Well, whatever you may think of this situation, ol' Janet Reno feels quite comfortable enforcing the Federal Govt's will on the public with force of arms.
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Saturday April 22 5:52 AM ET
Elian Seized From Relatives' Home
MIAMI (AP) - Armed federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives before dawn today, firing tear gas into an angry crowd as they left the scene with the weeping 6-year-old boy.
More than 20 agents arrived at the home shortly after 5 a.m. and used rams on the chain-link fence and on the front door. A short time later, a woman and man brought Elian out of the home and put him in a white van that drove away.
``Assassins,'' yelled some of the approximately 100 protesters, some of whom climbed over the barricades in an attempt to stop the agents. The agents, wearing Immigration and Naturalization Service shirts, were armed with automatic weapons.
``The world is watching!'' yelled Delfin Gonzalez, the brother of the little boy's caretaker and great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez.
``They were animals,'' said Jess Garcia, a bystander. ``They gassed women and children to take a defenseless child out of here. We were assaulted with no provocation''
Within an hour of the raid, the crowd in Little Havana quickly swelled to about 300.
The raid came amid reports of progress early today to immediately transfer custody of the boy from his Miami relatives to his Cuban father. Attorney General Janet Reno was at her office early this morning engaged in an extraordinary, long-distance negotiation that began Friday afternoon.
The settlement was first proposed by civic leaders in Miami serving as intermediaries. Proposals and counterproposals flew through the night by telephone and facsimile machine between the Miami house, the Justice Department and the Washington office of the father's lawyer.
All of that ended early today.
*******************
Saturday April 22 5:52 AM ET
Elian Seized From Relatives' Home
MIAMI (AP) - Armed federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives before dawn today, firing tear gas into an angry crowd as they left the scene with the weeping 6-year-old boy.
More than 20 agents arrived at the home shortly after 5 a.m. and used rams on the chain-link fence and on the front door. A short time later, a woman and man brought Elian out of the home and put him in a white van that drove away.
``Assassins,'' yelled some of the approximately 100 protesters, some of whom climbed over the barricades in an attempt to stop the agents. The agents, wearing Immigration and Naturalization Service shirts, were armed with automatic weapons.
``The world is watching!'' yelled Delfin Gonzalez, the brother of the little boy's caretaker and great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez.
``They were animals,'' said Jess Garcia, a bystander. ``They gassed women and children to take a defenseless child out of here. We were assaulted with no provocation''
Within an hour of the raid, the crowd in Little Havana quickly swelled to about 300.
The raid came amid reports of progress early today to immediately transfer custody of the boy from his Miami relatives to his Cuban father. Attorney General Janet Reno was at her office early this morning engaged in an extraordinary, long-distance negotiation that began Friday afternoon.
The settlement was first proposed by civic leaders in Miami serving as intermediaries. Proposals and counterproposals flew through the night by telephone and facsimile machine between the Miami house, the Justice Department and the Washington office of the father's lawyer.
All of that ended early today.
