``It is simple,'' Magee said, without commenting on Wednesday's
incident. ``Our general use-of-force policy is, minimum force necessary to
compel compliance. You use only the force necessary depending on the
circumstance -- if someone in the water is using a knife, for
example.''
Magee said an investigation will determine what prompted crew members
to use a fire hose when the six Cubans were still in their boat, and later
to aim pepper spray at swimmers striking out for shore.
``From our standpoint, until the facts are in we can't determine what
that person was thinking,'' he said, speaking of the crew's motivation.
All incidents involving the use of force are investigated, he said.
Last year there were 50 such cases.
``All were basically resolved concurring with the law enforcement
officer's'' decision, Magee said. ``Force is used in self defense, and in
the defense of others.''
Miami attorney Anthony Upshaw, who left the Coast Guard in 1987 as a
lieutenant, said training manuals -- and regulations set down by each
Coast Guard district -- make it clear that disabling spray is an extreme
measure.
The most extreme measure, using a firearm, is authorized only to
protect an officer's life.
``In five years in the Coast Guard and two years as a senior boarding
officer I had to draw a weapon once,'' he said, describing a predawn
interception of a cargo ship.
Pepper spray is a step down from a gun, he said, and is designed to
subdue a suspect trying to assault an officer.
``It appeared from what I saw,'' he said, speaking of television
footage, ``that it [using pepper spray] was an overuse of force
. . . it was not being used to protect Coast Guard personnel
from bodily injury.''
Coast Guardsmen are taught, he said, that if a person in the water is
uncooperative, the best technique is to block escape until the person is
tired and gives up.
The frustration of coping with overwhelming numbers of illegal aliens
should not have been a factor, Upshaw said. Compared with last year's
arrests of more than 1.5 million people on the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico
border by the Border Patrol, the Coast Guard's migrant workload is
relatively small.
Upshaw said it appeared that crew members used the spray and the fire
hose to put a quick end to a situation. Training manuals call for the
senior officer on a group of boats to be in charge of the operation,
monitored by their superior officer ashore.
``I don't know who was in charge of that scene,'' he said, ``but my
impression was that it quickly became a newsworthy event and they wanted
to conclude it as quickly as possible.''
The irony is, he said, speaking of those who used the pepper spray,
``that if those guys [the swimmers] had started to go under, any one of
them [the crew] would have jumped into the water to save them.''
Retired Army Lt. Col. Piers Wood, an analyst with the Center for
Defense Information in Washington who studied the Coast Guard in 1997,
said it has struggled with its dual mission of saving lives and acting as
a law enforcement agency.
Since the early 1980s, that role has increasingly involved seizing
drugs and halting alien smuggling, leading to actions that have offended
some U.S. fishermen and recreational boaters.
``Many fishermen say the Guard, once their ally, now exerts itself as
much to disrupt lives as to save them,'' Mick Kronman, a Californian who
writes about maritime matters, said in Reason Magazine. ``What happened to
make the Guard go from heroism to harassment? The war on drugs.''
Jack Cowell, a Washington analyst studying migration policy, said the
truth about Tuesday's incident may be that ``this is really the way the
Coast Guard meets its goal of stopping illegal aliens.''
``What makes this unusual,'' he said, ``is that we got to see this live
on TV.''
email: pbrinkley-rogers@herald.comForce used on immigrants not called for in training