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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

These posts make me think and draw parallels to the following:
1. Politicians reactions to inner city gang/drug violence, usually black
on black homicide from the 1980's and early 1990's. (the talk of
homicide rates and the need for intervention/prevention)
2. The early 20th century during the time of prohibition when
moonshiners were running old logging roads in the hills and hollers of
Appalachia. (logging roads, wilderness, and frontier justice)
3. In the days of the old West and up into the early 20th century, it
was considered heinous to shoot a man in the back.  Today, that outrage
equivalent is beheading, I think. (beheading, gangs)
4. Check out  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-13
MS-13 is most Salvadoran and other central Americans, not specifically
Mexican.  I saw a TV special on them once,,,,they are famous for
beheading and doing other vile things, for the shock and fear value.
The Phoenix story sounds a lot like MS-13 handiwork.



Lynda wrote:

> The violence IS here and has been here for years.  So they haven't 
> been beheading people.  I think the just plain ordinary everyday 
> murders are more than enough.
>
> AND, it is NOT just the border towns.  PALEEZ!  I lived almost EIGHT 
> HUNDRED miles from the border and over 80% of the homicides in my 
> county were illegal Mexicans who were part of the drug cartels!  In 
> fact, 30 years ago the homicide rate was usually ZERO!  As the 
> illegal Mexicans found out that a large % of the county was only 
> accessable by logging roads and the only habitants were Big Foot and 
> the bears, they moved their drug labs and farms in.
>
> Now I live another 144 miles further, and they are moving in up here 
> because the county is under-staffed copwise and 90% of the county is 
> wilderness.
>
> Personally, I'm all for frontier justice!
>
> Lynda ----- Original Message ----- From: "bobf" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
>  To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 
> 4:58 AM Subject: [Homestead] Border issues- spilling violence
>
>
> > This is from this am NYT, and concentrates on my hometown, Phoenix.
> >  But, Sage, Leslie, and maybe others have close enough proximity to
> >  the border to concern themselves with these issues.  And, they are
> >  occuring in the rural parts of S. AZ, as well as the cities.
> >
> > I find this quotation telling.  He said it in such a non-pluused , 
> > no-big-deal manner :
> >
> > "Still, federal authorities have said there is no sign that the 
> > pattern of beheadings and mutilations of victims and the regular 
> > killings of law enforcement officers that characterize the violence
> >  in Mexico has arrived in the United States."
> >
> > We are still okay, because, so far, they aren't rolling severed 
> > heads down the street, is the way I read that comment.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Wave of Drug Violence Is Creeping Into Arizona From Mexico, 
> > Officials Say E-Mail Print Reprints ShareClose 
> > LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMy SpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy RANDAL C. 
> > ARCHIBOLD Published: February 23, 2009 PHOENIX — The raging drug 
> > war among cartels in Mexico and their push to expand operations in 
> > the United States has led to a wave of kidnappings, shootings and 
> > home invasions in Arizona, state and federal officials said at a 
> > legislative hearing on Monday.
> >
> > The drug trade has long brought violence to the state, which serves
> >  as a hub as illicit drugs and illegal immigrants are smuggled to 
> > the rest of the nation.
> >
> > Over all, in this city and surrounding Maricopa County, homicides 
> > and violent crime decreased last year. But the authorities are 
> > sounding an alarm over what they consider changing tactics in 
> > border-related crime that bear the marks of the violence in Mexico.
> >
> >
> >
> > A home invasion here last year was carried out by attackers 
> > wielding military-style rifles and dressed in uniforms similar to a
> >  Phoenix police tactical unit. The discovery of grenades and other 
> > military-style weaponry bound for Mexico is becoming more routine, 
> > as is hostage-taking and kidnapping for ransom, law enforcement 
> > officials said.
> >
> > The Phoenix police regularly receive reports involving a 
> > border-related kidnapping or hostage-taking in a home.
> >
> > The Maricopa County attorney’s office said such cases rose to 241 
> > last year from 48 in 2004, though investigators are not sure of the
> >  true number because they believe many crimes go unreported.
> >
> > The violence in Mexico — where more than 6,000 people were killed 
> > in the last year in drug-related violence, double the number of the
> >  previous year — is “reaching into Arizona, and that is what is 
> > really alarming local and state law enforcement,” said Cmdr. Dan 
> > Allen of the State Department of Public Safety.
> >
> > “We are finding home invasion and attacks involving people 
> > impersonating law enforcement officers,” Commander Allen told the 
> > State Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Jonathan Paton of
> >  the Tucson area, called the hearing. “They are very forceful and 
> > aggressive. They are heavily armed, and they threaten, assail, bind
> >  and sometimes kill victims.”
> >
> > Chief David Denlinger of the State Department of Public Safety said
> >  that while tactics like home invasions might not be new in the
> > drug trade, “they are getting more prevalent.”
> >
> > “Border crimes are not just on the border,” Chief Denlinger said, 
> > pointing to posters showing weapons, drugs and people who had been 
> > held hostage.
> >
> > The hearing comes at a time of heightened anxiety in the United 
> > States brought on by the escalating violence in Mexico and a 
> > federal report in December that said the Mexican cartels “maintain 
> > drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors in at 
> > least 230 U.S. cities.”
> >
> > The report from the National Drug Intelligence Center said the 
> > cartels posed “the greatest drug trafficking threat to the United 
> > States; they control most of the U.S. drug market and have 
> > established varied transportation routes, advanced communications 
> > capabilities and strong affiliations with gangs in the United 
> > States.”
> >
> > The violence in Mexico has come from a government crackdown on the 
> > cartels and a war among them over turf and trading routes to the 
> > United States.
> >
> > Still, federal authorities have said there is no sign that the 
> > pattern of beheadings and mutilations of victims and the regular 
> > killings of law enforcement officers that characterize the violence
> >  in Mexico has arrived in the United States.
> >
> > In some cases, the connection to the cartels in American cities are
> >  tenuous or not fully understood, law enforcement officials have 
> > said.
> >
> > But in this border state, the anxiety is acute and the ties to drug
> >  and human smuggling strong.
> >
> > The police and federal agents regularly seize large loads of 
> > cocaine, marijuana and other drugs smuggled in vehicles and 
> > sometimes on the backs of couriers and illegal immigrants linked to
> >  drug organizations.
> >
> > At the same time, the vast majority of the weapons used in Mexico’s
> >  drug-related killings come from the United States, and Arizona is 
> > a top exporter.
> >
> > Terry Goddard, the Arizona attorney general, said his office had 
> > sought to clamp down on money wire transfers through the state that
> >  were believed to help finance the smuggling of drugs and people.
> >
> > “They send us drugs and people, and we send them guns and cash,” 
> > Mr. Paton said in an interview.
> >
> > Mr. Paton, a Republican who favors gun rights, said he was 
> > considering the possibility of introducing legislation intended to 
> > restrict “straw purchasers,” people who buy guns with legal 
> > documentation at shops and gun shows and then turn them over to 
> > drug traffickers.
> >
> > Federal laws prohibit such purchases, but Mr. Paton said he 
> > believed that adding state sanctions would provide more muscle in 
> > fighting the practice.
> >
> > Mr. Paton said there were already bills pending in the Legislature 
> > focusing on border crime. Prompted by the discovery of a rash of 
> > so-called drophouses in and around Phoenix, where migrants have 
> > been held against their will, one bill would increase penalties for
> >  those caught smuggling people.
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/us/24border.html



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EarthNSky Farm NW Georgia