U.S. Justice Department Rejects #CivilRights Complaint Filed for Murder of #RaymondMattia by #USBorderPatrol

By #OpheliaRivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, via #CensoredNews, January 6, 2025

"The system of justice for the killing of an American Indian is as expected by the people. The numerous federal agents on the Tohono O'odham reservation are justified in killing our people as they will not be held accountable by the system that pays them to be heavily armed and unmonitored on our land.

"The border patrol have not been prosecuted for deaths, rapes, molestations and human and drug trafficking.

"The Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice wrote to me:

"'The tragic death of Raymond Mattia, who was shot and killed at his home, by officers of U.S Customs and Border Patrol agents Whitehouse, SiFuentes, and Torralva, on May 18, 2023.'

'Mr. Mattia’s death was indeed a tragic loss. Mr. Mattia’s death was indeed a tragic loss. However, the information provided about the circumstances surrounding his death does not disclose a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes enforced by the Criminal Section. Therefore, we regret that we are unable to assist with this matter."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/us-justice-dept-rejects-civil-rights.html

#JusticeForRay #JusticeForRayMattia #ACAB #CivilRightsViolation
#Murder #Tohono #Oodham #Arizona #MurderPatrol

U.S. Justice Dept Rejects Civil Rights Complaint Filed for Murder of Raymond Mattia by U.S. Border Patrol

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents who Murdered #RaymondMattia, #TohonoOodham, Identified

Tucson Sentinel, reporter Paul Ingram, reports: "Three #BorderPatrol agents involved in the fatal shooting of a Tohono O'odham man in front of his home in 2023 were identified in legal filings on Friday.

"Earlier this year, the family of 58-year-old Raymond Mattia filed a lawsuit, accusing Border Patrol of excessive force and demanding the names of the agents who killed him.

"Attorneys Ryan Stitt and Marcus Bourassa filed an amended complaint, and on Friday issued a summons for Border Patrol Agents Scott Whitehouse, Dan Sifuentes, and Ivan Torralva, who they said 'shot and killed Raymond for no reason.'

"'Despite the lack of a threat and his compliance, at least three of the agents met his compliant calm demeanor with a hail of gunfire,' the attorneys wrote. Whitehouse, Sifuentes, and Torralva 'all fired their weapons at Mr. Mattia."

Excerpt posted in #CensoredNews:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/us-border-patrol-agents-who-murdered.html

Read more:
https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/121324_border_agents_named/bp-agents-involved-fatal-shooting-tohonooodham-man-named-l

#ACAB #JusticeForRaymondMattia #CivilRightsViolation #Murder #JusticeForRayMattia #Tohono #Oodham #Arizona #MurderPatrol

U.S. Border Patrol Agents Identified who Murdered Raymond Mattia

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

U.S. Justice Department Complaint Filed for the Murder of #RaymondMattia, #Tohono #Oodham, by U.S. Border Patrol and Tribal Police

Civil Rights Complaint filed by Ophelia Rivas, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, and Signees

November 28,2024 Press Release, via #CensoredNews

"A complaint has been filed on November 7, 2024 with the Civil Rights Section of the United States Department of Justice seeking justice for violation of Mr. Raymond Mattia Sr. civil and constitutional rights.

"The unjust decisions made thus far are a blatant cover-up of biased processes and laws pertaining to American Indians.

"We strongly urge immediate compliance with the Interagency Memorandum of Agreement on December 1, 2022, regarding criminal investigations on Indian Country in the homicide of Raymond Mattia Sr.

"The Interagency MOU press release states, 'Department of Justice is committed to working with the Department of Interior and the FBI is committed to ongoing and continued collaboration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs,' said FBI Director Christopher Wray' on December 2, 2022.

"The Arizona prosecutor ruled there was a 'just cause' of 38 shots and 11 bullets striking a peaceful unarmed American Indian man.

"Raymond Mattia Sr. had called tribal police for assistance, undocumented persons had entered his home demanding the use of his cellphone. Ray stepped out of his one-room home doorway as shown on the Homeland Security border patrol body cameras and complied to the demands of over 10 border patrols and 1 tribal police.

[Graphic description of Raymond's murder has been omitted]

"According to Zach Stoebe, public affairs with the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, the homicide of Raymond Mattia Sr. is, 'a case that does not rise to the level of a federal criminal civil rights violation or a criminal violation in Arizona law.' (USA Today, Oct. 16, 2023)

"We call for justice for an American Indian man, Raymond Mattia Sr., a human, an O'odham, a member of the federally-recognized Tohono O'odham Nation. Ray is a father, a brother, a hereditary ceremony leader, a community councilman and a friend with a Right to Live and Exist.

"This is the legacy of the United States of America regarding the American Indian. Truth Day November 28, 2024."

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/11/us-justice-department-complaint-filed.html

#JusticeForRaymondMattia #JusticeForRayMattia #CivilRightsViolation #ACAB

U.S. Justice Department Complaint Filed in Homicide of Raymond Mattia by O'odham Voice Against the Wall

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

In other news... WTF!

Dangerous Low Flying Jets Target More #Tohono #Oodham, #Apache and #Yaqui Communities

via #CensoredNews, Oct 5, 2024

Wild Earth Guardians:

"The Threat: The U.S. Air Force is proposing low-level fighter jet maneuvers and supersonic flights over White Mountains, Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, and more. It will affect the Tohono O’odham Nation, #WhiteMountain and #SanCarlosApache Nations, and #PascuaYaqui Tribe.

Wilderness and Sacred Places at Risk

The Wilderness areas at risk include the Gila and Blue Range Wildernesses in New Mexico, plus the following Wildernesses in Arizona: Superstition, Salt River Canyon, White Canyon, Needles Eye, Aravaipa Canyon, Galiuro, Santa Teresa, Fishhooks, Bear Wallow, Escudilla, Mount Baldy, Chiracahua, Arrastra Mountains, Tres Alamos, Rawhide Mountains, Harcuvar Mountains, Swansea, East Cactus Plain, Harquahala Mountains, Aubrey Peak, Upper Burro Creek, Hummingbird Springs, Organ Pipe Cactus, Cabeza Prieta, Coyote Mountains, Big Horn Mountains, Baboquivari Peak, and Pajarita Wildernesses. In addition to these 30 designated Wildernesses, this proposal also threatens the Blue Range Primitive Area as well as many Wilderness Study Areas.

Eighteen of these Wildernesses were designated by the 1990 Arizona Desert Wilderness Act, which unfortunately contained a bad special provision that allows military overflights. But that doesn’t mean the proposed action won’t damage those Wildernesses, nor does that 1990 law give the Air Force a free pass to damage the other Wildernesses.

"The Air Force wants to make changes to 10 #MilitaryOperationAreas (#MOAs) to enhance its airspace training capabilities. Specifically, the Air Force wants to lower the altitudes of existing MOAs to support low-altitude training (in some cases, as low as 500 feet above the ground, and in one case, The U.S. Air Force has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that proposes a massive increase in low-level jet training flights in more than 1.2 million acres of designated Wilderness in Arizona and New Mexico. Such activity would shatter the area’s natural sounds, ruin the wilderness experience for visitors, and stress native wildlife.

"Your help is needed by October 9 to tell the Air Force to keep low-altitude jets, sonic booms, and supersonic flights out of these Wildernesses (link below).

"The Air Force also wants to authorize supersonic training at lower altitudes in more MOAs, lower the minimum release altitude for flares, and authorize use of chaff bundles containing up to 5 million #aluminum-coated silica fibers, which are used to obscure radar, and are designed to stay airborne as long as possible before they settle to the ground."

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/10/dangerous-low-flying-jets-target-more.html

Link to Submit Public Comments (#Arizona):
https://www.arizonaregionalairspaceeis.com/comments/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=3ae8a8ee-8716-4497-b5d2-cb08a9bd0157

#ProtectTheWilderness #DefendTheSacred #USAirForce #SoundPollution #AluminumPollution

Dangerous Low Flying Jets Target More Tohono O'odham, Apache and Yaqui Communities

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

Three #NativeAmerican Tribes are doing business with corporations responsible for war crimes in #Palestine: #Israel's #Elbit Systems, and the U.S. #Corporations of #Raytheon Missiles, #GeneralDynamics and #Caterpillar

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, May 28, 2024

TUCSON -- "Native American Tribes are partnered with corporations responsible for #WarCrimes in Palestine. The #ConfederatedSalishAndKootenai Tribe of Montana is in a partnership with #ElbitSystems, an Israeli weapons producer. #Salish and #Kootenai own #InternationalTowers, and in partnership with Elbit, built #SpyTowers, known as integrated fixed towers, on the #TohonoOodham Nation.

"Caterpillar, being used for the destruction of Palestinian homes, has a facility located on the #Tohono O'odham Nation's Tech Park in the San Xavier District near Tucson.

"Raytheon #Dine' Facility, is located on the #NavajoNation, south of Farmington, New Mexico, and produces missile parts for Raytheon, among the top war profiteers in Palestine.
Raytheon, and International Towers, are tenants at the University of Arizona Tech Park in Tucson.

"Ofelia Rivas, Tohono O'odham, lives in the western portion of the Tohono O'odham Nation, where the Salish and Kootenai tribal enterprise constructed the spy towers. Rivas describes the #Militarized partnership.
'#Infiltration today is in our faces, a blatant lack of integrity by tribes and institutions. #TribalGovernments are enticed by university programs for young people. The young people unknowingly become partners and #collaborators of the international military complex,' Rivas told Censored News today."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/05/native-american-tribes-are-partnered.html

#FreePalestine #FreeGaza #CeasefireNow #NoWar #Boycott #BoycottDivest #Divest #FirstNations #Genocide #Occupation #Colonialism #MilitaryIndustrialComplex

Native American Tribes are Partnered with Corporations Responsible for War Crimes in Palestine

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

F*CK!!!!

Breaking News: Federal Judge Denies Restraining Order Filed Against Interior Sec. #DebHaaland by #Tohono #Oodham and #SanCarlos #ApacheNations

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, April 17, 2024

TUCSON -- "A federal judge in Tucson denied a restraining order sought against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland by the Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations.

"#Haaland is pushing another fake 'green energy' project, and bulldozers are ripping through ancient sites, ceremonial places, and medicine gathering places, for transmission lines to take wind energy from New Mexico to California.
Federal Judge Jennifer Zipps ruled on Tuesday that the tribes and others filing the lawsuit waited too long to file, and the Interior and BLM had fulfilled their obligations to prepare inventory and identify cultural resources.

"The pristine region of the #SanPedroValley in southern #Arizona, is the ancestral homeland of #SanXavier O'oodham, their ancestors #Hohokam, and #Apache."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/04/federal-judge-denies-restraining-order.html

#IndigenousNews #FakeGreenEnergy #Greenwashing #Hypocrisy #IndigenousLands #Arizona

Federal Judge Denies Restraining Order Filed Against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland by Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

@WesternWatershedsProject "But the colony in #Reno and others like the #Tohono #Oodham Nation in #Arizona say promises of more cooperation ring hollow when it comes to high-stakes battles over multibillion-dollar '#GreenEnergy' projects. Some tribal leaders have said consultation resulted in little more than listening sessions, with federal officials not incorporating tribal comments into the decision making."

#Lithium #LithiumMining #ThackerPass #NoConsent #EnvironmentalRacism

#Tohono #Oodham Police Vendetta Revealed in Murder of #RaymondMattia

By Brenda Norrell, #CensoredNews

December 21, 2023

"The vendetta of a Tohono O'odham Nation police officer is revealed by attorneys for the family of Raymond Mattia, Tohono O'odham, who was murdered when Tohono O'odham police and U.S. Border Patrol agents fired 38 shots at him, striking him with nine bullets, in front of his home.

"'I don’t know exactly where that motherfucker is at,' a Tohono O'odham Nation police officer told U.S. Border Patrol agents as they met shortly before Raymond was murdered.

"The statement was revealed by the family's attorneys. The Tohono O'odham Nation police department refuses to release the officer's name. Neither the U.S. Border Patrol, nor the Tohono O'odham Nation Police Department, have released all of the officer body cam recordings of Raymond's murder. Only an edited portion has been released to the public.

"Federal prosecutors are now part of the cover-up and refuse to file charges against the officer and agents who fired the shots at Raymond, murdering him in front of his home in Ali Jegk, less than a mile north of the border, on May 18, 2023.
U.S. Department of Justice employees met with the family in Sells to discuss their decision but refused to provide the family with details about what happened that night.

"During a series of interviews between 2011 and 2013, on the border in Raymond's community, Ali Jegk, Raymond told Censored News that he videotaped U.S. Border Patrol agents escorting Mexican cartels bringing drug loads across the border. When Raymond submitted the evidence, it vanished.

"The new details of Raymond's murder are stated by attorneys for his family in a letter, which notified the Customs and Border Patrol of the family's intent to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

"It reveals that Raymond never acted aggressively."

Full article:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/12/tohono-oodham-police-vendetta-revealed.html

#JusticeForRaymondMattia
#ACAB #JusticeForRaymond #TohonoOodham #Arizona #MurderPatrol

Tohono O'odham Police Vendetta Revealed in Murder of Raymond Mattia

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

#Arizona tribe protests decision not to prosecute #BorderPatrol agents who fatally shot #RaymondMattia

José Ignacio Castañeda Perez
USA TODAY NETWORK
October 16, 2023

"Federal prosecutors won’t file charges against U.S. Border Patrol agents who shot and killed a member of the #Tohono #Oodham Nation just steps outside his home earlier this year, sparking outrage from the tribe who called the decision 'a travesty of justice.'

"In a statement released last week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said its employees met with Raymond Mattia’s family and their lawyers to inform the family of their decision not to prosecute on Sept. 19. Representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to share substantive details about their investigation into the shooting and did not factually answer why they chose not to prosecute, according to Ryan Stitt, a San Diego-based attorney representing the Mattia family.

"Going forward, the family has 'little choice' but to file a civil lawsuit in order to get answers about what happened to Mattia, Stitt said.

"'The government’s decision to not prosecute the agents involved is not surprising,' Stitt said in a written statement. 'Law enforcement officers are rarely prosecuted, even for killing unarmed people.'"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/10/16/raymond-mattia-tohono-oodham-nation-arizona-case/71200420007/

#JusticeForRaymondMattia #ACAB #JusticeForRaymond #TohonoOodham

Arizona tribe protests decision not to prosecute Border Patrol agents who fatally shot Raymond Mattia

Justice Department employees met with Raymond Mattia’s family and their lawyers in Sells to inform the family of their decision.

USA TODAY

Justice for Raymond #Mattia: #PeacefulProtest on #Tohono #Oodham Nation, Dec. 15, 2023

via #CensoredNews

Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, 3 pm.
Location: #SellsArizona (near the intersection of Route 86 and Spencer Drive).

[In May 2023,] "Raymond Mattia was murdered in front of his home in #AliJegk, on the Tohono O'odham Nation, in a hail of bullets fired by Tohono O'odham #Police and #USBorderPatrol agents.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/12/justice-for-raymond-mattia-peaceful.html

#JusticeForRaymondMattia #ACAB #JusticeForRaymond #TohonoOodham #Arizona

Justice for Raymond Mattia: Peaceful Protest on Tohono O'odham Nation, Dec. 15, 2023

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.