
Border Patrol Chief Was Member of Secret Facebook Group - jbegley
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/12/border-patrol-chief-carla-provost-was-a-member-of-secret-facebook-group/
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justicezyx
Chinese and American are now strikingly consistent in condemning people's
integrity through obviously private activity. I am certainly feel dismayed
that the aspect of freedom turns out to be diminishing, as was admired when I
am coming to this country.

Disclaimer: Chinese national holding a US permanent residency

~~~
mattnewton
I think I understand your objection that this is a private forum, but we (some
Americans, and unfortunately inconsistently) hold our public law enforcement
officials to a high standard of appearing impartial. The impartiality is
important because law enforcement is supposed to enforce the law equally and
fairly. Activities like this Facebook group suggest ulterior motives and
loyalties to a particular party or ideology other than the oath they took to
protect and serve, which undermines public trust and respect of LEO. It feeds
into a harmful narrative of Us vs Them which harms all enforcement’s
effectiveness.

It is absolutely in the public interest to understand the character of someone
they are hiring for a public job that has community trust as a requirement.

Edit: This is also news because she effectively mislead the public about her
involvement by condemning it and implying she only recently learned of it’s
existence.

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PhasmaFelis
You're right about needing to hold law enforcement to a higher standard, but
honestly these people should face consequences even by civilian standards. If
you work at McDonald's, and you go on a forum for McDonald's employees and
brag about screwing up customer's orders all the time for fun, there is
nothing wrong with McDonald's firing you for that.

~~~
traderjane
When an employer releases an employee, the rationale imposed upon the employer
ought not be ones motivated by social punishment, but rather pure business
pragmatism. It's not the employer's job to punish individuals that society
doesn't like, such as firing them for racism at McDonalds.

Should a racist never have a job?

~~~
PhasmaFelis
These are people whose job duties are, in part, protecting the lives of
immigrants, and they're laughing about the deaths of those same immigrants.
Their _specific_ bigotry clearly makes them unsuitable for this _specific_
job.

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cafard
Should this be "Secret Facebook Group"?

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merpnderp
More evidence that social media drives people to be cruel, stupid, and callow.
How is it possible so many people post publicly, or semi-publicly, content
which would be considered crass, childish, and un-professional at best and
fireable at worst.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I'd say it's more evidence that (many) people are cruel, stupid, and callow,
and social media gives them the chance to expose who they really are. (It may
also encourage their worse impulses rather than their better ones, but I think
that they are bringing out who they already are. Social media isn't really
changing them.)

~~~
merpnderp
We all have it in us to be monsters. It's just social media encourages and
rewards people who show their monstrous side.

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dashundchen
I know this post is going to turn into a partisan debate, but I strongly urge
everyone to read up about this disturbing group and recent CBP behavior and
decide if this is acceptable for a armed and increasingly unaccountable
federal police force, one that has had gained influence away from the border
to regular citizens over the past decades.

This is not a problem exclusive to this administration, these attitudes and
actions have been going on for years and are wholly unacceptable for a nation
that claims to respect human rights:

[https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-
face...](https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-
group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes)

[https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-
zone](https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone)

[https://theintercept.com/2019/07/05/border-patrol-
facebook-g...](https://theintercept.com/2019/07/05/border-patrol-facebook-
group/)

> On the topic of dead children, Eric Castillo separately posted a video of a
> large, child-sized portion of meat being wrapped in foil and then roasted
> over an open flame. The foil resembles the mylar blankets that unaccompanied
> children are given in Border Patrol custody.

> “Little tonk blanket ideas!” Castillo wrote. ["Tonk" referring to the sound
> of beating someone in the head with a flashlight]

>When a member of the group raised the point that “’I was just following
orders’ hasn’t been an effective defense in about 72 years,” Bob Wilkinson,
who lists his former occupation as Border Patrol supervisor and his current
occupation as a U.S. government contractor, replied, “Are you a PA or a
fucking snowflake.” Wilkinson went on to write that while he had “never killed
anyone,” he had “used my share of force.”

“The fact that the President recognizes rocks as deadly weapons is a good
thing,” he wrote.

> At that point, Castillo joined the conversation, lamenting about missing an
> opportunity to shoot a migrant while on the job. “Bro im gonna go home alive
> to my family and stop the threat!!” he wrote. “See it how you will. Ive been
> rocked before and missed my chance to pop a round before due to me falling
> to avoid the rock.. Fucker ran back to the river..But I learned for next
> time.. Don’t be a freaking debbie downer bro..”

> Before long, group members, including Gabriel Gonzalez, Zack Smith, Anthony
> Ramos, Rick Mora Jr., and Michael Scherer, were sharing photos of documents
> — including what appears to be intake forms — that showed migrants’ names.
> Christian Macias added photos of government IDs belonging to five different
> individuals to the comment thread.

> On May 31, a user shared an image of the U.S. embassy in Honduras on fire.
> “Easy enough to do the same thing to all their asylum paperwork…” Gamel
> Lechner commented.

