Source: Houston Chronicle, page 24A, editorial page
(http://www.chron.com/cgibin/auth/story/content/chronicle/editorial/
97/08/20/bordershooting.01.html)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com

BORDER SHOOTING

Marines are trained to kill, not read people their rights

The young Marine who fatally shot 18yearold Esequiel Hernandez
Jr. as he herded goats near his home on the Rio Grande border
last May has been cleared by a Presidio County grand jury.

The grand jurors found Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, 22, and members of
his Marine team, working in cooperation with the U.S. Border
Patrol, were following the "rules of engagement" when he shot the
teenager after the youth fired at them or at least in their
direction.

The whole incident is a tragedy, of course. As best is known,
young Hernandez had nothing to do with drugs or drug smuggling.
He was merely herding his family's goats, as he had done many
times near their home in Redford.

Whether he saw the camouflaged Marines, spotted a movement or was
firing his .22caliber rifle innocently remains unknown.

But the Marines say they believed Hernandez was firing at them.
One shot from Banuelos killed Hernandez.

The lesson here is that military personnel should not be assigned
to civilian police duties. They are trained to kill, not to make
arrests.

Former Defense Secretary Cap Weinberger is said to have once told
a congressional committee in the 1980s that police officers were
trained to read people their rights, and his military personnel
were trained to kill people. There is much truth to that.

The smuggling of drugs in South Texas and across the entire U.S.
Mexico border is a growing problem.

But nonmilitary law enforcement officers such as Border Patrol
agents should handle the enforcement of civilian law not
Marines, who are trained for war, trained to kill.

It is a sign that drug smuggling is out of hand and that the
federal government has lost control when this country resorts to
using Marines to enforce civilian law. Constitutional questions
arise, as do concerns that every day Marines spend enforcing that
civilian law, or training to do so, is a day lost to their most
important job, national defense.

More civilian law enforcement officers are needed on the border.
That more haven't been recruited, trained and assigned the task
has been irresponsible, shortsighted and deadly.