A story and a point

Back in a more foolish time I made the mistake of entering some else’s back yard. It was the middle of the night and my brother, my friend, and I had been engaged in other delinquent activities and were already fleeing a small group of angry home owners. We landed in the dead grass and crept along between the hull of a sail boat and the wooden fence. As we proceeded back toward the house the back porch light suddenly came on. We all froze waiting to see what would happen. Was it just a motion sensor? A voice inside the house quickly answered our question, “I’m going to kill you, you little sons of…!”

That was all we needed to hear, we turned around and headed for the back fence. I made the mistake of actually climbing the fence, while my brother and my friend simply harnessed the power of their adrenaline and hurdled the six foot wooden fence like a couple of gazelles. My foot caught the top of the fence and the next thing I knew I was enjoying a rather peaceful slumber, which was only disturbed by the man pointing a 357 magnum in my face.

I’ll spare you the rest of the sordid details, but to make my point the man held me at gunpoint on his front drive way until the police officer arrived to take me into custody and drive me home. I wasn’t technically arrested and fortunately for me my parents just found out about the whole incident a couple of months ago (thanks Kristen).

My point in this story is that I was in the wrong. The home owner, while being a little on the paranoid side, was perfectly within his rights to defend himself and his property, as the police officer reminded me on my way home.

That’s why this story makes me so mad. For the last eleven years Roger Barnett has taken it upon himself to defend his land from illegal aliens crossing through his ranch on the way up from Mexico. They have vandalized his property, left a river of garbage, killed his livestock, stolen his vehicles, destroyed equipment, and even burglarized his house. Shockingly enough, he finally got tired of it.

Since 1998 he has apprehended over 12,000 illegal aliens and handed them peacefully over to immigration officials. During this time he carried a firearm, but fortunately has never had to use it on anyone. Quite impressive restraint considering the number of apprehensions and the danger associated with this activity.

Now the group MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) is representing 16 trespassers against this Arizona land owner. The complaint? He apprehended them and handed them over to immigration enforcement. During that time he held a gun on them (but didn’t shoot) and had his dog with him. He also threatened to shoot if they tried to escape(in English and Spanish).

This is another outcome of elections. Bad judges. A good judge would throw this case out and threaten to disbar the attorney for MALDEF. If Mr. Barnett is a smart man, he should get himself a good lawyer and sue the federal government for failing to protect his property from invasion by a foreign entity.