Why is California getting more money to fight the drug war?
Last time I checked we are in the throes of a recession and the State of California is 26 billion dollars in debt. Our schools are ailing, our unemployment rate is over 10 percent, and state money for college students is drying up like the Sahara.
The governor is out talking to politicians and business investors to figure out something, anything that will get us out of this economic mess and yet the Federal government announced today that it will give the State of California 8.7 million dollars in Federal funds to fight the drug cartel. Is it just me or have I been taking crazy pills ?
12 Mexican Federal Police Officers Assassinated
Michocan, Mexico is the epicenter of La Familia, one of the most ruthless drug trafficking groups in Mexico. Arnoldo Rueda Medina, one of La Familia’s main operatives was arrested last week which has set off a wave of violence in retaliation.
12 Federal Agents were assassinated last week with their corpses left alongside of the road and with a note attached to their bodies. La Familia publicly takes credit for the killings.
The President’s words ring hollow in the midst of this mess. “We cannot, we should not, we will not take one step backward in this matter,” Calderon said Tuesday. Michoacan is the home state of President Felipe Calderon and since his public announcement of a government crackdown on the Cartel there have been over 11,000 assassinations. Unsurprisingly, the Mexican public does not approve of his handling of the drug war.
Mexico Torturing Citizens in Drug War, says WaPo
Come on, Mexico. If you’re going to torture, make sure they’re not your own citizens, and do it Egypt, where those uppity Human Rights people can’t report. It’s called extraordinary rendition, duh! From WaPo:
In Puerto Las Ollas, a mountain village of 50 people in the southern state of Guerrero, residents recounted how soldiers seeking information last month stuck needles under the fingernails of a disabled 37-year-old farmer, jabbed a knife into the back of his 13-year-old nephew …to extract confessions, soldiers beat them, held plastic bags over their heads until some lost consciousness, strapped their feet to a ceiling while dunking their heads in water and applied electric shocks ...
In the state of Michoacán, investigators with the government’s National Human Rights Commission concluded that the army committed abuses against 65 people over three days – including several cases of torture and the rape of two girls – after five soldiers were killed in an attack in May 2007. ...
U.S. officials warned that the abuse allegations could lead Congress to withhold more than $100 million in anti-narcotics assistance….
The State Department’s Mérida human rights report will be delivered to Congress within weeks, according to a U.S. official involved in the process.
Good job, [WaPo]
Even the Narcs are out of Money in California [Budget]
California’s budget mess looks so bad that one can imagine the sick dying in the streets and the crazies raping their corpses. Amidst the state’s real problems, let us all shed a tear for California’s nightmarish Criminal Justice system, especially the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and their budget woes. A current proposal in Sacramento would:
reduce the number of state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement (BNE) agents to 100 and zero-out funding for 51 drug task forces funded by the agency. A decade ago, BNE fielded 400 agents. Cuts in recent years have reduced that number to 185 agents, and the latest budget proposals would slice that number nearly in half.
...
“Hopefully the Legislature understands the importance of the drug task forces and doesn’t cut us,” he said. “But if they do, we’ll have to pick up the pieces.”
No word on how much money the State would save. But TDR says, “Do it!”
[StopTheDrugWar via Redding.com]
