US agents launch tear gas, pepper spray canisters into densely populated MX neighborhoods

[babylonsister]

Seems like collateral damage doesn't much matter here either.


Tijuana enclave feels sting of escalating border strife

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 14, 2007


TIJUANA -- In an escalation of clashes between U.S. Border Patrol agents and rock-throwing smugglers, agents have begun launching pepper spray and tear gas into densely populated Mexican border neighborhoods, according to witnesses, Mexican authorities and human rights groups.

The more aggressive approach reflects the tense climate in this city's most notorious smuggling neighborhood, Colonia Libertad, where U.S. agents say they have had to counter human traffickers' increasingly aggressive tactics by ramping up their own use of force.

Agents have used pepper spray in the past, but usually aimed directly at the smugglers. The new tactics, which saturate large areas, have forced dozens of temporary evacuations and sent some residents to hospitals, according to witnesses.

Border Patrol officials say tear gas and pepper spray rarely cause serious injury or damage. They say that they use them against assailants trying to divert attention from border crossers by pelting agents, and that residents are not targeted.

Since Oct. 1, the Border Patrol has counted 90 assaults against agents in the San Diego area, five times as many as during the same period a year ago. Agents have suffered serious head injuries, officials say.

The acting Mexican consul general in San Diego, Ricardo Pineda, has met with Border Patrol officials to protest the aggressive use of tear gas and pepper spray, said Alberto Lozano, the consular spokesman.

"We told them the Mexican government cannot tolerate having Mexican nationals hit with these kind of devices on Mexican soil by U.S. authorities, regardless of the reason," Lozano said.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pepper14dec14,0,3599820.story?coll=la-home-local

[MadHound]

1. Let's see, firing potentially lethal weapons on the population of another country,

Isn't that considered an act of war?

[zabet]

2. Sounds like it...

what would be the US's
reaction if Mexico was
firing them across the
border into US populated
areas?

[Hangingon]

8. It is done by police... not military. So, not an act of war.

[MadHound]

10. So if the police in Canada started firing mortar rounds across the border

It wouldn't be an act of war? Sorry, but it doesn't matter who performs the action, the sheer simple fact that weapons and armament are being fired onto another sovereign country's soil is in and of itself an act of war by its very definition.

[Hangingon]

12. If it were fire directed at US territory by the CDF,,,

with or without provocation I would consider it an act of war. But in this case, the ICE - a police agency - was responding to a provocation from the Mexican side of the border. The exchange was non-lethal fire - cs and pepper spray in return for rocks as we are told. This is the same reason that the Coast Guard is part of a civilian agency - so that it can stop the ship of another nation without it being an act of war.

[CabalPowered]

3. The ICE raids here have been creeping a lot of people out

The raids have made the local paper but some details have been left out of the reporting. I didn't believe it at first but I've now had a lot of people tell me they've witnessed this. Every Wednesday night an unmarked, white 747 lands and a convoy of white passenger vans load immigrants, in full shackles, onto the plane. Another convoy of black on black SUVs have dozens of ICE agents, with assault rifles, standing guard. This is in full view of the passenger terminal. One mother, whose a RW loony from wayyy back, explained how her young daughter couldn't understand why hundreds of people were in chains and there were people with big guns standing around. I'm in rural Idaho.

[babylonsister]

4. That is chilling, and being done in our name. I'd be creeped out, too. nt

[peacetalksforall]

5. What city - what passenger terminal?

[CabalPowered]

7. TWF

[tekisui]

9. Where are they taken?

Holding(dentention) Centers awaiting deportation? Or are they directly deported?

[CabalPowered]

11. I'm not sure

I've been wondering that myself.

[Romulox]

6. You mean there's a downside to a chaotic, unregulated border?

:think: