Fox News is reporting the DoJ is refusing to grant crime victim status to the family of murdered border patrol agent Brian Terry.
Terry, you’ll recall, is the man who was shot down by Mexican Drug Cartel members with a gun sold to them by our own ATF as part of Operation Fast and Furious.
Motions of this sort are routinely granted by the prosecution, and usually only opposed by defense. In this case, it’s the prosecutor doing the denying. The prosecutor’s reasoning?
U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke argues because the family was not “directly or proximately harmed” by the illegal purchase of the murder weapon, it does not meet the definition of “crime victim” in the Avila case. Burke claims the victim of the Avila’s gun purchases, “is not any particular person, but society in general.”
You have got to be kidding me.
I don’t want to get off on a rant here (again with apologies to Dennis Miller) but there was no “particular” victim? Just “society in general.”
This has been one of the major arguments for gun control all along, the “societal cost.” Does it surprise anyone at all that the current DoJ, led by the incompetent Eric Holder, would attempt to use this case for political gain? Especially when they’re under such fire already.
I hate to tell you this Mr. Burke, but the “particular” victim in this case is Brian Terry. Dead, you see. Someone shot him you twit. His family are proximate victims because, well, their son is dead.
To tell these people they’re not crime victims goes beyond the insensitive (and aren’t all you liberals supposed to be “sensitive) to the ludicrous. My lord people at what point do we all wake up, look around and start screaming at the top of our lungs about what this country has become. This is beyond stupid. It’s beyond insulting.
I really have no words for what this actually is, beyond one more example, if we really needed it, that it’s time for a top-to-bottom house cleaning in DC. Unfortunately, this pimple on an abcess Burke is low level enough he’ll probably survive any changes anyway.
But he should be fired — and ashamed of himself. Unfortunately, shame is a bourgeois concept liberals don’t get.
This should be immediately investigated by congress.
Burke is covering his butt, this liberal democrat activist led the operation that caused this mess. His actions were, and continue to be, criminal. Now he dishonors the Terry family as he spits on Brians grave, and abuses his power to continue the cover up.
As I recall, Burke was accused by Ken Melson, in preserved testimony with Issa’s committee, as directing the operation. And the Fox article plainly states that Emory Hurley, an assistant US attorney reporting to Burke, ran the gunwalking program. Both their names were on the opposition to the Terry family’s motion.
I doubt that Burke & Hurley would have filed this unusual opposition without approval from Main Justice. I think they want to preclude a judicial forum investigating Operation Fast & Furious. They’re having enough problems with the legislative investigation as it is.
I’d hope that the judge would see through the prosecution’s ostensible argument to their likely purpose and grant the Terrys’ motion. And I hope they oppose any plea deal Burke may propose to sweep Avila under the rug. Don’t be surprised if Burke dismisses all charges against Avila, if a plea deal doesn’t work. Like I said, Justice doesn’t want any US District Court looking into this mess.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/22/the-case-for-impeachment-142967590/
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Please share widely!!! Perhaps other writers will grow SPINES.
A strong article and hopefully not the last public newspaper to do so.
Holder has a long track record of disregard for crime victims (unless they are “hate crime” victims from politically useful victim groups), manifested most chillingly through his role in releasing domestic terrorists from the Weather Underground, BLA, and FALN during Clinton and Obama’s reigns. Victim family members were systematically cut out of those decisions, too.
This isn’t normal behavior for an Attorney General. Then again, nothing in his worldview (anti-cop, pro-offender, politically polarizing) recommends him as the head of the Justice Department.
Refusing to give the family standing is not merely insulting: it means that they cannot participate in the victim impact process, nor register to be notified of changes in incarceration status (parole, early release), nor testify at parole hearings.
Even victims who are recognized and do have status are often (illegally) overlooked when parole boards and offender-besotted judges let violent people walk free. By institutionalizing this toxic neglect of homicide victims on his watch, Holder is sending a very strong message to the American public: unless you are a member of a specially protected group, your Justice Department is disinterested in defending your rights or your life.
Or your son’s.