Saturday, December 02, 2006

Oaxaca, Mexico: Men accused in Bradley Will murder released


Well, this is going to raise a stink. The only two men arreested for the shooting death of American reporter Bradley Will have been released by Judge Victoriano Barroso. He cited a "lack of evidence" for the release of the two men.

First, Judge Barroso cited the ballistics and autopsy reports that indicated that Will had been shot from a distance of "about a meter" when vidoes of the shooting and witness testimony placed both of the arrested men some 30 meters away when Will was hit. Secondly, the judge cited the ballistics reports on the 2 slugs recovered from Bradley Will's body. He said that both slugs were 9mm while both of the arrested men were firing .38 caliber revolvers.

The judge said that "this does not mean the investigation is not continuing." The judge said that he simply did not have enough reason to order the men held any longer.

This does not come as a huge shock. Many will be decrying the judge's decision but he probably did the only thing he could do, under the circumstances. To this date, there has been no official challenge to the Oaxaca Attorney General's forensic reports. There has been lots of squawking about it, but no official challenge, at least that I know of. An Amnesty International representative called the forensic report "confused and incomplete" just a week ago, but he was unable to provide any resons or evidence to back up that statement, at least that he made public.

This Yahoo news article from the AP calls the men "policemen". Abel Santiago Zurita is an alderman in charge of Public Security and Manuel Aguilar is the head of the neighborhood council of Santa Lucia del Camino and also chief of the municipal police. That's a pretty small bone to pick, however.

We're back to the forensics reports and the autopsy. If they are accurate, then these two guys did not shoot Bradley Will. He was murdered by his APPO buddies. If the forensics report is inaccurate, then we don't yet know who shot the man.

In any event, let's try to accurately recall just what happened that day and avoid the hysterical lies that have been flying all over the internet since his death.

There were four town officials of Santa Lucia del Camino, a neighborhood on the east side of Oaxaca, in an SUV that approached an APPO barricade. Bradley Will, a photographer sent here by IndyMedia (illegaly, on a tourist visa) to film all the festivities, had been in the company of APPO for several days. He was at the barricade when the vehicle approached and tried to break through it. The vehicle was stopped and the APPO people manning the barricade began to throw stones at it and slashed its tires. The 4 men got out and fled. When they had moved about a block away from the mob, the SUV was set afire. The men turned and came back shooting.

Anyone, including yours truly at the time, who watched the videos, examined the still photos and read the eyewitness reports would have had to have assumed that one or all four of these guys did the shooting of Bradley Will. However, with autopsy and forensics reports indicating that Will was shot once at close range and then again 15 minutes later, again at close range and with the same gun used the first time, doubts began to set in. Not at IndyMedia, Narco News and the other anarchist "news media" outlets, of course.

First of all, it wasn't murder. Even in the United States, the most these guys would have been charged with would be voluntary manslaughter. Had the four men come out of their vehicle shooting, they would have walked away from it, even in the USA. That would have been a clear case of self defense. Since they ran away and then returned, we move into manslaughter territory. Now, a clever American lawyer would have all four claiming they were trying to fight their way to the nearest fire extinguiser and, were the trial in California, they would all beat even the manslaughter rap.

It reminds me somewhat of an incident that occurred in Denton, Texas, back in the late 60's during all the student unrest over Viet Nam. A farmer had driven into town and happened upon a student protest at North Texas State U. (now the U. of North Texas). As he worked his pickup slowly through the crowd, someone smashed his windshield with a big rock. He made it through the crowd, stopped his truck, got out with a shotgun, and opened up on the crowd. There were several wounded but no one killed. He walked away from that one. The county prosecutor didn't bother to even file charges against him because he knew he'd never get a conviction.

But the anarchists at IndyMedia and Narco News have no interest in justice nor self defense nor rule of law nor personal property rights. One of theirs got killed so it had to have been a cold blooded murder planned well in advance by the notoriously bloodthirsty Vicente Fox/Felipe Calderón/Ulises Ruiz/George Bush/Mark in Mexico cabal.

When I go out and about with my trusty Sony and in the disguise-of-the-day (you should see my Stoney Burke disguise -- it's a hoot), if I get my butt into trouble I would blame 3 people; me, myself and I. I ask for it everytime I go out there. I know that. These morons who think that because they are following some higher calling, like returning lands to the Aztecs who lost them 500 years ago and no longer even exist (the Aztecs, that is; the land is still here, last I checked), that they should all be immune to lead poisoning make me laugh.

With all the money these dolts have at their disposal, if they wanted to cause grief to the State Attorney General, they could quite easily do it. If they wanted access to the forensics tests and the autopsy report, they could get it. If they wanted the entire investigation reviewed by outside independent experts, they could do that too. But then, what's the fun in that? Besides, they would be running the unacceptably high risk that Attorney General Caña and her invetigative team are correct and Brad got popped by his amigos.

That would never do.


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