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| Obama's Mexican Drug Gang Progress Report |
| 2010-03-29 |
| After US Diplomats were killed recently just across the border, Obama said he was going to work with Mexico to relentlessly go after the drug gangs. Another Lie from the junior Senator from Chicago. And the consequences are horrifying When black SUVs trail school buses around here, no one dismisses it as routine traffic. And when three tough-looking Mexican men pace around the high school gym during a basketball game, no one assumes they're just fans. Fear has settled over this border town of 1,700, about 50 miles southeast of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, epicenter of that country's bloody drug war. Mexican families fleeing the violence have moved here or just sent their children, and authorities and residents say gangsters have followed them across the Rio Grande to apply terrifying, though so far subtle, intimidation. The message: We know where you are. At schools in Fort Hancock and nearby Texas towns, new security measures and counseling for young children of murdered parents have become a troubling part of the day. "I have friends with fathers who've been annihilated," said Israel Morales, a junior at Fort Hancock High School. "They just hug you and start crying. It just traumatizes you." He said school doesn't always feel safe. "I try to be stoic," Morales said. "But it still worries the heck out of me." Mexican drug gangs have not fired a single shot in Fort Hancock, and no one has disappeared. But as drug violence continues unabated in and around Ciudad Juarez, residents of Texas border towns fear it will spread their way. "There's been incidents of school buses followed, and threats to some of the students and threats to some of the staff," Hudspeth County Sheriff's Lt. Robert Wilson said. "It's caused us to really go on high alert." Three mysterious men walked into the Fort Hancock High School gymnasium last month during a basketball game, setting off worries that they were drug cartel members sent to deliver a message. Parent Maria Aguilar said "a panic" swept through the gym and only subsided when they left. "They walked in and they were laughing," Aguilar said. "They were probably like, 'We'll just scare everybody.'" Paul said he thinks Tijuana families are running further north from the violence. But back in Fort Hancock, Modesta Morales said the violence has already come to them. "Sometimes you feel helpless. They saw their dad shot, in the head," Morales said. "What do you tell a 10-year-old that sees that?" |
| Posted by:Snash Sforza6070 |
| #7 Correct |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-29 14:12 |
| #6 I don't know what affect legalizing marijuana would have on drug trafficking or for that matter our society. I believe it would have effects. We are moving towards de facto legalization of pot in the U.S. whether it is good or bad. BO has said growing and selling pot in California is not a Federal enforcement issue. California has the legalization of pot on the ballot in November. Washington, D.C. is considering allowing people to grow "medical" marijuana for personal use. We have Mexicans around Tennessee who have been caught in the National Forests growing marijuana. They don't speak a word of English. Probably their families are being threatened back in Mexico. The criminality of marijuana trafficking leads to a great deal of violence. Personally, I think alcohol, cigarettes, crack, cocaine, heroine, and meth can horribly waste lives. I'm not sure pot is in the same category. For some, pot is a gateway drug to harder drugs. For most others, pot is a not a gateway drug to harder drugs. Many things can be addicting such as sex, risk-taking, religion, and other kinds of behaviors that we tend to get obsessive about; all such things cannot be controlled by a government. I do think marijuana tends to make people studid although users would probably tend to disagree with me. Forty years ago, one of the jobs I had was counseling teenagers with problems. Most but not all used drugs; mostly marijuana. Most of them were relatively good kids--not seriously disturbed or criminal--a few were. I'm not certain I have contribute much to this conversation. I do think our borders need to be controlled. I do think we need to address the drug problems we have in our country; everything from illegal drugs to medically prescribed drugs to which people get dependent. I think we need to stem the flow of illegals to our country. Pot, I'm not so sure about as the degree of a problem it causes in this country. I know we spend a lot of money chasing marijuana growers, marijuana users, and keeping some of them incarcerated. In Tennessee we had a law on the books that required marijuana growers and dealers to buy a tax stamp. That was about a worthless law because no one was going to step forward and purchase such a stamp. I think the law got struck down because it was unconstitutional base of the Constitution--self-incrimination issues and the Fifth Amendment. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-29 14:10 |
| #5 Black Jack Pershing, c'mon down! |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-03-29 13:37 |
| #4 Legalizing marijuana will have what consequences on the drug trafficing?? Should I assume that hard drugs will then become the problem? |
| Posted by: bman 2010-03-29 12:41 |
| #3 Control is a policy problem more than a Border Patrol or police problem. Posted by JohnQC Absophuechinglutely! And the policy is, don't disparage future democratic voters! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-03-29 11:09 |
| #2 Oh, you mean BO is not focusing like a laser beam on the problem? You mean he was justing blowing smoke up our collective arses again. As long as there is a demand for illegal drugs and illegal immigrants (cheap labor) in the U.S. and there are huge untaxed profits to be made by the Mexican cartels, there is going to be a problem here. Couple what was just said with a border that is uncontrolled and porous and there is a huge problem here. I don't see anyone in the Federal government really getting serious about this. So long as (illegal immigrants = unregistered voters for which ever party can capture that vote), there is not much interest in fixing the problem. Control is a policy problem more than a Border Patrol or police problem. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-29 11:03 |
| #1 "What do you tell a 10-year-old that sees that?" How about telling them we're sending in a Brigade of the 82nd Airborne to cross the border and wipe out the bad guys. We need a thousand horses with saddles, along with mounted, armed and ready volunteers. Pack for a 30 day exercise. Stronger message to follow. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2010-03-29 10:51 |