Eleven young people were arrested in connection with a July 4th attack at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvaredo, Texas. A twelfth person, Benjamin Hanil Song, is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at ICE officers. Mr. Song is still at large.
The Alvaredo assault was a terrorist attack. The arrested suspects were dressed in black, military-style clothing and equipped with radios and body armor. Multiple gunshots were fired, and one police officer was wounded in the neck. If convicted on federal charges, all the defendants will serve long prison sentences.
What were these knuckleheads thinking? According to news reports, the group shot off fireworks to lure ICE agents into the open, and one or more of the suspects shot at the officers. Some of the assailants are said to have vandalized government vehicles and spray-painted anti-ICE epithets on them.
This doesn't make sense to me. If their purpose was to murder federal agents, why did this ragtag gang waste time by spray-painting cars?
I found myself wondering whether all twelve suspects were on the same page. Did they all really plan to murder federal agents, or were some of them intent solely on vandalism?
I would like to know more about these individuals. How were these sad sacks radicalized? Did they attend college? If so, where?
How have these young people supported themselves over the years? Did they have jobs?
Who procured the body armor, firearms, and radios for this project? Who paid for all this stuff?
If my ruminations suggest that I feel sorry for these clowns, it is because I do. If these miscreants did what they are charged with doing, then, like Charlie Manson's followers, they've thrown their lives away.
Someone apparently talked these nitwits into embarking on a fool's errand. I hope the people who egged these alleged amateur terrorists on and bankrolled the Alvaredo escapade are found out and go to prison for a very long time.
In the meantime, we should remember that the allegations against the Alvarado 12 are just that--allegations. As more facts are revealed, we might conclude that none of the eleven people under arrest are guilty of attempted murder. Indeed, I hope that proves to be the case.
