The headlines reads on a story published Sunday: “Border Patrol Academy is training its newest recruits to work in a particularly hostile environment”
What is woefully missing in this Washington Post article are facts. But what is evident is a lot of hype, the kind that gets innocent people killed.
Under years of drug cartel rein and terror in Juarez, Mexico, the city became the murder capital of the world. Yet El Paso, Texas remained and is still one of the safest cities of its size in America.
So the violence apparently didn’t cross the border.
I lived in El Paso for more than three decades.
During that time, there were about two or three Border Patrol agents murdered by migrants or drug dealers.
If millions upon millions of violent people have illegally passed through this area, why is the murder rate of Border Patrol agents so low? Why not publish the number of murders and violent crimes against agents in this article?
The hype in this article is evident: Border Agents seem to be going to Afghanistan or some war zone. By comparison, cops in the United States don’t even crack the top ten of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
Roofers, cab drivers, commercial fishermen rate much higher, according to OSHA, a federal agency that keeps tabs on occupations.
I once asked a cop friend of mine who constantly complained about his job the following questions: Did somebody put a gun to your head and forced you to be a cop? Were you drafted? So you signed up? Did they tell in Cop School that your job would mean you’d be stopping suspects some who are armed and dangerous or just idiots? If you are so miserable, can you resign? Then, why don’t you?
My friend said that next time I need a cop to call my friends or family for help.
I said I respect good police officers, and pray to God that they are the ones who show up if I ever have to call 911.
But as a taxpayer, if I call 911 and I can call for an ambulance, firefighters or a law enforcement officer. If the guy who delivers Dominoes Pizza shows up and is also sworn to uphold the United States Constitution, is armed and trained to defuse a situation or make an arrest without an unarmed person getting shot or brutalized, I am fine with that.