April 15, 2005
Vigilante or Hero?
The Arizona Republic has an opinion piece on the recent incident where an Army Reservist held seven illegal's at gunpoint at a rest stop in Arizona.
This is a tough incident to opine about.., I don't think we are at the point where citizens should take it upon themselves to act as LEO's in every incident they observe, BUT this incident just points out just how badly our immigration laws are being flouted, and the officials responsible are not living up to their oaths in enforcing those laws.
But there are some attitudes displayed in this piece that I find troubleing.... Take this paragraph for instance:
"How different this story would look if it had turned violent. We might be dealing with international repercussions if any of the Mexicans had been hurt. Or bloodshed if Haab had happened upon drug smugglers or desperate coyotes, ready to fight over their human cargo."
Number one, just WHY should we care about how a foreign country feels about what happens to one of their citizens if they are engaged in illegal activities in OUR country? (other than that they be treated as human beings and not animals)
Number two, I think Haab used his weapon in a reasonable manner to preclude being overcome by these people, had they been drug dealers or "desperate Coyotes". Odds of seven to one would seem to make the use of the weapon an equalizing factor, not an abuse.
Then there is the quote by Sherriff Joe Arpiao:
"There's no excuse for any citizen to take the law into their own hands. We're a nation of laws."
I admire Sherriff Arpiao for his tough stances and his no nonsense attitude, but in this case I believe that he may be incorrect. Haab observed some people committing a federal crime, and he merely held the perpertrators until law enforcment could arrive to take over. Either we are ALL responsible for our societies safety, or we are just sheep to be told where to go and how to behave.
Haab may have overstepped that line between concerned citizen and vigilante, but thats for a court to decide, I am proud that we have citizens willing to take responsiblity on their own initiative though.
The op-eds author responded to Sherriff Apiaos comment with:
"And America has trained officers to enforce those laws."
The FACT is, without the cooperation of the citizenry, we have far too few LEO's to affect any real effect, other than to take the after-action reports on any incidents, and in the case of illegal immigration, a LEO can't even inquire as to a suspects status, and even if they KNOW thay are illegal, are precluded from making an arrest just on that basis, or even reporting it to Immigration officials. That belies that "we have LEOS trained to enforce those laws".
When the laws are so blatently being ignored by those responsible to seeing that they are upheld, just what are the citizens to do? It leads to a disdain of the law by the citizens, and eventually, a total breakdown of society.