A Little Red Meat

Predictable Outrage Over Images of Agents

By now, I am certain everyone’s seen the pictures of cowboy hatted Border Patrol agents mounted on horseback, swooping down on Haitians attempting to escape deportation in the area around the port of entry in Del Rio, Texas. They are visceral photos on many levels that we will explore in just a moment, and one suspects the photographers that captured them could wind up winning awards.

Border Patrol Agent Apprehending on Horseback - Del Rio. Zoomed in image Courtesy: National Fraternal Order of Police. Original Photo Courtesy: Paul Ratje/AFP - Getty Images

This is a manipulated version of the photo that most people are seeing passed around online. It’s enhanced with a little bit of a zoom, on the leather strap that so many folks in Washington and elsewhere believe shows how these Agents were “whipping” these Haitians. Obviously, that’s no whip. And the Agent isn’t striking the Haitian— at least not in this photo. Most of our subscribers and readers already know where I’m going: Those are the reins, used to control the horse. Ordinarily they’d be in the Agent’s hand, but he’s busy trying to get ahold of the Haitian.

This dispatch is titled “A Little Red Meat.” Let me explain what that means. The outrage porn that’s being generated by this— the perhaps sincerely meant, but ultimately false controversy here, is what’s called in some circles of politics and culture “red meat,” as in a bone thrown to the masses. Something to distract the barking dogs. And it works. That isn’t to say that someone deliberately engineered these photos, or deliberately engineered the outrage— not at all. It’s more of a happy accident that several someones will take advantage of.

While people express outrage about this image— while people defend it— fewer people are talking about the feckless decisions that have lead us to this point. In a perfect world we would be able to ignore the outrage over the photo and focus our energy on solving the problem. Perhaps, ultimately, the photo controversy will be to the good— helping to wake up people on both sides of the issue who have been sedating themselves with professional sports, netflix, and reality tv.

Border Patrol Intercepting Haitians Returning from Acuna Image Courtesy: Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Another Angle of the “Red Meat” Moment Photo Courtesy: Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Here comes the history: “Red Meat” as a term of art first appeared in 1911, in the film industry. It crossed over into politics in the 1940s, and has stayed there ever since. A discussion about the term on “politicaldictionary.com” includes this nifty quote, showing one of the first uses of the term, in the Baltimore Sun, describing what appears to be a moment in the upset political victory of Harry Truman, against Thomas E. Dewey.

“Most of the audiences… were looking for red meat in Dewey’s carefully reasoned discussions of world affairs. Since he disdained mudslinging they seized upon his withering treatment of bureaucracy and governmental incompetence as a satisfactory substitute.”

Many today forget, that Truman was a compromise choice on the original ticket with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and at the time the prevailing thought was that Dewey was the greater man.

Let’s get back to the red meat, shall we? There’s video! Go ahead and watch it, and realize why people are focusing on those still images instead.

Sawyer Hackett @SawyerHackett

Here’s the video

Doesn’t look nearly as fraught with danger and drama does it? Nor does it really appear to show anyone truly getting the hell whipped out of them with these reins. Perhaps there is other video that we have not seen that does. But somehow, one doubts it. If it was out there, it would be the only thing we see. There would be much less widespread use of that one photo that we’ve seen everywhere.

Why are we seeing it everywhere? Because it’s a hell of a picture. Rational actors trying to make money selling newspapers and commercial time, are picking the best stuff they can in any and every situation. Individually and on their own in most cases. It is like the “invisible hand of the market,” driving the economy. Decision after decision made independently on many levels, all piling up on each other like some coral reef. It is “the wisdom of crowds,” in action.

That doesn’t mean someone won’t try to leverage it to their own political ends, but one could argue that even as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki covered her bases by saying she’d look into it, she seemed to also be a little bit reluctant to get into the scrum and fully join the clamor to censure these Border Patrol agents. That’s telling.

Now, let’s put on our art theory hats and get really esoteric. It’ll be fun.

Border Patrol Agent Apprehending on Horseback - Del Rio. Photo Courtesy: Paul Ratje/AFP - Getty Images

What do you see? A seemingly vulnerable and frightened man, clutching plastic bags that appear to contain takeout clamshells of food. He’s gone to get food for himself and other hungry people. He’s just crossed the water. He looks barefoot. There’s some kind of a beltpack, or fanny pack dangling around his neck, and swinging wide, visible just under his right armpit. One can presume it has his money and whatever other important belongings that he wanted to keep out of the water.

Also in frame, another man, trying to run— presumably from other large men on large horses that are just out of sight. His pants are sopping wet. He’s got some kind of gatorade or pedialyte in his bags. The sports drink could be for someone laid up with diarrhea, who needs all the fluid they can get. His posture is hesitant— as though he’s not sure where it’s safe to run— he’s not ready to commit fully to the direction he’s moving in.

Lets talk about the horse and the border patrol agent. He’s leaning way over to get a fistful of that black shirt. But he’s still firmly in the saddle. He is in control. The horse’s mouth is open, one’s imagination can almost hear it making some kind of noise. It suggests great exertion. Look closely. The Agent appears to have a thick plug of chewing tobacco in his bottom lip, just like Clint Eastwood in “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” and many other actors in many other Westerns.

The sight of a man on horseback is a classic image that goes well beyond the American West, into antiquity and even Myth. The Mongols. The Greek Centaurs. Sagittarius the Hunter. Keep going. It’s almost threatening— the original superpower technology in warfare and combat is the horseman. Just ask the Comanche. Ask the Romans how it went, when they first encountered the Parthian horsemen. Hint: It’s where we get the phrase “parting shot” from. It did not go well for Rome.

Ignorant ancient Greeks, or Achaeans, that weren’t sure of what they were seeing when they first encountered Asian mounted soldiers and cultures explained their sight by creating myths of the Centaurs: wild, dangerous, uncontrollable fusions of men and beast that were known to rape, pillage and kill.

Is it any wonder that ignorant but well-meaning journalists and observers seem to be having a case of the vapors over this? One could argue this is some kind of a lizard-brain DNA reaction to these images— an ancestral echo of the threat and terror generated in the genetic memory of how dangerous strange men on strange horses used to be.

The good news is, this one photo may in the end, do more to curb illegal immigration than all of the hot air we’ve been hearing from Washington D.C. these many months.

If you have any friends that are freaking out over these photos, feel free to like, subscribe, and share this piece with them.

(Added after publication:) Given what seems to be a tenuous linkage to the video clip referenced above in Sawyer Hackett’s twitter account, we have secured permission from Auden Cabello to access some of his drone footage showing Border Patrol’s Mounted agents interacting with the Haitians. It is hard to tell if it is precisely the same moment or not— but I include it as it shows you the tenor of the interactions\, absent the seeming drama captured in those still photos.

Auden Cabello's Drone Footage