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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 10:20 am | By: Radical Russ
(AP) EL PASO, Texas — The eight bullets that leveled Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana outside his home just doors from the city’s police chief were fired at close range and left little doubt about their message.
Gonzalez, a Juarez cartel lieutenant shot on his quiet El Paso cul-de-sac this spring, was working for U.S. officials as a confidential informant, sources told The Associated Press, and experts suspect his slaying may be the first time assassins from one of Mexico’s violent drug gangs have killed a ranking cartel member on American soil.
Cartel-affiliated hit men have violently, and fatally, disciplined low-level, American-based drug dealers in the U.S. But El Paso police said Gonzalez was a lieutenant in the Juarez cartel, which traffics in marijuana, cocaine and heroin. The cartel was once among the most dangerous in Mexico, but has recently lost some standing because of arrests, deaths and infighting.
El Paso police don’t yet have an official motive in Gonzalez’s slaying, but chief Allen said detectives are working on the assumption that a cartel colleague discovered he was discussing their illegal activities with federal agents.
How many gangland-style executions will have to take place on American streets before we get serious about legalizing these murderers right out of business? I hear a few people complain about taxing and regulating marijuana as a legal substance because then the big bad ol’ government will have its hands on it, but last I checked the IRS doesn’t send hit men out to quiet residential neighborhoods to deliver a “message” about delinquent tax payments.
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Prediction: After all U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea have come home, there will be a U.S. army on the Mexican border. For this is where the fate of our republic will be decided, as the fate of Europe will be decided by the millions streaming north from the Maghreb and Middle East, sub-Sahara and South Asia.
So narco-traffickers are the same to him as Muslims “invading” Europe and destroying it’s culture. He then goes to the numbers: 6,000 drug related killings, 6,000 troops and police moved to the border. Recounting the story of Chief Roberto Oduna of Juarez and the killing of a retired army general sent to create an elite anti-crime unit in Cancun leads him to the conclusion that the Mexican government is corrupt.
Far be it for Pat Buchanan to be pollyanna-ish, he put his finger on the demand side of both the equation and the border. It is the US demand for drugs that is fueling this violence. Pat then boils down the responses to this crisis into the best description I have yet seen by a conservative.
There are two sure ways to end this war swiftly: Milton’s way and Mao’s way. Mao Zedong’s communists killed users and suppliers alike, as social parasites. Milton Friedman’s way is to decriminalize drugs and call off the war.
So, begrudgingly he chooses Milton’s Way, because we as a society cannot take the pain of our own government killing 30+ Million of it’s own citizens (by comparison the US lost 1/2 Million in all of World War 2).
Which is the greater evil? Legalized narcotics for America’s young or a failed state of 110,000 million on our southern border? Some choice. Some country we’ve become.
This isn’t a resounding call for the principals that Milton laid out, but a decision based on the fear of a Mexican narco state. So the conservative Republican “War on Drugs” dies a whimpering death in the mind of Pat Buchanan.
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 8:26 am | By: Radical Russ
MEXICO CITY — As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by three former Latin American heads of state blasted the U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies to the breaking point.
“The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war,” said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro. “We have to move from this approach to another one.”
The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy “taboo” and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana.
This Wall Street Journal article also cites work by the Brookings Institution that confirms that there is as much supply and demand for drugs as ever, despite declaring all-out war on drugs. Naturally, the prohibition addicts who got us in this mess say that the decapitated dead bodies in the streets of Tijuana and Juarez are just signs that total victory over drugs is just around the corner:
John Walters, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said, “It’s not true that we’ve lost or can’t do anything about the drug problem,” and cited security improvements in Colombia.
Mr. Walters said increased violence in border areas of Mexico was partly a result of criminal organizations compensating for reduced income from the supply of drugs by turning to other activities, such as people-smuggling, and continuing to fight over turf.
U.S. law-enforcement officials — as well as some of their counterparts in Mexico — say the explosion in violence indicates progress in the war on drugs as organizations under pressure are clashing.
“If the drug effort were failing there would be no violence,” a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. There is violence “because these guys are flailing. We’re taking these guys out. The worst thing you could do is stop now.”
Yes, I see. It’s just a few dead-enders. We’re in the last throes of the narcotrafficante insurgency, if you will. The surge is working. We just have to have patience. We’re turning a corner in the Drug War. All we’re missing is a “Mission Accomplished” banner on a boat in the Rio Grande.
Mr. former Drug Czar Walters, how many dead innocent Mexicans do there have to be before we’re sure we’ve finally won?
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm | By: Radical Russ
JUAREZ — The newly-formed vigilante group “El Comando Ciudadano Por Juarez” proclaimed its manifesto Tuesday in a news release to Juarez media. It vowed to take over the streets in a matter of months if city, state and federal leaders fail to restore order.
In the manifesto, the group identified Commandante Abraham as its leader and Subcommandante Gabriel “Durito (Hard One)” as second-in-command.
Chihuahua’s Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez-Rodriguez denied the existence of the vigilante group Monday, stating the group was merely a fabrication by drug cartels to instill fear into Juarenses and generate more violence to de-stabilize the city.
In 2008, more than 1,600 people were killed in Juarez. City officials attributed the majority of the violent deaths to an ongoing war between rival drug cartels fighting for drug routes into the U.S.
Making matters worse, the city plunged into an economic abyss which gave rise to a rash of violent crime. Kidnappings for ransom and extortions became the norm and some of the city’s wealthiest families fled to El Paso.
The vigilante group stated its mission was to kill one criminal a day and declared war on burglars, kidnappers, and extortionists that constantly violate the rights of citizens. The group told city leaders they have until July 5, 2009 to re-establish order.
A failure to meet that goal by the deadline will result in the group taking the streets with its “army of men and women” who will battle criminals with whatever tool is available.
The manifesto describes the group as an organization consisting of university students, professors, commercial businessmen, unemployed workers and field workers who are willing to give their lives for their city. The group even revealed it is funded by businessmen who have fled their city due to the escalating violence and is willing to work side-by-side with the Mexican Army.
People here have a hard time understanding that there were more kidnappings, terrorism, and beheadings in Mexico last year than Iraq. This is a serious shooting war going on and 70% of it is funded by the marijuana we are not allowed to grow domestically. With more than 1,600 deaths in a city of 1.4 million, Juarez beat the 2008 murder totals of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC combined, cities that equal 15.5 million people, or more than ten times larger than Juarez.
Now the people are so terrified they are turning to vigilantism, a sure sign of the beginnings of a failed state. The politicians are continuing more of the same in-the-box thinking that got them in this situation – more military force through US funding of the Meridia initiative. Nobody in power can accept the fact that marijuana is here to stay, some people will always want to smoke it, there will always be a marijuana market, and it will be controlled by either the murderous criminals or by We The People.
Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 3:50 pm | By: Radical Russ
EL PASO — South-West city Rep. Beto O’Rourke has been in the hot seat since he successfully lobbied the rest of City Council to approve a resolution that included an amendment that asked for an open and honest debate on the legalization of narcotics.
The resolution by the Border Relations Committee called for federal intervention to quell the crime wave in Juárez that claimed 1,600 lives in 2008. O’Rourke added the part of a debate on legalizing narcotics, the rest of council agreed with him but Mayor John Cook vetoed it.
After making national headlines, being on the losing end of the veto and taking on a congressman, O’Rourke discussed the interesting week-and-a-half he has had.
Q All city representatives said they received a lot of calls and e-mails on this issue. Can you share some of the feedback you received?
A Right off the bat most of my correspondence was split 50/50 pro and con. Later on, I got more 70 percent pro and 30 percent con. Someone at my Monday morning breakfast meeting said that when they first read the headline he wondered what I and the rest of City Council were doing. But that then, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that we were right. That all options needed to be on the table.
Q Is it your belief that El Paso would have lost federal and state funds if the veto had been reversed on Tuesday?
A The honest answer is I don’t know. And part of why I don’t know is because the congressman (U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas) and his office and the state House delegation offered no specifics or facts. In fact, what they did offer was speculative. It’s speculation. There is no specific threat, no specific dollar amount or no specific project that is in peril.
The American People are ready to talk about legalization. Every call for issues to discuss through Change.gov and Change.org has seen marijuana law reform rise to the top of the list, over concerns with the economy, foreign policy, the environment, and war. It is not because marijuana law reform is more important than those issues, it is because those issues are at least allowed to be talked about.
Americans recognize the fundamental unfairness and unAmericanness of silencing any discussion on this issue. Americans have recognized that not only has the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs failed to stop any American who wants to use drugs from doing so, but that it has wasted billions of dollars, ruined millions of lives, and created the unintended harmful consequences resulting in the erosion of our 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 14th Amendment rights, America as the world’s largest prison state, and the creation of needless violence and despair.
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 3:37 pm | By: Radical Russ
The city of El Paso buckled to unusually explicit federal government pressure Tuesday and withdrew a call for a national debate on ending drug prohibition.
Last Tuesday, the El Paso city council voted 8-0 to express solidarity with its sister city in Mexico, Juarez, which has seen its murder rate double this year alone as the Mexican government has waged war on powerful drug cartels. To slow that violence, the resolution called for “an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics.”
That was enough to get Washington’s attention.
Mayor John Cook vetoed the resolution and Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat who represents El Paso in Congress, lobbied each councilmember, making it clear that if the resolution calling for a debate passed, El Paso would risk losing money in the upcoming stimulus legislation. Five Texas House representatives made the same threat.
“Funding for local law enforcement efforts and other important programs to our community are likely being put in jeopardy,” lawmakers warned in a letter to the city, “especially during a time when state resources are scarce.”
Four members of the council switched their votes and supported the veto; three of them publicly cited the funding threat as the reason for backing down.
What is the feeling that goes through your mind when you read that our federal government is openly blackmailing local governments to shut up about even discussing legalization of marijuana? In the piece, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who represents the Texas district that contains El Paso in Congress, said, “Please let the mayor’s veto stand and put this behind us. We’ve got huge issues that are facing us as a Congress,” as if the mere mention of trying something different in this escalating drug war is going to completely derail working on the economy, fighting terrorism, fixing health care, and creating new jobs, when in fact marijuana legalization would help solve all those issues!
It’s not like we’re asking you to impeach anybody; God knows we can never again put that on the table because it will supposedly grind the country to a screeching halt. The resolution simply called on the city to call on Congress to take a look at potentially forming a commission to study the possibility that maybe perhaps arresting our way out of a drug problem isn’t working and we ought to examine other scenarios for drug control that might include an investigation of the feasibility of considering the regulation and sale of a non-toxic mood-altering herb.
NO! It’s like our Congress are the Knights Who Say “Ni!” and “legalization” is the one word they cannot bear to hear.
So how do you feel? Me, I’m ecstatic. Thrilled, actually. When one little town in Texas calls for a conversation on the drug war and Congress immediately pulls out all stops to shut it up, that tells me the Berlin Wall of prohibition is about to come tumbling down. Americans aren’t too fond of “Just do what you’re told” as a policy justification. Before, the prohibitionists would engage with their silly little slippery slope arguments and trumped up statistics; now they won’t even engage the dialogue because they know they’ve lost before they open their mouths.
Mayor John Cook quickly vetoed the resolution after city Rep. Beto O’Rourke added that request at the last minute.
Monday, an e-mail from the mayor surfaced, urging those who are against the resolution to make sure they are heard, because “the pot heads” have sent their message.
It states: “I can tell you that all the pot heads have sent their e-mails and they are encouraging the reps to stand by their decision. But why does the silent majority remain silent? We have certainly attracted attention to our city, but I don’t think the attention is positive.”
Cook told [reporters] the e-mail was private and not meant to be forwarded to others. “Specifically, I was referring to one individual who happened to write an e-mail to me saying that he’s been smoking pot for over twenty years and he thinks we should legalize marijuana in the United States … So if calling that person a pot head is insulting to him, then I apologize.”
O’Rourke had this to say about Cook’s remarks in the e-mail: “I’m sure the mayor probably didn’t mean for everyone to read this, but I was concerned that anyone who might support having a national open discussion on our best options in the drug war would be described as a pothead.”
The vote to override Mayor Cook’s veto of the resolution on the drug war in Juarez is scheduled for Tuesday.
Mayor Cook, did you ever stop to think that the people who want to at least talk about alternatives to the prohibition of drugs are the majority and aren’t being silent?
Or is that too difficult to handle when you haven’t even mastered the difference between the plural (”all the pot heads have sent their e-mails”) and the singular (”if calling that person a pot head is insulting to him, then I apologize.”)
It is insulting, Mayor Cook, to me and to all the people who support the El Paso Council’s unanimous vote to begin a new discussion on the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs, to call us “potheads”. (I call myself a “pothead”, but that’s because I wear a 100% hemp cap with a pot leaf on it. Literally: pot on head.) It’s the kind of word we can use amongst ourselves with good friends (think “n-word”) but is automatically offensive when used by outsiders to describe us.
Won’t it be something if later today that council overrides his veto? The city that started this stupid War on Drugs almost one hundred years ago could be the city that begins to end it.
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am | By: Radical Russ
Drug war mayhem instills a new fear – Los Angeles Times
CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO — Scooped up by gunmen as she walked near her home, 12-year-old Alexia Moreno hardly had a chance. The gangsters were driving straight into a shootout. Within minutes, she was dead, shot in the head as she cowered in the back seat.
It was two weeks before her sixth-grade graduation.
Alexia’s death in a city so accustomed to death struck a nerve because she was, in this city tortured by killings, broad-daylight gun battles and rampant kidnappings, an innocent victim.
In the last few days, the neighboring state of Sinaloa has been shocked by a wave of violence that has taken the lives of many innocents, including another 12-year-old girl. Authorities said Tuesday that more than 1,200 additional federal police were deployed to Sinaloa as part of a nationwide government offensive involving about 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police officers.
Gun battles interrupt traffic in the middle of the day along Triumph of the Republic Boulevard and the city’s other main drags; corpses, sometimes mutilated or headless, turn up at shopping centers and fast-food joints; hospitals come under machine-gun fire. Ominous voices break into emergency-frequency radio traffic, warning paramedics not to pick up bodies, journalists not to approach the scene.
Nearly a third of Mexico’s drug-related killings in this record year have been registered in Juarez and its surroundings.
Take last month, for example: In one not particularly unusual weekend, 17 people, including a journalist, were killed; the sister-in-law of a U.S. congressman was kidnapped; and a dozen businesses were set ablaze after receiving threats.
The month before that, Juarez’s top police commander resigned and fled after his second- and third-in-command were assassinated along with a dozen or so other officers, some named on a hit list.
Last year’s police commander was arrested in February on charges of attempting to smuggle a ton of marijuana into the U.S. through El Paso. He pleaded guilty in a U.S. court. Reyes said the police are being overhauled and screened in an effort to remove the corrupt and the drug users among them.
Up to 20% of the police force is corrupt and will be fired, said a senior official who requested anonymity because the purge is ongoing.
Innocent Mexicans are dying daily and law enforcement is crumbling all along the Mexican border as the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels fight it out for control over the trafficking of mostly marijuana into the United States. Mostly low-grade marijuana that any cannabis connoisseur would turn down even if it were free. The kind of marijuana that would never be able to compete against the top domestically-grown marijuana in the US.
You know what you never read about, at least in the past eighty years? 12-year-old girls shot to death in a turf war between rival bootleggers. Marijuana never killed anybody, but marijuana prohibition is a serial killer.
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
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