After a week of teeth-gnashing, pearl-clutching, and threats of more investigations, Democrats now have to admit they were wrong. Although that statement can cover a lot of real estate, specifically they were wrong about the U.S. Border Patrol using “whips” to control black people seeking refugee status.
Credit: WashingtonLatest.com
It all began when N.M. photojournalist Paul Ratje snapped an image of an agent on horseback swinging his bridle’s reins with a black man seemingly running away. Thanks to the untrained eye of a liberal trying to vilify law enforcement, the photo was quickly picked up and widely distributed across the international press, social media, and cable news outlets.
The false narrative soon followed; the president came out from hiding to threaten his own agents, declaring “the people who did this will pay,” and the border czar, avoiding the border altogether and stifling a guffaw, said the image was “horrible.”
The problem with such an opportunistic optic was the cold hard facts: It wasn’t true.
Non-Horsey People, Stay in Your Lane
Ratje was quick to tell folks the image was misconstrued, and he had never seen an agent whip a Haitian to corral them. He claims the angle of his shot was misleading. But, under the direction of a dizzying, now waffling president on all things border-related, Border Patrol defended the tactic and the mounted agents. National Border Patrol Council issued this statement:
“You have seen the video of the agent spinning the rein when illegals get close to the horse. It’s to create distance between the horse and the person on the ground. Our horses easily weigh 1200 pounds; they can step on someone and break a bone or kill a small child or a person who gets too close. We also spin them if someone attempts to grab the reins because the last thing you want is someone who doesn’t know a thing about horses, to have control of the horse you are on.”
The drumbeat of “agents whipping black folks” was strong enough to cause whiplash to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The secretary soon went from assuring folks he would investigate whether “the situation is as we understand it to be and if it’s anything different, we will respond accordingly,” to claiming this event was a result of the catchphrase oft used by progressives, “systemic racism.”
The barrage of attacks on a group of federal employees trained and tasked with the country’s national security soon had Americans up in arms, demanding the administration stop the invasion at the southern border. Republicans, Democrats, and pretty much everyone was calling for Joe Biden’s head on a platter – all for different reasons, but the man found himself without many allies on the Hill. But he persisted with his angry grandpa – the mythical Scrapper from Scranton – persona, and declared, “There will be consequences.” And the man who can’t decide whether to deport, detain, or open the gates to Haitian refugees was correct: The U.S. Border Patrol had had enough of Biden and his border czar and are ready to fight back.
In an interview with Fox News, Brandon Judd, the National Border Patrol Council leader asked, “Now that the President of the United States has already said they did wrong, how is an investigator supposed to do a true and honest investigation?”
As one agent pondered, “Would you go to work and do your best knowing that if you do, your boss is going to ‘make you pay’? I’m dumbfounded and don’t know what to say. Is the president threatening to throw us in prison?”
Yet it was this agent’s comment that should get Mr. Biden’s attention: “I see the administration wants to fry our agents. He just started a war with Border Patrol.” And that can not end well.
~ Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
