Kate Matsudaira

View Original

What is the World Coming to?

I know that America certainly isn't in the best condition, but it seems like much of the world isn't doing too much better.  I have seen the move Traffic, and I recently went on vacation to Mexico, but it is still hard for me to fathom news like: Mexico drug gangs threaten cops on radio, kill them. Now this article is from Tijuana, and perhaps other border towns have similar crime stories, but it is still so shocking. Here is an excerpt from the article (the rest can be found here):

Mexican drug gangs near the U.S. border are breaking into police radio frequencies to issue chilling death threats to cops which they then carry out, demoralizing security forces in a worsening drug war."You're next, bastard ... We're going to get you," an unidentified drug gang member said over the police radio in the city of Tijuana after naming a policeman.
The man also threatened a second cop by name and played foot-stomping "narcocorrido" music, popular with drug cartels, over the airwaves."No one can help them," an officer named Jorge said of his threatened colleagues as he heard the threats in his patrol car.Sure enough, two hours later the dead bodies of the two named policemen were found dumped on the edge of the city, their hands tied and bullet wounds in their heads.Cartels killed some 530 police in Mexico last year, some of them corrupt officers who were working for rival gangs. Others were killed in shoot-outs or murdered for working against the gangs or refusing to turn a blind eye to drug shipments.Violence has hit shocking levels in Tijuana, over the border from San Diego, since President Felipe Calderon launched an army crackdown on traffickers in late 2006, stirring up new wars between rival cartels over smuggling routes.

This news certainly shocked me and I think it makes you realize how fortunate we are here.