P.O.V.: The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez

[Lydia Leftcoast]

This ran on PBS this week, and it's the story of a Mexican-American teenager who was out herding goats along the border when he was shot and killed by U.S. Marines who were patrolling the border for drug smugglers and illegal migrants. He was carrying a gun to protect the goats, and the Marines claimed that he shot at them.

Whatever the case may be, the 17-year-old, a nice kid by all accounts, ended up dead, a casualty of the drug war and its militarization.

But what followed was especially disturbing. The military cover-up was not surprising, but the reaction of the public was. Even though FBI investigators determined that the shooting was unjustified, public opinion among the Anglos in the area was that the attempts to prosecute the Marines for any crime was an outrage and an insult to the military. Call-ins to talk shows were all, "I love the military, and they're just doing their job." The Marines themselves justified their actions by saying, "We're putting our lives on the line for our country, and other people don't understand." (Racial bias was not an issue in this case, it seems, since one of the Marines was himself Latino.)

But the attitude of the public was really disturbing.

[Annces]

1. This reminds me of the movie

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada with Tommy Lee Jones. A border patrol man kills his Mexican friend accidentally and Tommy Lee Jones forces him to bring the body to Mexico to his family.

People are desensitized too much I think.

Juan Felipe Herrera wrote a book on this.

http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100576310

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Sad to say, this wasn't fiction

This was a true story about an innocent teenager getting shot by trigger-happy Marines and the local Anglos getting angry when law enforcement authorities tried to indict the Marines.