Boys and their toys
by digby
In case you were wondering, those are not actors in a dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. They’re border patrol agents. If you want to know where your tax dollars are going, look at the police agencies. They’re decked out like Robo-cop all over the country.
Since government policy, with the full consent of many elites in journalism, is to keep everything secret for our own good, the Border Patrol is refusing to release the independent review of its shooting record:
The Center for Investigative Reporting revealed last Friday that CBP denied its open records request for the PERF report eight months after it was initially filed. In denying the request, CBP personnel cited a Freedom of Information Act exemption intended to protect the “free and frank exchange of information among agency personnel.”
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to force CBP to release the PERF report, arguing that its disclosure “is critical to a full and fair public debate about CBP’s use-of-force policies and practices.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, CBP officials rejected two major recommendations from the PERF report: (1) barring agents from shooting at vehicles unless the agents’ lives are at risk and (2) barring agents from shooting at people throwing objects, unless the projectiles are life-threatening.
I feel both safer and freer knowing that this agency will do everything in its power — in secret, of course — to do the right thing. Because they’re good enough, they’re smart enough and doggone it, people like them…
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