As if the country needs more proof that Donald Trump has unleashed a war against immigrants, the State of Mississippi proves it again with a legal filing. Mississippi’s legal filing lays out clearly that the war on immigrants is about treating immigrants as unhuman devoid of the constitution’s protections. The Mississippi filing argues that it is ok to kill immigrants because they have no rights.
(The following is based on official investigation documents)
On a Monday night, a little before midnight, two Southaven police officers; Zachary Durden and Samuel Maze knocked on the door of Ismael Lopez Rodriguez. When Lopez opened the door to his home, a dog ran out. The two officers shot their guns. “One officer fired one shot at the dog and the other officer fired four shots towards the front porch.” Lopez was shot “at the base of his skull,” killing him.
The forensic report found that the gunshot that killed Lopez entered from the back of his head at the base of his skull.
Ismael Lopez was a citizen of México and an undocumented immigrant.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation concluded that no charges were to be filed against the two police officers who killed Lopez. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declined to prosecute on October 23, 2018 because “civil rights violations could not be successfully prosecuted.”
The facts that the evidence collected show that the two officers were not sure if the address they were knocking on was the correct one. They stated that it was common to knock on doors so that the house members could direct them to the appropriate door because addresses were not clear in the area.
Both officers agreed that the door was answered by an individual holding a rifle that was pointed at one of the officers. The other officer felt threatened by a dog that ran out the door as the door was opened and shot one round at it.
The other officer upon hearing his partner discharge his weapon responded by shooting at Lopez at the doorway. It should be noted that the officers clearing the structure encountered a dog locked in one room that promptly peed itself out of fear of the officers. The other occupant of the house told the investigators that she locked up the dog in one room after the shooting and before being “secured” by the officers. She advised the officers where the dog was and that there were no other people in the house.
In response to the refusal to prosecute the police officers, the estate of the victim filed a civil suit.
This is where the war on immigrants becomes very apparent.
The family of Ismael Lopez filed a $20 million civil rights lawsuit against the city of Southaven.
In response the city’s attorneys argued in court that “because the victim was an undocumented immigrant, he wasn’t protected by the U.S. Constitution.”
You read that correctly, the police officers that killed Ismael Lopez cannot be held to account because Lopez does not have the constitutional right to not be killed, at least according to the Mississippi filing.
Clearly, now that Donald Trump has unleashed a war against immigrants, the xenophobes are taking the next logical step, making sure immigrants can be killed on America’s streets.
