Never Bring A Brick To A Gun Fight

What should be a self evident truth had to be taught to a group of rock-throwing Mexicans by Border Patrol officers in Arizona.

YUMA, Ariz. -- A U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man who was throwing rocks at officers from the Mexican side of the border late Saturday, officials said. The incident began after agents spotted a suspicious vehicle near the Andrade Port of Entry west of the California-Arizona border, just north of the international border and alongside the Colorado River. The driver fled and then tried to swim across a pond along the river in an effort to return to Mexico, the agency said in a press release.

So The BP stops a smuggler, smuggler panicks, smuggler flees, smuggler swims. Nothing to see here people, please keep moving.

But the man began to struggle to stay afloat and agents threw him a flotation device and began to try to rescue him.

So the aforementioned mope forgets to wait a half hour after stuffing himself at the all-you-can-eat bean burrito buffet and gets a cramp. The ever helpful BP throws the criminal a life saving flotation device and rescues said criminal from a watery grave. The crowd who witnesses this act of kindness responds by showering the federal agents with flowers and chocolates and cries of gracias, right? Wrongomondo.

Several people on the other side of the border then began throwing rocks at the agents, and one officer was struck in the head.

The Mexicans respond by trying to kill the BP officers. Why in the world would they do that?

Attacks on Border Patrol agents have become more common in recent years, and this year agents say they're seeing smugglers become even more violent as more federal resources make crossing into the U.S. ever more difficult. Smugglers are throwing softball-sized rocks, hunks of concrete and whole bricks at agents, either out of frustration or to try to get authorities to back off.

It sounds like the crowd is in the employ of the smugglers. They figure that as long as they are in Mexico and hurl their missiles across the border, they cannot be held accountable. Wrong again.

The officer then shot at a man who was getting ready to throw another rock, the Border Patrol said. Mexican authorities took the man to a hospital, where he died.

So what's the problem? The news release is very sparse on details we'd all love to know. Like what kind of firearm and ammo was used, where the rock thrower was hit, how many times he was hit, if his entrails were blown out his back, if he screamed all the way to the hospital, and if he begged to see his mother just before he bled out and died.

Maybe tomorrow.

It's not that I'm completely unsympathetic (well, maybe I am), but our people had better start controlling our borders. And if this is the only way to do it, then so be it. Better a few are killed so the rest learn. They all can't be this stupid.