The Mexicanization of American Law Enforcement

City Journal ^ | Autumn 2009 | JUDITH MILLER

[Bobibutu]

Beheadings and amputations. Iraqi-style brutality, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, and murder. More than 7,200 dead—almost double last year’s tally—in shoot-outs between federales and often better-armed drug cartels. This is modern Mexico ... law enforcement officials on the take from drug lords—is becoming an American problem as well.

[gaijin]

This was an amazing article...!

Good post!

[Mac from Cleveland]

City Journal is top-notch.

[Deagle]

Actually, this is rather scary! If we lose the rule of law, everything goes - seems to be happening at a slow pace! This does seem to be the direction lately and it is absolutely a major problem! What to do when the Federal government is in cohorts with the outlaws? Revolution?

[Regulator]

So it's coming.

Those of us from the Southwest knew this would be the end game of the Mexican invasion: the destruction of our institutions and most importantly the police, which is what makes Mexico singularly bad.

And this effect is turbocharged by "affirmative action". The agencies are forced to hire quotas of "hispanics" who um, ain't from Spain.

They're Mexicans. And in Mexico, being a cop means money and power, by any means available.

So this will our children's future, courtesy of the Baby Boomer idiot generation: cops who pull you over and say, "a hundred dollars, and we forget about your speeding problem".

Or worse.

Not exactly Dragnet or the Untouchables.

Too bad guys like Bush undermined guys like Mike Hayden. If he hadn't, the disease might have been corked up at the border.

But he didn't. And America will pay with its life.

[Deagle]

Sorry to say that you may be right... Most just ignore the problem or don’t have any idea of what is happening...

I doubt that this will continue however...but it will be too late.

[SatinDoll]

I read the article and found it devastating!

When I lived in Spain I was told the Nationales never assigned personnel to their home provinces. It makes sense now that I see a need to assign our own Federal Border guards who come from the southwest-Mexican border areas to places up north on the Canadian border.

[bornred]

Government investigators believe that Crispin had been working for the cartels for at least a year before she applied to become an inspector. In other words, federal screening failed to detect that, at the time she applied for her job, the cartels had already recruited her to facilitate their cross-border trafficking. At one point, federal investigators say, Crispin claimed to have wanted out of her arrangement with the cartels. “But we think she was kidnapped and forcibly taken back to Mexico to remind her of whom she was working for,” Abbott says. Having family in both Juárez and El Paso, cities within sight of each other across the border, Crispin found herself trapped.

It's not too hard to compromise somebody who is in this position. Shame on whoever hires CBP agents who have strong ties to the people we're trying to keep out. We need border agents who are 100% unquestionably loyal to the United States.

[Bobibutu]

It gets worse. Drug money has financed city council and county elected positions in many communities. This has been going on for decades. We are truly rotting from within while the band in DC plays on.

[Pining_4_TX]

Oh for goodness sake! Now we boomers are responsible for this, too? Wow, I thought most of us worked hard and paid exorbitant taxes so that the older generation was guaranteed not to have to give up any of their generous benefits. Who knew?

[kcvl]

U.S. Customs bridge inspector Mexican Margarita Crispin

Crispin allegedly conspired with others to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States from June 2003 to July 2007, according to the indictment. She is accused of knowingly allowing loads of marijuana to pass through her port of entry lanes without inspection. She joined CBP in March 2003. She was responsible for inspecting incoming vehicle traffic into the port of entry.

Margarita Crispin, a customs inspector in El Paso, Tex., began helping drug smugglers just a few months after she was hired in 2003, according to prosecutors. She helped the smugglers for four years before she was arrested last year and sentenced in April to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit up to $5 million.

[kcvl]

A van stuffed front to back with nearly 6,000 pounds of marijuana ran out of gas as it headed toward the Paso Del Norte border crossing and an inspection lane manned by Margarita Crispin, who was sentenced in April 2008 to 20 years in federal prison for helping drug traffickers

[kcvl]

By the time she was arrested in July 2007, Crispin is thought to have let more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana into the United States. In return, DHS agents say, she received millions in bribes, much of which remains unaccounted for. Last April, she pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 years and ordered to forfeit as much as $5 million, plus jewelry and a truck.

Speaking Spanish is a required skill for agents, and many have family and other ties to Mexico. Though agents are subjected to extensive background checks, it is a challenge to indentify red flags in applicants' personal histories or connections across the border. Since the agency began giving polygraph tests to potential hires last year, investigators have found four applicants planted by the cartels. Still, they're concerned that others may have already slipped through.

[nathanbedford]

What to do when the Federal government is in cohorts with the outlaws? Revolution?

What do you do when the federal government uses the violence and corruption as an excuse to crack down of individual liberty?

It is time for the pesky libertarian streak in me to come out. With our war on drugs, which we have already lost, we have put ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Either we tolerate corruption until it infests the whole of our justice system all the way up to Maine and Montana, or we crack down on drug use and corruption to the degree that we destroy our sacred individual liberties. Worse, we give the Chicago Marxist an excuse to indulge in corruption or to exploit the drug war to undermine our liberties.

For what?

To the degree that honest federal drug enforcement officials are effective, they drive up the price of drugs and induce more people to enter the game. To the extent that they are ineffective, it is a symptom that the judicial process and the policing process have been corrupted. I read this is a no-win deal.

So far we have the worst of both possible worlds: we have been ineffective at stopping the proliferation of drugs; we have out of our fear of drugs condoned incursions against our personal liberties; we have seen the corruption of the rule of law; we have incentivized with profits the business of selling drugs and we have made it more dangerous to walk the streets. Not one day goes by that we do not read of these threads of a homeowner shooting an intruder. What motivates these intruders and street muggers?

For what?

[bornred]

CBP needs to hire more “Jim Thompsons” and fewer “Margaritas.”

Is this not common sense?

When I was in high school, Spanish was the easiest foreign language available. It shouldn’t be hard at all to find Americans who are (or can become) fluent. We’re not talking about Mandarin or Navajo here.

[kcvl]

Exactly!

[Deagle]

Well, to get away from the drug problem, it is much worse that you think. You seem to be focused on the drugs and I agree that it is a problem, but you are missing the total picture... It is much worse that you think!

[nathanbedford]

What's worse?

[dorothy]

It’s not really a bribe south of the border, you know, just a charming Mexican tradition called “mordita” (”a little bite”). Just a simple cost of doing business or interacting with the authorities down there.

[DH]

"The agencies are forced to hire quotas of "hispanics" who um, ain't from Spain."

Here's some other news: They are not from HISPANIOLA either!  Like all good illegals, they stole that name too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispaniola

[DH]

I believe that if you wish to do drugs, have at it.  However, before that step is taken, we must insure that the druggie is held totally responsible for any (and all) personal actions taken to support their habit.  That means that ALL violations of criminal and civil law must be prosecuted  to the full extent when they steal or commit other crimes to obtain money (or assets) to support their habit.

That is the problem with the Libertarian Party's plank in legalizing drugs...they believe "first, legalize all drugs and then we will address the crime problem."  Sorry, that's the "cart in front of the horse" concept.

Once again, I believe in the concept, but not before strict enforcement of law is applied.

[gussiefinknottle]

Bush had a chance to stop what Clinton and Al Gore started
but he refused. Now, we are in deep doo-doo.

[Regulator]

Now we boomers are responsible for this, too?

Hey, I'm one too....

Who else could be responsible? It happened while we were the majority, voting for screaming Leftist politicians who hated the nation.