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Bad signage, closed lanes, painted-over signs, lack of familiarity with that part of the freeway, dark of night, poor lighting...and maybe even confusion due to PTSD. Just sayin'.
You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.
This is a HUGE, well lit international border crossing with tons of signs miles before informing you that you are approaching the border. It is almost like being at an airport. There are huge signs telling you WEAPONS are ILLEGAL in Mexico. The closer you get, the more huge the signs and lights get- there is NO WAY you can not know you are about to enter Mexico.
Rarely are there closed lanes. Most of the time there is traffic entering the country, making the flow slower.
This is a huge, well regulated international border. I see the ignorance in many of the comments here ( banana republic, 3rd world country, etc...) but you fail to realize that there is also a lot of business and middle class commerce exchange at this border. The Tijuana middle class is pretty substantial.
He had friends in this area, had crossed the border before, etc...he wasn't totally unfamiliar with the area.
Also, there is a drug trafficking war going on in Mexico- hello? No one caught with weapons or drugs will have it easy right now.
If he made a mistake, he is paying the consequences like anyone else who breaks laws.
I would never be caught dead with weapons or drugs in Mexico. I spent my entire childhood crossing this border, sometimes crossing with naive surfer friends thinking it was ok taking weed to Mexico. I never agreed and thought they were crazy. You must have the utmost respect for both the Mexican and the American agents. After 20 years crossing, I have never had bad experiences and that has lots to do with always taking that border crossing very seriously.
Last edited by rosa surf; 08-30-2014 at 07:22 PM..
Did Governor Moonbeam even bring of the subject of the marine with the Mexican president or did he just discuss more ways to encourage mass illegal border crossings, with a shiny new driver's license when you get here?
You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.
This is a HUGE, well lit international border crossing with tons of signs miles before informing you that you are approaching the border. It is almost like being at an airport. There are huge signs telling you WEAPONS are ILLEGAL in Mexico. The closer you get, the more huge the signs and lights get- there is NO WAY you can not know you are about to enter Mexico.
Rarely are there closed lanes. Most of the time there is traffic entering the country, making the flow slower.
This is a huge, well regulated international border. I see the ignorance in many of the comments here ( banana republic, 3rd world country, etc...) but you fail to realize that there is also a lot of business and middle class commerce exchange at this border. The Tijuana middle class is pretty substantial.
He had friends in this area, had crossed the border before, etc...he wasn't totally unfamiliar with the area.
Also, there is a drug trafficking war going on in Mexico- hello? No one caught with weapons or drugs will have it easy right now.
If he made a mistake, he is paying the consequences like anyone else who breaks laws.
I would never be caught dead with weapons or drugs in Mexico. I spent my entire childhood crossing this border, sometimes crossing with naive surfer friends thinking it was ok taking weed to Mexico. I never agreed and thought they were crazy. You must have the utmost respect for both the Mexican and the American agents. After 20 years crossing, I have never had bad experiences and that has lots to do with always taking that border crossing very seriously.
That's your opinion. Mine is that you lack a clue. But I'll agree with you that "3rd World" is ignorant. It's more like 4th World.
You obviously have no clue what you are talking about.
This is a HUGE, well lit international border crossing with tons of signs miles before informing you that you are approaching the border. It is almost like being at an airport. There are huge signs telling you WEAPONS are ILLEGAL in Mexico. The closer you get, the more huge the signs and lights get- there is NO WAY you can not know you are about to enter Mexico.
Rarely are there closed lanes. Most of the time there is traffic entering the country, making the flow slower.
This is a huge, well regulated international border. I see the ignorance in many of the comments here ( banana republic, 3rd world country, etc...) but you fail to realize that there is also a lot of business and middle class commerce exchange at this border. The Tijuana middle class is pretty substantial.
He had friends in this area, had crossed the border before, etc...he wasn't totally unfamiliar with the area.
Also, there is a drug trafficking war going on in Mexico- hello? No one caught with weapons or drugs will have it easy right now.
If he made a mistake, he is paying the consequences like anyone else who breaks laws.
I would never be caught dead with weapons or drugs in Mexico. I spent my entire childhood crossing this border, sometimes crossing with naive surfer friends thinking it was ok taking weed to Mexico. I never agreed and thought they were crazy. You must have the utmost respect for both the Mexican and the American agents. After 20 years crossing, I have never had bad experiences and that has lots to do with always taking that border crossing very seriously.
I'm hardly ignorant for calling Mexico a 3rd world nation and a banana republic. I'm fairly certain there are some objective measurements out there somewhere to support me. They measure it in different ways so perhaps there is an outlier that puts it at the bottom of the 2nd world. It's rife with corruption. That makes it a banana republic. Do you see Canadians risking their lives crossing the border? Do you see Canadians sending their children across the border? Do 1 out of 3 Canadians say they would live in the USA if they could for a better life? Do Americans ever get stopped on the highway in Canada and extorted for money? I like Mexicans but their country blows chunks. It should be a wealthy nation and yet it blows chunks. You have former communist countries that formed democracies only 2 1/2 decades ago that have left Mexico in their dust. Perhaps you think if a nation has pockets of goodness and wealth it can't be 3rd world. Wrong. At best it's near the bottom of the 2nd world.
What is indeed ignorant are all the people who don't seem to know the facts of the case. OK, I'll accept that some things aren't facts but reasonable assumptions based on the preponderance of publicly known evidence. For example:
1. Despite this even being misreported in the media, he was not driving down I-5 ignoring sign after sign and ended up in Mexico. He was leaving a parking lot on the US side of the border. He had walked across the border and was going to stay the night in TJ. He even checked into a TJ hotel. Some suggest he is lying about this as if border crossings can't be verified, as if his checkin with the hotel can't be verified. When you leave that parking lot San Diego is to your left and Mexico is to your right. The exits however are opposite. The signs were poorly lit (since corrected btw) and it was night. It was only his 2nd time leaving that parking lot and his 1st time as the driver.
2. His guns were the guns he legally purchased and owned from FL. He had them in his trunk because he didn't have a permanent place to stay in CA yet.
3. Prior to this incident there is nothing at all in his past to indicate that he was anything other than an normal citizen living a normal life. That doesn't exclude the possibility of malice but it can and should be taken into consideration.
4. He DID suffer a severe concussion from an IED attack and he DID have PTSD severe enough to drive from FL to CA for treatment. That does not necessarily justify his mistake but it certainly amounts to mitigating factors that should be taken into consideration.
Add it all up and you have someone that probably doesn't deserve to spend months, perhaps a year in prison. It's total horse ****. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. And why did I chime in on this thread to begin with? Because the President of Mexico has the stones to criticize the US when we try to clamp down on any of its lawbreakers and even applauds us for issuing driver's licenses to them. But hey, that's what the leaders of 3rd world nations do.
Bottom line: the punishment for stupidity sans malice shouldn't be months in prison, ever.
Last edited by CarawayDJ; 08-31-2014 at 01:10 AM..
Doesn't mean a thing. Most gun owners own more than one gun. I have three. One of my sons has at least a half dozen. I know guys who have several dozen. We don't NEED them at all.
Not attacking you here, but did you do military yourself? If so, were you in any front-line duty? Most of us who were in that kind of duty continue a relationship with guns. And, as I explained previously in this thread, that isn't necessarily a sign of imbalance or increased likelihood of misuse. Conjecture on the basis you infer above is a red herring.
I can think of a few very professional individuals living very straight lives who love guns and own lots of them. You're right, it doesn't mean a thing. I can forgive people for having misconceptions about people who own lots of guns though. A lot of people have never been around guns and can't fathom how anyone could enjoy them. They naturally assume that anyone that owns a bunch of guns is a mass murderer wannabe. It's completely untrue, but a belief many have. I recall reading a trail blog where someone wrote about hunters passing through their camp one morning. They wrote that they were glad the hunters seemed to be friendly....as if we have a big problem with angry hunters hunting hikers lol. Guns and the people who love guns are simply a foreign concept that some people can't get their head around.
Still hard for most to imagine accidentally driving into another country, without video evidence of the route and conditions under which such an event could occur.
Greta Van Surteren of Fox News drove the route and documented precisely how easily this could happen due to lane channeling and bad or graffiti covered signage.
Did Governor Moonbeam even bring of the subject of the marine with the Mexican president or did he just discuss more ways to encourage mass illegal border crossings, with a shiny new driver's license when you get here?
I'm hardly ignorant for calling Mexico a 3rd world nation and a banana republic. I'm fairly certain there are some objective measurements out there somewhere to support me. They measure it in different ways so perhaps there is an outlier that puts it at the bottom of the 2nd world. It's rife with corruption. That makes it a banana republic. Do you see Canadians risking their lives crossing the border? Do you see Canadians sending their children across the border? Do 1 out of 3 Canadians say they would live in the USA if they could for a better life? Do Americans ever get stopped on the highway in Canada and extorted for money? I like Mexicans but their country blows chunks. It should be a wealthy nation and yet it blows chunks. You have former communist countries that formed democracies only 2 1/2 decades ago that have left Mexico in their dust. Perhaps you think if a nation has pockets of goodness and wealth it can't be 3rd world. Wrong. At best it's near the bottom of the 2nd world.
What is indeed ignorant are all the people who don't seem to know the facts of the case. OK, I'll accept that some things aren't facts but reasonable assumptions based on the preponderance of publicly known evidence. For example:
1. Despite this even being misreported in the media, he was not driving down I-5 ignoring sign after sign and ended up in Mexico. He was leaving a parking lot on the US side of the border. He had walked across the border and was going to stay the night in TJ. He even checked into a TJ hotel. Some suggest he is lying about this as if border crossings can't be verified, as if his checkin with the hotel can't be verified. When you leave that parking lot San Diego is to your left and Mexico is to your right. The exits however are opposite. The signs were poorly lit (since corrected btw) and it was night. It was only his 2nd time leaving that parking lot and his 1st time as the driver.
2. His guns were the guns he legally purchased and owned from FL. He had them in his trunk because he didn't have a permanent place to stay in CA yet.
3. Prior to this incident there is nothing at all in his past to indicate that he was anything other than an normal citizen living a normal life. That doesn't exclude the possibility of malice but it can and should be taken into consideration.
4. He DID suffer a severe concussion from an IED attack and he DID have PTSD severe enough to drive from FL to CA for treatment. That does not necessarily justify his mistake but it certainly amounts to mitigating factors that should be taken into consideration.
Add it all up and you have someone that probably doesn't deserve to spend months, perhaps a year in prison. It's total horse ****. The punishment doesn't fit the crime. And why did I chime in on this thread to begin with? Because the President of Mexico has the stones to criticize the US when we try to clamp down on any of its lawbreakers and even applauds us for issuing driver's licenses to them. But hey, that's what the leaders of 3rd world nations do.
Bottom line: the punishment for stupidity sans malice shouldn't be months in prison, ever.
Yes, yes yes to everything you said about corruption in Mexico. It is absolutely true.
But most of you don't visit Mexico and are ignorant to many developments in the country- ironically with problems and all it is also growing economically. My comment was in relation to this particular border crossing.
I have read-up on this guy's situation. I have also crossed that border walking, by car, etc...hundreds of times. I will say it again- his story is fishy. Who knows what he was up to. There are Americans living in Tijuana. There are also quite a few Americans hanging out there involved in illicit activities: drugs, sex, pornography, etc.. They like hanging out in the shadier parts of town.
I don't know if he was there sans malice, that is the issue here. Or, was he just insanely naive? Regardless, he had loaded weapons and had been to Mexico before. We don't know what his intentions were, no matter how people try to spin it.
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