Miro Satan Fan
08-20-2005, 10:44 AM
Un-flipping-believable.
DOUGLAS (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0819ariz-immig-abuse19.html) - Spent shells litter the ground at what is left of the firing range, and camouflage outfits still hang in a storeroom. Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that vowed to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border from Mexico.
Now, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally.
The land transfer satisfies judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had claimed that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them.
“Certainly it’s poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land,” said Morris S. Dees Jr., chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which represented the immigrants.
The surrender of the ranch comes as the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared states of emergency because of the influx of undocumented immigrants and related crime along the border.
…
The immigrants getting the ranch, Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales and Fatima Del Socorro Leiva Medina, could not be reached for comment. Kelley Bruner, a lawyer at the law center, said they were happy.
Bruner said that Mancia and Leiva, from El Salvador but not related, would not live at the ranch and would probably sell it. Nethercott bought the ranch in 2003 for $120,000.
According to the article the vigilante group was guilty of hitting one of the illegals with a pistol, and then giving them cookies and letting them go.
Which prompts a couple of questions from me:
Since when do the victims of violence get to claim the property of those who attacked them? Especially in an instances like this one where the offense is relatively minor. If I beat somebody up I’m certainly guilty of assault, but does that give my victim the right to claim my house?
Maybe to pay restitution or medical bills or something, but I’ve never heard of somebody being forced to just hand over their deed.
Also, why on earth did an American court award a group of criminals property? Assaulted or not, these people should be deported not given property.
DOUGLAS (http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0819ariz-immig-abuse19.html) - Spent shells litter the ground at what is left of the firing range, and camouflage outfits still hang in a storeroom. Just a few months ago, this ranch was known as Camp Thunderbird, the headquarters of a paramilitary group that vowed to use force to keep illegal immigrants from sneaking across the border from Mexico.
Now, the 70-acre property about two miles from the border is being given to two immigrants the group caught trying to enter the United States illegally.
The land transfer satisfies judgments in a lawsuit in which the immigrants had claimed that Casey Nethercott, the owner of the ranch and a former leader of the vigilante group Ranch Rescue, had harmed them.
“Certainly it’s poetic justice that these undocumented workers own this land,” said Morris S. Dees Jr., chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which represented the immigrants.
The surrender of the ranch comes as the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared states of emergency because of the influx of undocumented immigrants and related crime along the border.
…
The immigrants getting the ranch, Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales and Fatima Del Socorro Leiva Medina, could not be reached for comment. Kelley Bruner, a lawyer at the law center, said they were happy.
Bruner said that Mancia and Leiva, from El Salvador but not related, would not live at the ranch and would probably sell it. Nethercott bought the ranch in 2003 for $120,000.
According to the article the vigilante group was guilty of hitting one of the illegals with a pistol, and then giving them cookies and letting them go.
Which prompts a couple of questions from me:
Since when do the victims of violence get to claim the property of those who attacked them? Especially in an instances like this one where the offense is relatively minor. If I beat somebody up I’m certainly guilty of assault, but does that give my victim the right to claim my house?
Maybe to pay restitution or medical bills or something, but I’ve never heard of somebody being forced to just hand over their deed.
Also, why on earth did an American court award a group of criminals property? Assaulted or not, these people should be deported not given property.