Ramos Update

Commenter NMS felt that the earlier update to the story of agent Ramos being beaten was a bit shaky due to poor sourcing and witness credibility problems.

He also questioned whether a LEO would find himself in the general population of a prison.

He also questions why no guards intervened to stop the melee.

As I worked in a jail for a bit I can answer some of these questions in a general sense. A cop is not usually placed in the general population of a prison, but the agent had just arrived at this facility and I would wager he was still being processed in. Most people are placed in G-pop upon arrival with further placement to be determined.

A detail from Monica Ramos blog makes this option a distinct possibility...

Right now he is not fully processed

And probably the most likely reason would be that he was placed in G-Pop by accident, which I can assure you happens all the time. In the jail where I worked we had three misplacements just in the brief time I worked there. No violent criminals were to work in the kitchen yet three were miscoded at their intake and allowed to work in the kitchen. One was in for murder! Which of course was lovely as he had access to knives in the kitchen. (In a nearby prison an individual doing the same job I did got knifed in the back of the neck by a prisoner and died)

As to the guards not assisting. A couple of scenarios come to mind, the first is the locale of the alleged beating, his cell. Modern jails and prisons are not typically like the ones you see in movies with iron bars. The jail I worked in was of cinder block construction and each cell was a recessed room with a heavy door with unbreakable glass. It wasn't easy to see inside the cell. It's quite possible the guards had no idea what was happening until the beat down was finished.

Second, the inmates in short order become expert at what they can get away with and where. One of the things I was warned about going into the jail job was to never put myself in a position where I could be trapped by inmates, with no easy egress.

And of course the guards could have been in on it, this strikes me as the most unlikely possibility, but hardly an impossible one.

As to the sourcing issue. Now that the stories been out for a bit and the reporters have had time to drink their cappucino's they have some coverage available...

Ex-Border Patrol agent beaten in prison

EL PASO, Texas - A former Border Patrol agent who was convicted of shooting a drug smuggling suspect and then lying about it has been beaten by fellow inmates in prison.

Ramos suffered minor cuts and bruises, U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley said in a statement.

This story appears to be the one most papers running. So we know this much -- he was beaten, we don't really know the extent of the injuries at this point (prisons do downplay that sort of thing for PR and litigious reasons).

I'll will be following this story closely, and I can assure you I would give my eye teeth to be in Mississippi so I could follow it directly. If we have any readers in that area maybe you could see if you could arrange a visit, get some photos? Direct news on agent Compean would be appreciated as well.

Jerome Corsi has more...here.

Remember the rallies this upcoming weekend! (we'll be at the Chicago event if you want to come and hang out, we'd love to meet ya!)

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