President Obama, Bring Jon Hammar Home!

[tjvh]

There are a ton of threads about this already. 6 months that poor truck driver spent in a mexican prison for taking a wrong turn. Apparently he didn't warrant all the attention this guy who broke Mexican law by bringing a gun into their country does.

Forgetting of course that he declared it, and the gun was an antique.

 

[AmyNation]

I don't think we should subsidize any country.

But I also don't think we have the right to demand a sovereign nation do what we want when our citizens enter their country and break their laws.

It's not a black and white situation. We can and I'm sure we are, trying to negotiate his release. His parents should hold a fundraiser, hire a lawyer and do their part too, just like the family of the trucker.

 

[AmyNation]

There are a ton of threads about this already. 6 months that poor truck driver spent in a mexican prison for taking a wrong turn. Apparently he didn't warrant all the attention this guy who broke Mexican law by bringing a gun into their country does.

Forgetting of course that he declared it, and the gun was an antique.

And?

 

[Foxfyre]

I don't think we should subsidize any country.

But I also don't think we have the right to demand a sovereign nation do what we want when our citizens enter their country and break their laws.

It's not a black and white situation. We can and I'm sure we are, trying to negotiate his release. His parents should hold a fundraiser, hire a lawyer and do their part too, just like the family of the trucker.

When there was every effort made to comply with the law, we should not allow our citizens to be detained and/or imprisoned with impunity. We CAN demand that an injustice be corrected or there will be consequences. I agree, we shouldn't be subsidizing other countries either. But since we are, that should be our leverage to get something done in this case.

 

[AmyNation]

This is at least the third topic about this idiot.

He decides rather than flying to Costa Rica to surf, he will drive there from the US.

He also decides to bring his trusty shotgun with him.

Does he bother to spend the ten minutes it takes to find out what the various laws are about trucking a shotgun through the 5 countries he has to go through to get to Costa Rica?

Does he discover that Mexico, for instance, requires an advance permit? Does he discover other countries require all manner of permits and doctor-certified psych evals and advanced approval to bring a weapon into their respective countries?

No. Of course not. Because he is a simpleton. He figures he will just declare his weapon at the border and they will make an exception to their harsh gun control laws just for this idiot 19 year old surfer dude.

I mean, go ahead and read that letter in the OP. It is screamingly obvious he believed he could just declare his gun at the border. He clearly didn't take ten minutes to check online before he left home to find out the gun laws of Mexico.

He's lucky Mexico caught him, and not Nicaragua or Honduras. He could have been disappeared.

.

^^ from one of the dozen other threads about this topic, and to me, sums it up perfectly.

 

[Foxfyre]

The purpose of this thread is one of many legitimate petitions asking President Obama to bring Jon Hammar home.

 

[wavingrl]

He broke the law with an antique shotgun that he properly prepared the paper work for and submitted in good faith? His only crime was declaring an antique shotgun that was 1 inch shorter than regulation. All the Mexican officials had to do was inform him that he needed to do a different procedure or the gun could not be brought into Mexico and all this would be averted. The ONLY reason this young Marine sits chained to a bed in a Mexican prison is for the purposes of a drug cartel extorting money from his parents or whomever.

Again, why should we subsidize a country that holds our citizens for ransom?

I agree--efforts should be made to obtain his release.

***offtopic rant***

I am beyond frustration when it comes to international diplomacy. 'Everyone'. The idea that 'millions' choose to leave Mexico illegally if necessary and then add to the economic problems in the US--and then receive funding from the US to improve life in Mexico--yes, they should take that into consideration, jmo and certainly not 'how the world works.'

 

[Foxfyre]

He broke the law with an antique shotgun that he properly prepared the paper work for and submitted in good faith? His only crime was declaring an antique shotgun that was 1 inch shorter than regulation. All the Mexican officials had to do was inform him that he needed to do a different procedure or the gun could not be brought into Mexico and all this would be averted. The ONLY reason this young Marine sits chained to a bed in a Mexican prison is for the purposes of a drug cartel extorting money from his parents or whomever.

Again, why should we subsidize a country that holds our citizens for ransom?

I agree--efforts should be made to obtain his release.

***offtopic rant***

I am beyond frustration when it comes to international diplomacy. 'Everyone'. The idea that 'millions' choose to leave Mexico illegally if necessary and then add to the economic problems in the US--and then receive funding from the US to improve life in Mexico--yes, they should take that into consideration, jmo and certainly not 'how the world works.'

Whether or not the USA should subsidize ANY country is a valid subject for debate. But I doubt anybody here think we routinely subsidize other countries out of the goodness of our heart. Such subsidies are mostly for political purposes and for little else.

So, as long as we are playing politics with the taxpayer's money, lets use it for some leverage on behalf of a U.S. citizen who doesn't deserve to be chained to a bed for four months in a Mexican prison.

And if efforts 'behind the scenes' are underway to secure Hammar's release, at the very least his stressed and frantic parents should be told that. According to them, they haven't been.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

As I said elsewhere, I'm not at all surprised the rw's AND the R would happily endanger this guy by using him as a political football.

What would you rw's say about a foreigner breaking our laws?

 

[hazlnut]

I don't know if there is more to this story, but why would anyone transport a short barrel shot gun into Mexico?

These gun boyz do silly things.

 

[Foxfyre]

As I said elsewhere, I'm not at all surprised the rw's AND the R would happily endanger this guy by using him as a political football.

What would you rw's say about a foreigner breaking our laws?

And I'm not at all surprised that you think a U.S. citizen deserves what he gets despite the fact that he did everything he knew to do to comply with the law and had every intention of being legal. A 24" shotgun that was manufactured that way isn't very different from at 25" shotgun. And endangering him by trying to help facilitate his release? You have to be really whacked out to believe that.

And yes, if we detained and imprisoned a foreigner for no worse 'offense' than that, I would be equally as outraged.

 

[High_Gravity]

He broke the law with an antique shotgun that he properly prepared the paper work for and submitted in good faith? His only crime was declaring an antique shotgun that was 1 inch shorter than regulation. All the Mexican officials had to do was inform him that he needed to do a different procedure or the gun could not be brought into Mexico and all this would be averted. The ONLY reason this young Marine sits chained to a bed in a Mexican prison is for the purposes of a drug cartel extorting money from his parents or whomever.

Again, why should we subsidize a country that holds our citizens for ransom?

Because we are idiots, female American reporters get gang raped in Egypt and we still give them billions, why not Mexico?

 

[Foxfyre]

He broke the law with an antique shotgun that he properly prepared the paper work for and submitted in good faith? His only crime was declaring an antique shotgun that was 1 inch shorter than regulation. All the Mexican officials had to do was inform him that he needed to do a different procedure or the gun could not be brought into Mexico and all this would be averted. The ONLY reason this young Marine sits chained to a bed in a Mexican prison is for the purposes of a drug cartel extorting money from his parents or whomever.

Again, why should we subsidize a country that holds our citizens for ransom?

Because we are idiots, female American reporters get gang raped in Egypt and we still give them billions, why not Mexico?

Well, just this once I hope our Fearless Leader feels sufficient compassion to use what we subsidize Mexico as some leverage to do the right thing.

 

[High_Gravity]

He broke the law with an antique shotgun that he properly prepared the paper work for and submitted in good faith? His only crime was declaring an antique shotgun that was 1 inch shorter than regulation. All the Mexican officials had to do was inform him that he needed to do a different procedure or the gun could not be brought into Mexico and all this would be averted. The ONLY reason this young Marine sits chained to a bed in a Mexican prison is for the purposes of a drug cartel extorting money from his parents or whomever.

Again, why should we subsidize a country that holds our citizens for ransom?

Because we are idiots, female American reporters get gang raped in Egypt and we still give them billions, why not Mexico?

Well, just this once I hope our Fearless Leader feels sufficient compassion to use what we subsidize Mexico as some leverage to do the right thing.

We subsidize the shit out of Mexico and their millions of citizens who live here illegally, they should just cut us some slack and let this guy go, what did he do? he didn't kill anyone or anything.

 

[Foxfyre]

Because we are idiots, female American reporters get gang raped in Egypt and we still give them billions, why not Mexico?

Well, just this once I hope our Fearless Leader feels sufficient compassion to use what we subsidize Mexico as some leverage to do the right thing.

We subsidize the shit out of Mexico and their millions of citizens who live here illegally, they should just cut us some slack and let this guy go, what did he do? he didn't kill anyone or anything.

Well of course he is being held ransom by the drug cartel. And a payoff would probably secure his release. But that is the most galling part of it. That the Mexican government would allow that to happen. And any payoff provides huge encouragment for them to find other things with which to charge Americans and then hold them for ransom.

 

[Foxfyre]

As of this morning, the tentative news is that he is being released and in fact may already be back in the states. And it was a Mexican judge who ruled in his favor.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. . . .

 

[High_Gravity]

Well, just this once I hope our Fearless Leader feels sufficient compassion to use what we subsidize Mexico as some leverage to do the right thing.

We subsidize the shit out of Mexico and their millions of citizens who live here illegally, they should just cut us some slack and let this guy go, what did he do? he didn't kill anyone or anything.

Well of course he is being held ransom by the drug cartel. And a payoff would probably secure his release. But that is the most galling part of it. That the Mexican government would allow that to happen. And any payoff provides huge encouragment for them to find other things with which to charge Americans and then hold them for ransom.

The Mexican government IS a Cartel basically hon, those top Cartel guys have government posts too.

 

[High_Gravity]

As of this morning, the tentative news is that he is being released and in fact may already be back in the states. And it was a Mexican judge who ruled in his favor.

Let's keep our fingers crossed. . . .

I hope this is true.

 

[jasonnfree]

I think Obama should help, but he didn't help former democratic congresswoman Cynthia McKinney when Israel imprisoned her after hijacking her boat in international waters either.

 

[Katzndogz]

obama has always maintained he had no idea Hammar was even being held. Not even after he was told Hammar was being held.