IN ASCENCION, MEXICO — In this dusty farm town, an hour south of the U.S. border, more than 40 people were abducted – one a week – in the first nine months of the year. Then, on Sept. 21, the kidnappings stopped.
That was the day a gang of kidnappers with AK-47s burst into Lolo’s seafood restaurant and tried to abduct the 17-year-old cashier. A mob of enraged residents chased down two of the teenage attackers and lynched them in a cotton field on the edge of town. “We’re not proud of what happened,” said Georgina “Coca” Gonzalez, who helped form an armed citizens’ group after the incident to fight crime and prevent kidnappings. “But we’re united now – the whole town. And we all want justice.”
Across the country, and especially in northern Mexico, the breakdown of the legal system is giving way to a wave of vigilante violence. As Mexicans grow frustrated with the depredations of drug mafias and the corruption and incompetence of authorities, some are meting out punishment the old-fashioned way, taking an eye for eye, or in some cases, an eye for a tooth. Some of these retributive acts have happened spontaneously, such as the Ascencion “uprising,” as many here have celebrated it. But other killings in the past year appear to have been carried out by shadowy forces who have left bodies along highways or hanging from bridges with handwritten notes that advertise the dead as “extortionists” or “kidnappers. Late last year, authorities discovered four bodies, including an alleged Monterrey gangster, Hector Saldana, and his two brothers, in a car in Mexico City. The deaths were announced by Mauricio Fernandez, the new mayor of the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia, even before police identified the bodies.
Fernandez said he had nothing to do with the killings, although he boasted of his plans to create “cleansing teams” to rid his city of criminals.
“Sometimes coincidences happen in life. It’s better to see it that way,” Fernandez told a Monterrey newspaper.
People fighting back, can I get an AMEN.
Amen.
This is what happens when the disparities between one group and another become intolerable.
In Mexico, it appears that gap is between the law violators and the law abiders.
In the USA, it is growing between the Super Rich and the rest of us, Obama’s appeal to self destruction notwithstanding.
Pukes and LIEbertards really should add this unavoidable fact to their analysis.
U.S. LEOs take heed. Americans have a lot more guns than the Mexicans and some of us are probably reaching a breaking point.
Natural Bobbo
First of all hello. I hope you are well.
You say that in Mexico the gap is between law violators and law abiders. You then note the gap in the US is between the Super Rich and the rest of us. Is this a distinction without much of a difference? The legal playing field here in the USofA is pretty obviously tilted in favor of the rich but many of the richest have broken a few laws or at least moral laws (if there is such a thing) while gathering pelf.
@bobbo Nope, this is not class warfare. These are people who want normal lives and understand that until they kick criminals out that is not going to happen. Comparable events may happen in US But, not vs. “Super Rich” Left loves to hate. Uprising will be against local crime. Harlem, Bronx, South Sides of Chicago and LA,… you name the place. Where ever quality of life is down due to the crime and Govt. is cooked. Amount of wealth is irrelevant. Inability to proceed with normal life at whatever social level people are at the moment is the trigger. (Lived through it, it was rich and poor of moral standing vs. rich and poor of criminal mind… Oh, and The Left LOST, lacking any morals).
The problem is that it starts with them going after criminals and then it winds up with them becoming the criminals.
Unlike comic books, vigilantes eventual go too far. Just as unchecked LEA’s do when not kept under strict supervision.
Cursor_
#3, Blind Stevie, the Ûber-rich are, in fact, ashamed of how obscenely rich hey have become.
They are planning to give half of it back.
They includes Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and lots of others who have signed Buffet’s pledge. I don’t feel like giving you the list. Just read Forbes.
The are only going to give back the portion left over after founding their own dynasties.
But that means only about a billion dollars is required.
The rest that should have been taxed as excessive profits will make its way back in other ways.
#3–Not so Blind Stevie==happy to discuss the moral framework of my parallel constructs: In Mexico the great mass of the people are being prayed upon by criminals engaged in kidnapping by force. The police/formal society do not protect against this violence so the predated people react to protect themselves.
In the USA, the great mass of people are being prayed upon by criminals engaged in wealth transfer by unregulated/unenforced societal institutions. The police/regulators/formal society do not protect against this wealth shift so the predated people will eventually react to protect themselves.
So, while there are many similarities, you can also spot the differences. Such is the case with any issue honestly delineated.
#5–duceanal==”class warfare” is definitional. For Instance: well fed college educated people with a future within the structure of society rarely engage in it leaving such activities for other classes.
What happens when your system of law and order has broken down?
You can move out (a lot of them who could have,) or you can stay.
You can either join the lawless, which is stupid, non-constructive and short-lived. (A stroll through Mogadishu will tell you that. [Those idiot teenagers were the kinds of imbeciles that Pol Pot relied upon.])
You can cower down in your basement, which works fine if you don’t need to eat, work or procreate. (Mexico is definitely NOT that rich.)
Or you can take the law into your own hands.
That’s what happened.
You can’t FORCE a country’s populace to self-destruct.
Eventually you get an uprising.
The crooks just got surprised that it was them, their AK-47s not withstanding.
Let the bodies strung up in the cotton field be a warning to the gangsters.
Push people too far and they’ll do something that they’ll be ashamed of, later, over a cerveza.
They need… THE THREE AMIGOS!
This is why I created cotton.
Is it still vigilantism if the police, the army and the government are all working with the criminals?
(This question applies to Mexico, and any other fascist country you can think of.)
When the government fails to protect you, you have no other choice. Bravo to these people for fighting back.
GOOD. If the Mexican police is too corrupt, scared or lazy, the citizens SHOULD take law into their own hands. They have the right to defend themselves and their towns since the “officials” have abdicated that responsibility.
Open season in the US on punks wearing pants below their knees….
HUH RAH.
Hey pedro, do you have anything intelligent to say, or are you just a complainer?
Amen
Pedro, next time I’m doing a presentation, I’ll call you for projection. You’re good at it.
Olo, dont bother, Hes not very bright.
http://instantrimshot.com/
#8 – WTF!?! There’s no such thing as an excess profit. Do you believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny too?
I spoke with some police officers that told me they witnessed an interesting phenomenon about Mexicans. They said the harder you hit them, the more english you get out of them.
#26 President Amabo
#8 “The rest that should have been taxed as excessive profits…”
I guess he just received his latest copy of Pravda.
American capitalism gone with a whimper
http://tinyurl.com/2dslb46
When the government can no longer be counted on to provide due process or even protection you are back down to banding together for mutual defense.
The problem is things may be about to get really, seriously ugly.
My bad they are already really seriously ugly but as hard as this may be for some to understand once mob rule sets in large chunks of the population can end up dead PDQ.
This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends…not with a bang.
Now on to Washington and the airports of U.S.A. Congress and TSA are behaving like Mexican drug lord, only difference is drug lords don’t hide in sheep’s clothing.
Mexico is starting to be great fun to watch.
If they start with this approach up here, I welcome it.
And, Oleo Bygones of Backwaters, bite me.
Once they fix their country, US Americans will flee to Mexico.
This is horrible. These gangsters have rights. They should be given a fair trial where they are innocent until proven guilty. I think Mayor Fernandez should be sued for everything he has.
#26
If I bake a cake everyday, and no one eats it, is it excessive or just right?
This is what is happening with the mega-rich.
They make more money than they could possibly spend in their lifetimes. Even 10 to 100 lifetimes.
Is it excessive? No doubt. But in the US, with its insistence on more is better, what can we expect?
#34
No one questions what they do is wrong.
But as the old adage goes, two wrongs does not a right make.
Neither side is on the side of what is right. And so also those charged with their protection are in the wrong as well. No need to add to the errors.
Cursor_
Well done Pedro, one out of 83 is progress.
Cursor: funny you go to the cake analogy. Of course it is WRONG in every sense of the word, and even recognized in law, for the rich to bake cakes they can’t even eat when others are going hungry.
Now, I suppose you are making the same transparent attempt at humor/witticism as is Mikey, and just like him, you fall totally on your face. A prat fall if you will.
I more better? Yes. give the working poor a living wage: they desire more.
You are arguing way beneath your competency.