Drug war spreads to El Paso, shots hit city hall

[Melensdad]

While my lovely wife used to live in El Paso with her family for many years, it appears that the city is not quite what is was 25+ years ago. If you have travel plans for the southwest you might want to watch out where you spend your time.

Tx. demands more border troops as gunfire hits El Paso City Hall
Attorney General wrote a letterto the White House after seven shots were fired into the building
http://www.policeone.com/pc_print.asp?vid=2090941
Alamogordo Daily News

EL PASO, Tx. -- Attorney General Greg Abbott today demanded that President Obama send more troops to the Texas-Mexico border and used the shots that hit El Paso City Hall as an example of increased violence on the border.

Abbott said in a letter that the seven shots that hit City Hall in El Paso were an example of the violence that is plaguing the border area and that sending 1,200 National Guard soldiers to the entire U.S.-Mexico border is not enough.

He also cited the violence in Juarez and said that Americans lives are at risk.

"More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juarez this year as a war continues relentlessly between the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels," he told Obama.

He also said the "time for talk has passed."

Here is the letter by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott:

Dear Mr. President,

Deadly violence from drug cartels and transnational gangs in Mexico is knocking on the United States' door with ever increasing frequency.

Yesterday, gunfire from the cartels pierced that threshold and struck City Hall in El Paso. Fortunately no one was injured or killed. But that good fortune was not the result of effective border control it was mere luck that the bullets struck buildings rather than bodies.

Luck and good fortune are not effective border enforcement policies. The shocking reality of cross border gunfire proves the cold reality: American lives are at risk. As the attached news article notes: "More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Ju?rez this year as a war continues relentlessly between the Ju?rez and Sinaloa drug cartels." Americans must be protected as this deadly war bulges at our border.

Law enforcement officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety and your own U.S. Customs and Border Protection will reveal the hard truth. Our state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border.

The time for talk has passed. The time for action is now. The need is urgent. Each day that passes increases the likelihood that an American life will be lost because of the federal government's failure to secure the border.

This threat demands immediate and effective action by your Administration to secure our border. As the Attorney General of Texas, I urge you to make border security your top priority so that no more innocent lives are lost to border violence.​

 

[loboloco]

Good for him. Obama will blame the problem on Bush and reduce what little coverage there is.

 

[joec]

Don't know about blaming on Bush but it needs to be handled at this point with extreme prejudice in my opinion. We need to send a division of Marines down to the boarder and be done with it once and for all.

We also need to cut of the jobs for any one in this country illegally be it by fining those that hire them, jail terms and take away the excuse of forged documents with a taper proof National ID card to get a job. Fences are a joke, always have been and always will be when you consider how much border we have between the US and Mexico as well as the US and Canada.

 

[mak2]

Wasnt it Dean Martin that said money is the root of all evil, and we are all in there rootin? It is begining to look to me like drugs might be the root of almost all evil. And what are the difference in street gangs in Detroit and drug gangs in El Paso?

 

[Big Dog]

Wasnt it Dean Martin that said money is the root of all evil, and we are all in there rootin? It is begining to look to me like drugs might be the root of almost all evil. And what are the difference in street gangs in Detroit and drug gangs in El Paso?

Bad analogy, our border protection is constitutional. Our crime problem is judicial IMO.

 

[Melensdad]

Fences are a joke, always have been and always will be when you consider how much border we have...

When I travelled behind the IRON CURTAIN the fencing along the borders there seemed to keep people in the communist nations despite their desire to escape. Last time I checked the former East Bloc border was at least as long as our southern border.

In the areas were we have border fencing it has been proven to be effective. You are correct that we can't simply fence off the world. And really all the fences do is MOVE the problem to somewhere past the end of the fence. But the fences effectively funnel drug & people smugglers and allow for easier and more effective patrolling where they exist.

I'm NOT suggesting fences SOLVE anything, but they do help and can be ONE OF THE PARTIAL solutions to the problem of border security. There are plenty of places that are so remote that no fence is needed, but there are places where populations exist on one/both sides of the border and the fences can be an aid in reducing the problem.

Still, I do think that setting up a far more substantial Border Patrol, or possibly state guard units, or both, along with fencing, along with high tech surveillance, thermal imaging, etc etc etc

 

[joec]

The Berlin wall was only effective in Berlin but not very along the whole route based on the numbers that still managed to cross it. Another factor was crossing it would get you shot with out hesitation from the communist side, again more effective than the wall or fences ever where.

 

[XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq]

The Berlin wall was only effective in Berlin but not very along the whole route based on the numbers that still managed to cross it. Another factor was crossing it would get you shot with out hesitation from the communist side, again more effective than the wall or fences ever where.

I think the Korean DMZ is pretty effective.

 

[joec]

Again entering or leaving means one side or the other will shoot at you with extreme prejudice. Fence on work on honest people same with locks they are their to keep those honest people from being tempted.