The Lügenpresse is at it again. Not content with the Biden Open Borders and the Biden Regime Administrative Amnesty, with the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) taken off the border and assigned to processing false claims to asylum and cutting border fencing, the Open Border lobby has launched another fraudulent attack on the USBP for a shooting they were involved in on the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation.
Indian reservations are generally exclusive Federal jurisdiction for law enforcement, with the Tohono O’odham Nation Police Department (TONPD) the primary agency for crimes other than immigration and customs offenses. TONPD is an agency that is trained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), usually at the facility in Artesia, NM, where the Indian Police Academy is collocated, and is also the main training facility for the USBP. The Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has general authority over the reservation governments and law enforcement accountability, but that activity is hands-off unless the BIA itself provides police services directly under the Office of Justice Services (OJS).
The TONPD is not a BIA law enforcement agency, but is an accredited independent law enforcement agency accredited by the BIA. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is supposed to conduct all important criminal investigations in Indian Territory, but they are too busy investigating Latin Mass Catholics, mostly peaceful January 6 protestors, and Donald Trump voters to perform the work they are supposed to do.
The TONPD is, like all Indian country law enforcement agencies, understaffed and overworked, so the TONPD relies on assistance from other Federal law enforcement agencies, usually the USBP, because the USBP has the most personnel in the area, though the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service have property in or near the TON Reservation and Rangers from those two Services do assist TONPD as well. But the USBP is the primary agency that TONPD calls for assistance.
In this case, a local ne’er do well, Raymond Mattia, was shot and killed in a confrontation with TONPD officers and Border Patrol Agents (BPA). Mattia was a person of interest in a shooting of his ex-girlfriend the day before he was shot and the TONPD requested assistance from the USBP because they received a shots-fired call from the same ex-girlfriend. The BPAs and TONPD officers went to Mattia’s home, where he proceeded to throw a sheathed machete at the agents and officers, then reach into his pocket as if drawing a weapon, disobey commands to stop, and was subsequently shot dead. It turns out that what he was drawing when told to stop and put his hands up was a cell phone. Basically this was a suicide-by-cop situation.
However, the Lying Press had a field day, led by the always unreliable Reason magazine, which claimed that Mattia called the USBP to report illegal aliens and was shot for no reason at all.
Raymond Mattia, a man of the Tohono O’odham Nation from Menagers Dam near the American side of the Arizona/Mexico border, called U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents for help last week, according to a family member quoted by News 4 Tucson. “He called to request for assistance because there were multiple illegal immigrants who had trespassed into his yard and he wanted assistance getting them out of his property.”
When they arrived last Thursday night, for reasons yet unknown, those Border Patrol agents shot Mattia dead.
Border Patrol Shoots and Kills Arizona Man Who Called Them for Help, by Brian Doherty, Reason, May 22, 2023
The FBI is already investigating the shooting, but Supreme Court precedent will make it nearly impossible for Raymond Mattia's family to find justice through civil courts.https://t.co/f8bNUrf0PA
— reason (@reason) May 28, 2023
Doherty gets nothing correct about the story other than that Mattia was shot dead. He did not call to report illegal aliens, the USBP was not responding to his call, the USBP did not just shoot him for no reason. Doherty doesn’t get anything correct.
The New York Times was all over the story, as they hate the USBP and the mission of arresting illegal aliens. The Times lied as well. The NYT, and others, frequently breathlessly report shocking information about the USBP, allegations of misconduct and concern about use-of-force incidents, none of which ever turns out to be actual misconduct or illegal use-of-force. In this case, the NYT does not openly lie as Reason did, but it did the old switcheroo—it wasn’t about the shooting, but about the non-existent outcry over the shooting—and described a fictional reign of terror!
His death has touched off an outcry on the Tohono O’odham (pronounced Toh-HO-noh AW-tham) Nation, which lies along 62 miles of the southern border, and stirred up long-running resentments over the federal agency’s presence on the Native American territory.
Tribal members pass through border-security checkpoints stationed just outside the reservation on their way to Tucson, the nearest big city, and say they are regularly pulled over and questioned—encounters that have left a film of fear and distrust.
Native Americans Caught in Border Strife on Their Own Land, by Jack Healy, NYT, August 7, 2023
“I’m always on guard, always scared, nervous,” said Vivian Manuel, who lives near Mr. Mattia’s village. “They’ll harass you: What are you doing out here? Are you a tribal member?”
The Intercept took the cake. In a long story about all they get to after their endless allegations that the shooting was bad, was that the suspect’s family members did not get good enough treatment from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) victims’ rights coordinator, even though Mattia was not a victim, but a criminal suspect and not entitled to any assistance.
Ahead of the meeting, at the request of the assistant U.S. attorney leading the government’s case, Stitt shared a list of the family’s questions. The two sides had agreed that they qualified as victims under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. That meant the family was entitled to rights established in revised guidelines Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled in 2022.
The new rules — which went into effect this year and which Garland described as “victim-centered and trauma-informed” — advise federal authorities that a “strong presumption exists in favor of providing, rather than withholding, assistance and services” to victims. In meetings, the guidelines say, prosecutors should strive to both obtain and share information.
Justice Department Won’t Charge Border Patrol Agents Who Killed Native Man, by Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept, October 11, 2023
Devereaux deceptively mischaracterized the body-worn camera footage, suggesting that edits of the video footage were part of a coverup.
In June, Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, released body camera footage of his final moments there, compiled in a 28-minute edited video.
Devereaux also deliberately lies, claiming that Mattia called the USBP to report illegal aliens, something that he already refuted in a previous story.
Shortly before he was killed, Mattia had exchanged a series of text messages with his sister, reporting that three men—presumed border crossers—had been in his home demanding to use his phone. The confrontation was apparently tense, with Mattia grabbing his hunting knife to run the men off. Mattia told his sister he called authorities to report the incident.
Devereaux previously reported what had happened: the TONPD had identified Mattia as a suspect in a previous shooting and were responding that night to a shots-fired report near the home of Mattia’s ex-girlfriend.
At around 9 p.m. on May 18, according to CBP, a Border Patrol station in Arizona’s remote west desert received a call for assistance from the Tohono O’odham authorities. The tribal police had received a report of shots fired in Menagers Dam, a Tohono O’odham village on the U.S.-Mexico border, 140 miles southwest of Tucson.
In a recording of the call, a Tohono O’odham police dispatcher reported that two tribal officers were headed to the village. A convoluted story then followed, involving multiple unidentified people and a restraining order, and mentioned a report of a shooting the previous day and a dangerous man in the area with a rifle. No names or addresses were relayed by Tohono O’odham authorities, and the origin of the purported shots was unclear.
“Everybody is saying they heard two,” the dispatcher said. “Nobody can pinpoint where it came from.”
Border Patrol Video of Killing Shows Native Man Had No Gun, Complied With Orders, by Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept, June 26, 2023
With Devereaux, we go from ”the TONPD are investigating a shooting” to ”the Border Patrol was responding to reports of illegal aliens.” Devereaux gave a factual account in his first story, but then went with the lie in his second story. Usually with the press, they lie first, then report the truth later, deep in the back pages beneath the fold. The very essence of the Lying Press.
This is par for The Intercept, which have a long history of lying about border and immigration issues.
Here is the video (graphic, you’re going to have to click to see it) showing clearly that the BPAs were responding to assist the TONPD with a shooting complaint related to Mattia. The TONPD officer even describes Mattia as a “motherf***er.” [At 6:20 in the video.] So you know the TONPD know all about Mattia and his criminality.
Shooting Of Mattia
It is clear from the video of the shooting that Mattia was committing suicide-by-cop. Why else would he throw a machete at the officers and agents? Why else would he bring out a cell phone as if he was drawing a gun when told to put his hands up? Well, suicide-by-cop or drugs.
Guess what The Intercept and the NYT did not report? Yeah, Mattia was drunk and on drugs.
Mattia, 58, was shot at least nine times, according to the autopsy report. The cause of death was listed as gunshot wounds while the manner of death was homicide. The homicide finding has nothing to do with legal charges.
The toxicology report showed Mattia had a blood alcohol content of .185. He also had methamphetamine and oxycodone in his system.
Autopsy Released For Man Killed In Shooting On Tohono O’odham Nation, KOLD, June 22, 2023
So, it appears that Devereaux was trying to create a George Floyd event, but failed miserably. Every reporter wants to break the next Watergate story, but since there are so few Watergate stories, most reporters are left to lie to create news.
So, the lesson is never trust the press on any Border Patrol related story, or anything else.
