykjavik on the Thames' for the past two years for nothing you know...
Are you willing to go for Round 3 of the Bailout? Prop up more Corporations deemed 'too big to fail' by the Corporate whores in your nations capital?
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
heh heh. I drove by a BP gas station today - in my average-sized small central Illinois town - and it was absolutely PACKED with cars fueling up, buying crap to stuff their faces with, etc., in preparation for the 4th. The gas station 2 blocks down - a Sinclair station - was similarly packed.
Americans don't give a fuck. Period. Apathetic doesn't begin to describe this citizenry. They shall reap what they have sown. And I will not shed a single tear when this nation at long last becomes the fascist 3rd-world pariah dictatorship that it will eventually become.
Karma, indeed.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
In some ways, fascism has already gotten into this country. One historian, forgot his name, wrote that the Germans were totally apathetic when Hitler ruled and any dissent would be reported by the brown shirts already apathetic enough. I have heard and seen reports of BP gas stations getting overcrowded in other cities too. I'm not even thinking of stepping outside except to ride my bike to all the nearby stores for any shopping even though the temperature is in the upper 80s.
Galen, great insight on the economic effects to this country and others. Don't forget to include the developing and developed nations in Asia that are tied to BP. I'm still trying to make a connection on traffic congestion going worse and empire crumbling that you told me about some time ago. We could replace oil with another source of fuel or at least that's what some people say and we'd still be stuck with traffic congestion gone worse.
DM - There is no replacement for oil and it's derivatives. Gasoline, diesel, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, pharmaceuticals, asphalt and ten thousand other products based on oil will start to enter a phase where they are still available at steeply increasing prices and scarcity.
Traffic jams? Maybe of pedi-cabs and bikes, but not the massive automobile congestion we see on every continent today. In all likelihood, todays cars, vans and SUVs will become homes.
I wish I was kidding.
We are looking at a massive human die back due to war, disease and environmental degradation. The various Governments of the world behaving like petulant asshats will not help matters...
Someone once said that hemp and algae could replace oil on almost everything. Research on the web and from scholarly articles has confirmed that but they also admit that it won't come cheap or easy. We'll have to take better care of our possessions and break them less. As for asphalt, there has been an introduction to bioasphalt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioasphalt) due to Peak Oil concerns but even that might not come cheap. I think that heavy traveling on those roads will make maintenance more frequent and costly despite claims that those new bioroads last longer than the conventional petro ones. I don't know but people are coming up with weird replacements that I don't know if they'll work or not.
If you think traffic jams are bad enough in the US, you should see the mess in China and India where it's worse. India is the worst due to very broken roads in the cities and some of the suburbs but that was 2008. China used to have a lot of roads for bicycling but as of 2009, most of them are restricted to autos only.
I think that all those cars, vans, and SUVs would be better off getting their metals melted so that we can have more train tracks for increased public transportation. I wouldn't count on biofuels, electric cars since they need more coal for electricity unless there are stellar solar panels to help, water for gas, or any other gasoline/diesel replacement on cars. Government is also wasting too much money porking out for highways instead of adding more tracks and routes. If traffic congestion gets worse, look for the code color warning to go from orange to more severe colors (Www.Airnow.Gov for details on the code colors).
"There is no replacement for oil and it's derivatives. Gasoline, diesel, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, pharmaceuticals, asphalt and ten thousand other products based on oil will start to enter a phase where they are still available at steeply increasing prices and scarcity."
This assumes that nobody will allow hemp or algae a chance. Almost everything made from and with oil can be done with hempseed oil. Where hempseed oil can't do the job, algal oil can step in because it is carbon neutral and yet contains the chemical equivalent of light sweet crude oil. But ah, the demand for oil seems to be the problem that can't be fixed, right? Wrong. Demand for oil will have to go down and if hemp and algae turn out to be more expensive despite the fact that they are renewable sources of energy, then it will encourage that the demand stay down. This might also raise public awareness of big oil companies profiteering out of a long term crisis and possibly hold them accountable. Also keep in mind that were the crude oil prices to continue rising past $150 a barrel, by now we would be at around $300 a barrel. This would have pushed the public into seriously exploring alternative energy sources and encouraging conservation and fuel efficiency. Look at Europe. Their prices are high but they learned their lessons from it. The high prices would have to last much longer and rise beyond tolerable levels. Peak Oil could be here but the public has been given a false sense of hope that it isn't here. I don't think people will live in their cars in the future but most homes will end up having at least 2 or more people living in each of them to save where they can.
A Police officer recently tasered an 86 year old woman as she lay in her bed and stepped on her oxygen tube to prevent her from getting oxygen because she was "combative".
It gets ever more difficult to rely on the word of the police officer when they claim force necessary. They have had a "free ride" for so long when it comes to the violations of anothers rights they grow out of control.
Well, that teenager DID throw a rock, after all! A ROCK! Of course he deserved to be shot. If you do anything at all against any US police or military person, you are a terrorist or a terrorist sympathizer.
Period.
Sarcasm /off.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
in nyc during the 60's i saw police twice shoot black and hispanic children and one time kill. i saw police beat black men on the streets and in the subway. a close black friend of mine who was married to a white woman was abducted and tortured for five days.
no charges were filed, but when he tried to press charges, he was told by a judge that if he continued a charge would be filed and he would be convicted...the shootings of children were not even mentioned in the press...
What about the deliberate targeting and murder of (poor, black) residents of New Orleans by members of the NOPD, National Guard and Blackwater Mercenaries in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Or the blatantly racist killings of blacks in that city by their *WHITE* neighbors at the same time?
It has tragically become *ACCEPTED* that the various US Police forces, FBI, DHS and Border Patrol will act in accordance with the orders from their Corporate and political masters, and gun you down like dogs in the street.
Without a whimper of protest from you, the citizen.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Gee, actual evidence documenting that US Police forces are becoming de-facto executioners, acting on the behalf of a racist domestic political agenda. Imagine, that Police trained and paid for are roaming about looking for victims like some Third World death squad.
Oh my. Say it isn't so!
*sarcasm off*
The US has gotten a free pass for far too long. Entire poultry processing plants of chickens are coming home to roost, and the average American is shocked to learn that not everybody in the world likes you.
Incidentally, and by some poetic coincidence, the US was the greatest source of training for the various South American death squads, who would roam the barrios and favillas, looking for victims.
What goes around, comes around. Now it's your turn to live in fear of the Police.
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
Very well said, Galenwainwright.
Although I am an American, I firmly believe we are getting everything we deserve by the world's increasing hatred for us. And (I realize this makes me a "traitor" per the right-wing), I believe the US will have earned every single one of the horrific consequences that have yet to come home to roost in the future, when they do come.
Sad, but you reap what you sow. The Americans' beliefs of "exceptionalism" is bullshit. We are no better than any other country - in fact, quite worse - and God does not bless us anymore than any other nation or people.
It will be a harsh, painful, horrific lesson when it is finally learned, but learned it shall be. WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
I like to say, "the Condors are coming home to roost".
(Operation Condor)
US Border Gestapo strikes again
Just another rope around the neck of the U.S. Empire. Every "detainee" we torture and kill; every 'illegal immigrant" we taze and kill on the US/Mexico border; every wedding party we ("oops, sorry - collateral damage") blow up with a Predator drone in Afghanistan; every innocent child we shoot in the head in Iraq - they all add up. One by one, dozen by dozen, hundred by hundred.
For each of these MURDERS - that is the correct word, US Government/Media spin to the contrary - we create a hundred terrorists that will try in the future to take revenge on the US.
We are a terrorist factory. Our invasions and occupations and crack-downs on immigrants and trillions spent on "Security" are, in fact, having the opposite effect: we are creating more terrorists who hate the US and want to inflict harm on it and its citizens than there ever was before 9-11.
This is a fact. Not fiction, not conjecture, not opinion. Every person we murder has family and friends who will despise us for what we did to them and many of them will seek revenge.
But - of course - that is EXACTLY what the US government really wants :) The more terrorists we create, the more the "defense" budget will need to increased every year, the more troops we will need to send overseas to "defend the U.S.", the more tax dollars will have to be funnelled into the M.I.C.
Everything is proceeding precisely as planned :)
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Sinclair Lewis, "It Cant Happen Here", 1935
Other than being a destroyer of entire countries, financial and eco-systems, trainer of death squads and global serial-killer, can anyone give me an example of something the U.S. has done in the last few years that has been positive, for either itself (not just a private elite), or the world?
Even under Saint Obama, we appear headed for disaster.
“Milton Friedman’s misfortune is that his policies have been tried.”
---John Kenneth Galbraith
Come on, Dennis: "The contents cast doubt on claims by the U.S. Border Patrol, regarding the death of a Mexican national who died in custody after being beaten and electric-shocked by federal agents on May 28."???
Cast doubt on? CAST DOUBT ON???? DOUBT???
Since when is crossing the border a crime worthy of death?
Since the Obama administration has remained obsessed with the concept of Fascist Homeland-Security;
Since we need to build walls along the borders to keep the inmates inside;
Since we still support the oppressors who push their heels into our faces.
Since we do not have the wisdom and courage to throw down the false gods of power.
Since we bow and worship them every day.
Turn and embrace the multi-headed beast!
And how many of these enforcers have learned their freedom to murder in the endless imperial global war?
I would wager that a large majority of them are former military...
What a shame, what a tragedy, that Abraham Lincoln kept the union united.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
"Soon after the boy was shot in El Paso, Fox News was reporting that he was on a most wanted list of teen smugglers"
USan liberals will throw tons of treasure at prosecuting border patrol agents for two murders and do nothing about reigning in the hyper-inflammatory elite media. They are working within a system that must allow free reign to elite media. The border patrol agents become the scapegoats in protection of elites. This is the real reason for the cops' stiff upper lips. They know their roles. As for the liberals, they know not to bite the hand that feeds, so attacking the scapegoats allows them to proceed toward their true goals.
In contrast to all that, the far left recognizes that elite media causes more damage in one half-hour of propaganda churn than border patrol agents cause in an entire year. It's important to discredit the influence racketeers first.