While it has been in the news lately, I feel that the Mexican drug war is vastly underpublicized. Lord knows why. I can only speculate, but it could be that people do not realize that this shit is going on every day in your neighborhood and all over your beautiful city. We have plenty of drugged out homeless people running around Fresno high on Mexican crank to prove that. I rent a nice house on the north side (I have roomates, I am not rich, so don't even start that shit), when I moved in, I had a bum living in the bushes on the side of the house. Imagine the feeling. A drugged out bum so close to my family. Ok, I didn't see him bottom burning in my bushes, but I don't care. I can defend my judgementalism. Besides, I hate bums. This isn't a John Steinbeck novel and these bums are not lovable tramps being beaten by the railroad cops. They are either mentally ill people who aren't complying with treatment regimens, or hooked on one form of vice or the other. Or both. That said, I will continue.
The violence in Mexico's drug war is staggering in both its savagery and its magnitude. We act as though this is barely spilling over into "Mexican-American" communities. I assure you, it isn't X3 is a pretty big gang in California. You can see their graffiti all over town. This gang owes its allegiance to the Mexican Mafia. While it's recruiting is based in prisons all over the southwestern US, the leaders live large across the border. They use gangs in America as foot soldiers in this drug war, and they are doing a bang up job. While some gang violence occurs to strengthen holds on communities and over pride and respect, it must be seen that these gangs make the same drug money as the Mexican cartels do and any violence stemming from gang activity ultimately is the result of the cartel criminal enterprise.
Our prisons swell with violent gang members and drug criminals. We don't really have room for the rapists, pedophiles, and murderers of our own society anymore. Although im sure we will make room in the 200% overcrowded system for, at the very least, a brief stay. Consider that the next time a Megan's Law registered sex offender moves in 3 houses down from you, likely it's because we have too much drug war garbage there to keep them away from your children (wow, I'm fearmongering now, eww). But that IS a reality.
Law enforcement officers are taking this all in stride, considering they are not an army. I always liked the old cops, with the hats and wool uniforms. Like the 1950s stereotype. Not the BDU and flak jacket wearing paramilitary MAGEC cops. Although I do respect them, I don't enjoy the fact that they exist. Groups like theirs were developed in Central America in the 1980s to fight communist insurgents. Not MAGEC itself, of course, but the architype. And furthermore, I fear that the existing civil liberty laws we have will make it downright impossible for them to be as successful as we need them to be. Sorry guys, you are working your ass off to get nowhere. And it isn't your fault.
As tax payers you are fitting the bill for all of it. The prisons, the extra law enforcement officers, the border agents, the MAGEC sweeps, the drug treatment centers and mental health facilities caring for the aftermath, crack babies, home invasion victims, the overworked court system, and of course DARE to keep your kids out of that hell (which logic and mathematics dictate that will not likely avoid).
We are living the Mexican drug war as much as Mexicans ever do. Maybe not at the same level of intensity, but like all things, that is mearly a matter of time. It WILL get much worse. We need drastic action to save us from this. They make billions a year from pouring drugs in American illicit markets. According to wikipedia, they make between 15 and 50 billion dollars annually. Logically, we'd have to at least equal that monetary amount to win. And that has to be frontline money, not the sum total of our expenses. We can't win if we don't do something major, like invade Mexico, or overthrow the Mexican government for something decidedly more authoritarian. I'm ok with that.
The Pragmatist
- Location: In your 'hood
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