I’ve been reading a very interesting article on Salon. A little while ago two border patrol agents were sent to prison for covering up the shooting of a fleeing suspected Mexican drug smuggler. I’ve heard of this case. It has become a prominent case in this time of immigrant hating. But let me, with eight years experience as a federal law enforcement officer, offer my opinion.

Law enforcement is a shitty job. Everyone hates you. You see the worst of humanity. But this doesn’t give you the excuse to go blasting away whenever or at whoever you feel like.

I drew my weapon with the intention of using it only once. And I’m one of the few.

These border patrol agents drew their weapons and blasted after a fleeing suspect fifteen times. And then they covered it up. They thought they didn’t hit him. But they did. And the cover up is why they’re in jail. And rightly in jail.

But what concerns me most in this case is a sitting U.S. Senator, a member of the body that makes our laws, my new senator, Dianne Feinstein, said this: “Any drug dealer on the border who doesn’t obey a command and runs cannot be shot? No wonder so much drugs are coming across the border. That’s amazing to me” (Page four). It’s amazing to me that a U.S. senator could be so stupid, but it shouldn’t be.

I still remember the night I drew down on someone.

I was sitting on an empty overpass running radar. It was a Sunday night/Monday morning. Nothing, as usual, was happening.

“3-4, Lawman,” crackled the dispatcher.

“Go ahead,” 3-4 answered.

“Proceed to (I don’t remember the address). Stabbing in progress.”

“Roger Lawman.”

I was close and went to back him up.

We were still en route when, “3-4, Lawman, subject currently trying to gain entry through the back of the house. Be advised, subject armed with a machete.”

My blood ran cold.

We pulled up blacked out. The sound of breaking glass drifted through the air like a drum. We drew our weapons and made our way quickly to the back of the house. A skinny white guy with blood streaming down his back was beating on the broken back window.

“Hands! Hands mother fucker!” we screamed, our 9mm pistols aimed center mass.

He turned around languidly, smiled, raised his hands over his head.

“Get on the fucking ground!”

He complied. We holstered our weapons. Handcuffed him. Took him to the hospital.

The machete was found close by. Two scared people were in the house. The three of them were in the same unit. Had spent the night drinking and hanging out and passed out on the couch, the floor, the backyard. The guy sleeping on the couch awoke to his friend, eyes wild, machete in hand, standing over him. He dived off the couch as his friend brought down the blade.

The bloody man wanted us to kill him. Satan, he told us, was talking to him. He wouldn’t be the last man who wanted me to kill him.

But it didn’t matter what he had done. What he wanted done. It was pounded into our heads over and over and over again that the only justification for deadly force was to stop one from using deadly force against another. Law enforcement officers are not allowed to use deadly force against fleeing suspects. Unless they’re kidnapping a person, or are fleeing with state secrets or weapons, they’re allowed to run. Send a dog after them, a helicopter, or even, god forbid, run after them. But you cannot shoot after them. Running, they’re not a threat. And you cannot use deadly force to subdue them.

It’s very disturbing a U.S. Senator doesn’t know this.