Laredo, TX Sheriff: Cartel hitmen have us outgunned (video)

This AP video is both heartbreaking and infuriating. It’s the first I had heard of Heath Rochester and his wife and daughter gone missing in Mexico. AP treats it like American citizens getting kidnapped in Mexico or anywhere is no big deal, but it always is around here.

As for the larger question of Mexico becoming “the next Colombia”, unless South Texas does first, Hot Air helps you to READ MORE ABOUT IT:

Unlike many other drug-related killings, the Laredo slayings often involve careful planning, explicit orders and surveillance of law enforcement officers, Guillen said. And arrests aren’t easy: In most cases, the killers flee back across the border.

Also, the traditional taboos against involving family members and other civilians have disappeared.

“These days, if they have a problem, they kill it,” Holdridge said. “If they have to hose down a car full of five people, they’ll do it.”

Gone also is the grudging respect once accorded U.S. law enforcement. Holdridge said he and his wife have occasionally been followed by suspected cartel members as they drive around town. In fact, [convicted hitman] Reta had the make, model and plates of a law officer’s personal car, Guillen said.

Meanwhile ICE has slashed the number of staff investigating border jumpers and reassigned them to customs:

Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican and outspoken critic of lax immigration enforcement, said resources need to be allocated to ensure the removal of criminal illegal aliens from the U.S.

“It lacks wisdom to take 20 percent of your work force who know how to deal with criminal detainees — experienced officers — and make grapefruit inspectors out of them,” Mr. Poe said

Granted, the video and article above mainly discuss US citizens who go to work for Mexican gangs. All the same, as a journalist or “journalist” who writes about these issues now and then, I think I could really use the protection. My grapefruit have been arriving in good condition, thanks.

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