Abbott: Texas Would Shoot Migrants, But Biden “Would Charge Us With Murder”
motherjones.com
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has told a right-wing radio host that there’s only one tool the state isn’t using to stop migrants from crossing the border into Texas: gun violence, because it would prompt a response from the pesky federal government.
“The only thing that we are not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border—because, of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder,” the Republican governor told former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch on her radio show last week.
Yeah that's because it's murder...
yeaa
Biden isn't a law enforcement official. He's not a DA. He's not a police officer. He doesn't have the ability to have you arrested. I suspect Abbott knows this, but his constituents are too fucking stupid to understand the difference.
Biden is human though, which apparently disqualifies him from the Republican Party
The president can absolutely arrest people
in a "citizens arrest", sure. But he physically himself cannot perform police functions. If he orders an arrest and the arrest is illegal then that person would be acquitted.
What law says that?
Can you provide something that says he can? Let’s see it.
The US constitution? The President can do really anything they want within the law. There’s no really reason The President can’t arrest people.
Anyone can do whatever they want within the law…..
You're asking for evidence of something that doesn't exist. If I'm wrong, point to the laws and rules that say I can't tell you that.
For folk in the States it's a mix of the 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution with mostly individual state laws determining the validity of what constitutes an officer of the law and how a citizen arrest works as part of that individual State's Criminal code.
If you're Canadian it's federal law 494 of the Criminal Code.
To be honest it's really bloody difficult trying to accurately cite US law in discussion because States have a frankly ridiculous amount of binding power on their citizens which means there are 50+ laws about how exactly citizen versus peace officer arrest is handled... But most of them outline fairly specific limitations like it whether a citizen's arrest can be applicable for misdemeanors, restrictions on what constitutes a reasonable use of force, rights of an arrested person, what constitutes a humane restriction of person and the requirement of validating the arrest with a judge within a certain time period... You know Haebeous Corpus and all that.
Biden's Presidential powers probably give him a lot of extra leeway against laws that would persecute him for doing an improper citizen's arrest but that wouldn't make an improper arrest stick any more than if you did it. A President is still legally a citizen and not a law enforcement officer.
I'm sorry, do you think we need a law that says the President can't personally arrest people?
Yikes... Read a book.
Off-topic, but how do you get the 3 Arrows symbol in front of your username?
You can make it anything if you got to your profile settings. Upper right hand corner if your lemmy instance's home page usually.
On the other hand, if Abbot did indeed order his people to start murdering migrants, you know that the decision to move forward with prosecution would need at least a half nod from Biden. At least on the federal level.
No it wouldn't. The president isn't part of the judiciary.
But they certainly tried , example being President Buchanan and his attempt to interfere in the Dred Scott Case.
The Judiciary doesn't decide prosecution, the Attorney General does.
In this case, that would be Merrick Garland, who was appointed by Biden, and serves on Biden's Cabinet.
Do remember that the President of the United States is the head of the Executive Branch, of which the Department of Justice is a part. This is basic High School civics stuff.
The AG acts independently of the president. This issue will never land on the president’s desk. The only recourse he has is to fire the AG if he does (not) prosecute. If he does that he should be impeached.
That "independence" is mostly a fiction.
It's not actually enforced by any law.
Yeah because it’s federal policy not to just shoot somebody that crossed the border. Put the fucking politics aside for a second, this guy said the only reason we don’t kill them is because it’s against federal law. Yeah no shit.
It's not the reason sane people don't start murdering, but it is the reason Abbott hasn't.
Says more about Abbott than it does the rest of us.
But no, the point was that arresting a sitting governor would be a massive political move, and the AG would likely run that by his boss (the president) before doing it. But I get the feeling he would still do it regardless, and that Biden would okay it regardless.
"I'd totally murder people, but that evil federal government would lock me up for murder? Can you believe the audacity?!!! I really want to murder these people, but they won't let me. Total government overreach! Whatever happened to states' rights?"
Stupid Biden... enforcing the... checks notes ...Seventh Commandment.
Isn’t that no stealing. Or do you mean the seventh amendment which is the right to trial by jury?
Interesting enough, there's a variety of numberings applied to the commandments:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments#Numbering
'Thou shalt not commit adultery' or 'Thou shalt not steal' is commandment 7
'Thou shalt not kill' is commandment 5, 6, or 8
Edit: grammar
Just when I think Texas can’t be any more of an embarrassment than it already is a Texas Republican opens their mouth again.
As a Texan, I hope Ken pushes Abbot off a cliff and dives down after.
Isn’t there something in the Bible about not murdering?
Only if they're not Christian, American-born, white, and right-leaning - other than that, the Bible states it's "open season". /s, just in case
Edit: I can't tell my left hand from my right hand. They're hands, please pardon me for my confusion.
Plus darker skin don’t count. Everyone in the Bible is pure white so those with darker skin aren’t saved
Christians seem to be mostly all about leaning hard right these days (in spite of the teachings of the new testament) why would they want to protect left leaning people? Typo?
You are correct. It's a typo. I'm drunk
They must be working to toss that rule in with the "wearing mixed fabrics in one garment" garbage bin.
In fairness, despite the Bible saying murder is wrong, there's also a shitload of passages saying it's right. It's not really a piece of literature that makes a great deal of sense.
As fucked as it is, I hope someone pushes this fuck off his wheelchair.
“Let me tell you something else. I've seen a lot of spinals, Dude, and this guy is a fake. A fucking goldbricker. This guy fucking walks.”
I’m just sayin dude
Just an accidental brake malfunction. A Mac and Me moment.
You mean an Ant-man moment.
Over a cliff.
It's not fucked. Abbot is an unapologetic monster and a threat to all Texans. I hope he dies in a slow, horrible fashion. Ken Paxton too.
My 21 yr old daughter and i were talking about this article and I was like "I'd THIS IS SPARTA! this dickhead right down some stairs" fuck piss baby Abbott.
Then he can show us how to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps!
It's a shame the tree didn't do a better job
Uh chaps, are you aware that your country is derailing faster than a train with toxic shit in Ohio?
Texas does not represent the whole country.
Edit: Downvoted by people who have never been to the States.
Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Alabama. I'm sure there's more awful US states.
Tennessee, Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota. 13 states out of 50.
All of those (some more than others) have large blue pockets of sane people and the maggats are in the outskirts. The only reason the maggats have control is thanks to gerry mandering and scaring the more gullible.
Also get NC off that list. It's a bright purple state. Anyone who thinks that the NC is the same as Texas or even Tennessee has never been to Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Durham, etc. I say this is a born and ashamed Floridian but have been in NC for awhile now.
You'd think some of these red states would secede by now.
It's forbidden for them to leave rhe Union. Good luck to them trying to do it a second time.
Have an upvote. To expand on this, all of Texas doesn't represent Texas or the USA. There is a non zero chance of Texas flipping blue in the next decade or so.
It's really fun to be on the Internet and watch disconnected twats talk down to Americans about the problems we've been dreading for decades.
Ye, I've noticed the casual erosion of decency in my country like a sinkhole spreading from the south. It's hard to miss and harder to fix.
This guy is unhinged
It's much worse than that - he's accurately assessed what his voters want to hear.
Just standard repub shit.
I'd shoot Abbott if I could, but it's immoral, and I'd get charged with murder, so I won't.
Is that how that goes? We can say that as long as we admit we won't do it because of the repercussions? Oh wait, this racist white racist trash is just pissed at the repercussions and not the immorality of the act. Fuck this peg leg piece of shit.
I thought the Bible was the only thing keeping Texans from killing people, but apparently it’s Joe Biden.
From now on this is going to be my response if a Christian asks me what’s preventing my atheist self from doing all the murdering I want.
“That pesky Joe Biden.”
Imagine if mexico started mowing down americans travelling across the border. Or canada shooting americans at the border
Or Coloradans shooting Texans at the Oklahoma border.
That little panhandle that Texas had to cede in order to join the union as a slave state could be the DMZ.
A boy can dream, I suppose.
As an Okie, I support the shootings, on sight, of Texans
Damn this man is evil af.
Even the trees hate this asshole
Omg I choked on my Diet Coke.
So he's saying that Biden cares about the Constitution and assholes like Abbott do not?
Will Christian Conservative Republicans like Abbott ever recognize that killing goes against their Gods Commandments? It seems these bloodthirsty degenerates conveniently overlook it.
They twist the bible into what fits their agenda and ignore everything that doesn't. They are not good people.
Thump more than read
Supply side Jesus condones these things.
These people will literally apply the death penalty for jaywalkers as long as the jaywalker is "them* (i.e. non white l, male, or just someone they slightly disagree with) and then scream online about how theyre protected from censorship by the first amendment.
It's so Christian to want to do that to poor people but to not do it to prevent legal trouble. Like Jesus said once in almost every page of that playbook...speed holes!
WWJS: Who would Jesus shoot
Greg Abbott. Or rather he'd throw an oak tree at him.
Someone gonna tell Jesus he missed and needs to take another shot?
Jesus wasn't trying to kill him, he was just trying to send a message. Greg completely missed the message.
c/NotTheOnion
Yes, because that IS murder.
It's murder only in the case of humans, and we know what they think of the "others"..
Shit states gonna shit state
Both trash people.
Right, because I wasn’t already aware that republicans are worthless shitbags.
Greg Abbott is the only cripple I'd gladly push out of their wheelchair in Phoenix and watch them suffer.
Why morons get leadership positions. A lot to digest
“And we’d be murdering these folks but the radicals in government consider murdering people who have the right to do this to be murder”
And yes people who believe they qualify for refugee status have the legal right to illegally cross borders in an attempt to enter a safe country.
i guess Joe lives to ruin their notion of fun down in Texas.. hunting innocent neighbors in need when they're at their most vulnerable.. what a joyful place Texas must be..
What about just shooting nazi's instead of migrants? Are we allowed to do that? What about nazi's in wheelchairs? It's not murder if it's not human, right?
Conservatives don't see normal people as humans, but boy do they hate it when that dehumanization is applied to them.
Business bases in Texas should pull off now. It is worse than Xitter ads.
Biden would be right to do so.
I want to charge him with Treason and ordering an armed insurrection against the country. Take him out by force and keep him at GITMO until he can stand trial.
https://apnews.com/article/texas-immigration-supreme-court-border-patrol-b9e0cec057a8d8a0a947b7c77ec80c0b
Those are armed forces disobeying federal law and federal officers.
Nothing can stop Greg Abbott!… except stairs and probably trees.
Just like the good book said.
Then they wonder why AI would take us out. Is anyone seeing this sh!t?!?!
I know I should comment on the article but I immediately said your username 3 times fast, until I dissolved into giggles. Thanks very much for that.