As if a slain Border Patrol agent killed by guns involved in ATF's Operation Fast and Furious isn't enough, now the US Attorney's Office has denied victim status to the agent's family in an upcoming trial.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/11/us-attorneys-office-rejects-family-slain-border-patrol-agent-as-crime-victims/
Is the Dept. of Justice afraid of what Agent Terry's family will say in open court? Are they afraid of a lawsuit? They should be.
And where are the heads of the Border Patrol (Alan Bersin) and Homeland Security (Janet Napolitano), in standing up for the family of Agent Terry. I can tell you from personal experience, when a DEA agent is killed in the line of duty, the DEA family comes together. That means that the head of DEA and everybody else is there to take care of the agent's family and represent their interests from beginning to end.
So what do Napolitano and Bersin have to say about this latest outrage? They should be pounding on Eric Holder's desk demanding that this decision be overruled.
A dead agent and the DOJ is standing against the agent's family. Whatever happened to the department I used to work for?
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3 comments:
Janet Reno is in charge of Homeland Security? When did she come out of the woodwork?
This is a mixed bag. On its face, I don't see any reason the family of a man killed by an illegally smuggled gun should not qualify as kin to a victim of the crime. The whole point of prosecution is that these gun dealers are not innocents, they are a proximate cause of the murders committed by people they have good reason to know are going to use them illegally.
On the other hand, I'm skeptical about the entire notion of victims having any right to become partners of the prosecution. The difference between such anachronisms as vendetta, blood feud, and the somewhat distinct lynch law, on the one hand, and an orderly trial, on the other, is precisely that society is prosecuting the criminal. It is not a matter of surviving kin getting even.
Thanks for the correctiuon. I frequently confuse Reno and Napolitano and not just because of their first name.
The victim's family normally has the right to speak prior to sentencing. If the prosecutor has any sense of propriety, they also confer with a murder victim's family prior to making plea deals.
As more information comes forward regarding the Obama/Holder nexis in Operation Fast and Furious, perhps the Terry family will get victim status. As the Administration tries harder to hide the evidence, the larger the hole they dig for themselves. You ask the question: "Whatever happened to the department I used to work for?" Th answr is Obama and Holder.
Squid
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