Mexican Cartels and Violence

[Surf n Turf]

Originally Posted by Richard

I bought a copy of Harper's to read while flying back from California last week. An essay in which Chuck Bowden interviews a Juarez hit man responsible for the torture and death of many people caught my eye. The man is a cop - trained in the United States - and an eye-opening story. Here's a link - you have to subscribe to Harper's to read it on-line, but I found another link on the blog linked at the bottom of the quoted passage cited here.

Richard's $.02

Richard,
I just finished the Harpers article, and was a bit overwhelmed. I have met, and worked with “Psychopaths”, but never expected that a whole nation would collect them, and send them to our borders.
If this is the situation elsewhere along the border, they will cross over, to “greener pastures”. Prostitution, gambling, loan sharking & drugs would just set them up to buy legal business enterprises, and we start with a 2009 version of Chicago under a Mexican Al Capone.
SnT


Definition of psychopath
A person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behavior without empathy or remorse.

The psychopath has antisocial traits for sure but they are coupled with and enhanced by callousness, ruthlessness, extreme lack of empathy, deficient impulse control, deceitfulness, and sadism.
Also see sociopath, and Antisocial Personality Disorder
http://personalitydisorders.suite101...pathantisocial

[CRad]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

What would I suggest?

Build the damn fence from the Gulf to the Pacific, double the number of BP agents, put the Guard on the border, deny social services to illegals, end the anchor baby program, deport the illegals, arrest their employers, incarcerate people breaking the laws of this country, open a visa application office in every town in Mexico with more than 50,000 residents for anyone with a clean record who wants to work here, run background checks, issue alien worker IDs, and run a bus service for them.

None of that is going to happen, though it is all feasible, if we want to secure our borders and enforce our laws. At least not until Beslan happens here or a city gets nuked. Then we may get serious.

TR

I am impressed with your solution. Too many people bitch without having a good perspective or answer for the problem. Not true with you. The other part that of your answer that I like is that it addresses the concerns of people like myself. It is not just a "build a fence." "deport them all." type reply.

Next time I get asked wat I think will solve the problem I'm going to say "I don't know but I do know the opinion of a very smart man." Thanks.

[echoes]

Originally Posted by CRad

I am impressed with your solution. Too many people bitch without having a good perspective or answer for the problem. Not true with you. The other part that of your answer that I like is that it addresses the concerns of people like myself. It is not just a "build a fence." "deport them all." type reply.

Next time I get asked wat I think will solve the problem I'm going to say "I don't know but I do know the opinion of a very smart man." Thanks.

Indeed CRad.

QP's are very smart men, with smart solutions, to difficult problems!!!

IMHO.

Holly

[Sigaba]

This story could be posted in a number of threads, not the least the ongoing discussion on the possibility of martial law coming to America. (In which case, the article below supports what I'm provisionally calling the "Soak60 Thesis <<LINK>>."

Source is here.

AP source: Guard to seek volunteers for border
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 29, 6:55 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is developing plans to seek up to 1,500 National Guard volunteers to step up the military's counter-drug efforts along the Mexican border, senior administration officials said Monday.

The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region.

Senior administration officials said the Guard program will last no longer than a year and would build on an existing counter-drug operation. They said the program, which would largely be federally funded, would draw on National Guard volunteers from the four border states. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been finalized.

Officials said the program would mainly seek out guard members for surveillance, intelligence analysis and aviation support. Guard units would also supply ground troops who could assist at border crossings and with land and air transportation.

President Barack Obama earlier this spring promised his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, that the United States would help with the escalating drug war, which has killed as many as 11,000 people since December 2006.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced a 2009 counternarcotics strategy, saying the U.S. would devote more resources to fighting the Mexican drug cartels, including the cash and weapons that flow across the border from the U.S. into Mexico.

But officials say that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed concern that tapping the military for border control posts is a slippery slope and must not be overused.

Paul Stockton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense, said Monday that options for the new program have been drafted, but the plan still must be approved by key cabinet members as well as the president.

"We have been working very closely to build a set of options that would have the Department of Defense in a very limited way, for a limited period of time, serve in direct support for CBP," said Stockton, referring to Customs and Border Protection.

The administration does not want to announce or begin the effort until after the Mexican elections this week, officials said.

Rand Beers, under secretary for national protection at the Homeland Security Department, declined to say how long the program would last, only that it would not be lengthy.

Beers said the additional Guard members would stay as long as needed for the border patrol agents to be trained and given "some period of time" on the border to gain experience on the job.

The administration has proposed spending $250 million on the program, but the precise cost will not be known until the details are worked out, he said.

The White House came to the decision that it is simply not enough for the United States to provide funding in support of the Mexican government's counter-drug efforts, said Beers.

The Guard's volunteer mission, Beers and Stockton both stressed, would not involve law enforcement activities.

The current National Guard counter-drug operation along the border, which has been in effect for many years, involves about 575 Guard members, who applied for the job through their state program coordinator.

The additional volunteers, officials said, would largely be drawn from the more than 50,000 Army and Air National Guard members in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. There are no plans to seek Guard members from other states, although that has not been ruled out.

There is already federal funding in place to hire more than 1,500 border patrol agents.

A previous program — Operation Jump Start — used National Guard troops to help bolster border patrols for three years. Over that time, the federal government added border patrol agents, but the escalating drug war has stretched those forces as they try to increase surveillance of possible cash and arms traffic.

[mark46th]

I have worked in Mexico, I have some dear friends in Baja. I was telling one of them that Mexico needed either the second coming of Jesus to straighten things out or help from Los Pepes...I explained how they took down the Escobar gang. He told me there was a growing consensus that would welcome them...

[nmap]

Senior administration officials said the Guard program will last no longer than a year and would build on an existing counter-drug operation. They said the program, which would largely be federally funded, would draw on National Guard volunteers from the four border states. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been finalized.

And that's a key point.

The current downturn in the economy has resulted in substantially reduced revenue for governments at every level. Which means - law enforcement budgets are under pressure, too. As the cartels and their violence impinge on U.S. cities, the various local governments simply cannot meet the challenge. Somehow, they will need outside help.

Could the help come through federal grants? Sure. But I think it will be tempting to make direct use of an existing pool of capable people, such as the National Guard volunteers, if only due to the flexibility and cost savings.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by nmap

And that's a key point.

The current downturn in the economy has resulted in substantially reduced revenue for governments at every level. Which means - law enforcement budgets are under pressure, too. As the cartels and their violence impinge on U.S. cities, the various local governments simply cannot meet the challenge. Somehow, they will need outside help.

Could the help come through federal grants? Sure. But I think it will be tempting to make direct use of an existing pool of capable people, such as the National Guard volunteers, if only due to the flexibility and cost savings.

FWIW, I took the following to be indications that the proposal is chiefly about the federal response itself (i.e. the number, composition, and mix of assets) and not about the federal government taking up some of the heavy lifting done by local LEOs (i.e. the feds taking over areas of responsibility from a border county's sheriffs department).

The plan is a stopgap measure being worked out between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department, and comes despite Pentagon concerns about committing more troops to the border — a move some officials worry will be seen as militarizing the region.

The Guard's volunteer mission, Beers and Stockton both stressed, would not involve law enforcement activities.

And,

There is already federal funding in place to hire more than 1,500 border patrol agents.

So by my reading, the gap being stopped is between the DHS's current manpower level and its manpower level when those 1,500 border patrol agents assume their duties, not the gap between the four states in question's needs and their resources.

Then again, I've been wrong before...as recently as when I was cooking dinner. (Pasta without garlic is just noodles.)