The Political Freakshow

CopBlock | 19-year-old shot 5 times for suspected underage drinking

Despite the outward pretense of civility and denunciation of human rights abuses, this is a country whose police murder disabled old people, the mentally ill, and children - and get away with it. It is a country whose government actually defends the police when they yank little girls out of beds and put guns to their heads during mistaken drug raids. This is a country whose police arrest people for feeding the homeless. This is the country with the highest number of prisoners in the entire world, both in sheer numbers and on a per capita basis, even as it constantly claims to be the “freest” place on the planet.

The list goes on and on – you’d think the United States would be hiding its face in shame, rather than claiming to be a beacon of freedom while pointing the “human rights” finger at every other country but itself. While police apologists repeatedly drone the tire bit about it being “a few bad apples” or “isolated incidents” (never mind the fact that the law actually encourages and permits this type of behavior by police), the truth is, it would take more than a whole team of writers to detail and cover the daily atrocities committed by police.

Aaron Rosas’ story is one such atrocity.

Not so long ago, a few days before April 13, 2012, Aaron Rosas called his mother Alice to ask where she’d stored his camping equipment, as he wanted to camp out with his friends for a night. On April 13, 2012, Ms. Rosas received a call from Sierra Medical, a hospital on the east side of El Paso Texas around midnight. She was told she needed to go to the Del Sol Hospital to meet up with her son, because they were transporting him to Del Sol, a trauma center.

Her son had been shot 5 times, because in this country, some police believe the punishment for underage drinking is death.

Some young folks, many between the ages of 17-19, had gone out into the desert. There was a bonfire and some drinking taking place on private grounds which used to be an old denim factory/warehouse. Aaron and his friends had planned to do a little drinking, then camp there for the night. At one point, Aaron thought better of the situation, and decided to go home. He was in the car with one or two of his friends and another girl.

They were parked in the dark between 2 other vehicles, and he saw a car approach. He observed the vehicle approach the gated property from a distance. He and his friends thought it was someone joining the party, and didn’t think much of it at first. Aaron turned his car on, but realized the approaching vehicle had turned on a spotlight. At this time, he still couldn’t make out much of the vehicle. As his car was moving forward, he suddenly saw sheriffs running towards another car. He stepped on his brake, turned to get a better look, and was shot 5 times. He was never told to get out of the car. He was given no warning.

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