Feral Jundi

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Mexico: Police Forces Are Resigning In Small Towns Due To Cartel Violence And Threats

   Boy, the war on Mexico’s authorities is only getting worse.  I expect that as more police forces resign, you will see more private security increase.  Worse yet, you will see more businesses being forced to kiss the ring of the cartels, because there is no one to protect them.

   Another idea is that Mexico is not a signatory of the Declaration of Paris.  Although they did remove the Amendment in their constitution that allowed their congress to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal(I think in the 1960’s).  Regardless, a sovereign nation should be able to do anything they can to defend themselves against all threats, both foreign and domestic.  Mexico could use the LoM to enlist the help of private industry in their war.  The cartels are pretty rich, and they are the kind of big fish that could make the business of killing or capturing these thugs pretty profitable for a privateering company.  Mexico would also have to attach a bounty to those they would want killed or captured.

   Personally, I think there should be more value to a living cartel member, as opposed to a dead one.  The reason for that is then Mexico could identify more cartel members that are threats, and thus increase the bounty roster. They can also get more money out of a living guy, because you can get more information out of them(secret bank accounts, hidden cash, etc.).

   Also, with this kind of industry, companies would want to interrogate their captures so they can build their own files.  That information is gold to a company that is in the business of ‘finding’ people and things, and that intel should be part of the prize when going after these thugs. –Matt

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Mexican Town’s Police Force Quits After Ambush

May 18, 2010

Most of a small Mexican town’s police force has quit after armed men ambushed and wounded two of their officers.

The resignation of six of the 11 municipal officers in La Union Monday evening comes after several other Mexican towns have seen mass police resignations because of cartel violence or threats.

State police in Guerrero, which La Union is located, said Tuesday that it has deployed 20 of its officers to patrol La Union until further notice.

The resignations came two days after their colleagues were ambushed and left La Union’s police force with five members: the chief, the deputy chief, an officer in charge of weapons logistics and the two wounded officers who are hospitalized.

Meanwhile, people in some Mexican towns have begun taking the law into their own hands.

In Mexico State, on the outskirts of Mexico City, authorities said Tuesday that residents of a town beat a man death on suspicion of robbing a young couple of 200 pesos (about $16) and a cell phone Monday.

The suspect and an accomplice allegedly held up the couple with a knife and what later was found to be a toy gun.

About 300 people pursued the two men, caught one and beat him so badly with sticks and fists that he died in an ambulance, officials said.

Also Tuesday, the federal police announced the capture of an alleged member of the La Linea gang in the border city of Ciudad Juarez who allegedly participated in the killing of 10 people.

Juan Padilla Juarez, 28, allegedly targeted rivals of the La Linea gang, which is allied with the Juarez drug cartel. He was captured Monday in Ciudad Juarez.

The Attorney General’s Office announced that a judge handed down a prison sentence of almost 22 years against Jaime Gonzalez Duran, also known as ”The Hummer,” for money laundering and weapons possession. He had previously been sentenced to 16 1/2 years on similar charges by another court. The sentences will not be served concurrently.

Gonzalez Duran is an army deserter who was arrested in the northern border city of Reynosa. He is allegedly one of the founding members of the Zetas, a band of cartel hit men believed responsible for massacres and beheadings.

Story here.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Arizona: Deputy Ambushed And Wounded By Drug Smugglers Armed With AK-47’s

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Illinois: Crime In Chicago Increases, Lawmakers Call For The National Guard

   Chicago is in a state of emergency. It has been reported that 113 people have been killed in Chicago this year. The same number of U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same time period. –Huffington Post, Rev. Jesse Jackson

*****

   Man, Chicago has always been bad, but when it gets to the point where folks are asking for some cavalry to come in and put a check on this stuff, I take notice.  This is also a political move to bring more attention to the problem, and it seems to be the latest tactic with lawmakers and governors in a few other states in the US.  But the numbers speak for themselves in this case, as the quote up top has clearly identified. –Matt

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Chicago Lawmakers: Call In the National Guard

April 26, 2010

Two lawmakers who believe violence has become so rampant in Chicago that the Illinois National Guard must be called in to help made a public plea to Gov. Pat Quinn to deploy troops.

CHICAGO — Two lawmakers who believe violence has become so rampant in Chicago that the Illinois National Guard must be called in to help made a public plea to Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday to deploy troops.

A recent surge in violent crime, including a night last week that saw seven people killed and 18 wounded — mostly by gunfire — prompted the request from Chicago Democratic Reps. John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford. They were joined by Willie Williams, whose son was shot and killed in 2006.

Chicago has had 113 homicide victims so far this year, Fritchey said.

“As we speak, National Guard members are working side-by-side with our troops to fight a war halfway around the world,” he said during a news conference in downtown Chicago. “The unfortunate reality is that we have another war that is just as deadly that is taking place right in our backyard.”

(more…)

Law Enforcement: Broken Window Theory, By George L. Kelling

    Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside.

    Or consider a sidewalk. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there or breaking into cars.

    A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, say the book’s authors, is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood.

    The theory thus makes two major claims: that further petty crime and low-level anti-social behavior will be deterred, and that major crime will, as a result, be prevented. Criticism of the theory has tended to focus only on the latter claim. 

****

   If you ever hear the whole ‘broken windows theory‘ being thrown around in discussions about law enforcement and reducing crime, this is the origins of the idea.  George Kelling wrote this article below, and also has a book that further expands upon the ideas called Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities. So I wanted to put this out there for the readership, because I believe that parts of this theory, if not the general idea of it, could definitely be applied to our industry.

   A really basic way to apply this theory to our industry, is the management of your person and your position/post at whatever contract you are at.  Will others have less respect for your post and your job, if they see that your post or even you is in complete disarray(broken window)? First impressions make lasting impressions, and if your post or you looks sloppy or looks unorganized, then will others feel more inclined to disrespect your post or ‘break another window’?  It is an interesting idea that I often come back to when I think about the defense or crime.

   Take it a step further.  If a town or city in a war zone, was organized and sharp looking, complete with defenses that actually look impressive, will an enemy or even bandits be less inclined to attack it?  If a ‘jundi’ in Iraq is manning a position at a site, and the sand bags are all leaking out and the gun is covered in rust and dirt, and trash is all over the post, would insurgents be more inclined to pick that post to focus a coordinated assault with? (you could also use this to your advantage for a ‘counter’ strategy–hidden surprises anyone?)

   How about for minimizing crime in war zones?  Obviously law enforcement is weakened in war zones, because these officers are busy with a lot of stuff. (like not getting killed).  If there is not an effort to clean up the bullet holes, or fix the windows, or repair the homes that are damaged by war, will criminals naturally feel like they can get away with anything?  That no one in the community cares about their community, and that they could easily be manipulated by criminals imposing their will?  Interesting stuff, and I would like to hear what you think about Broken Window Theory, as it applies to CONUS or OCONUS? –Matt

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Broken Windows

March 1982

The police and neighborhood safety

By George L. Kelling

In the mid-l970s The State of New Jersey announced a “Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program,” designed to improve the quality of community life in twenty-eight cities. As part of that program, the state provided money to help cities take police officers out of their patrol cars and assign them to walking beats. The governor and other state officials were enthusiastic about using foot patrol as a way of cutting crime, but many police chiefs were skeptical. Foot patrol, in their eyes, had been pretty much discredited. It reduced the mobility of the police, who thus had difficulty responding to citizen calls for service, and it weakened headquarters control over patrol officers.

Many police officers also disliked foot patrol, but for different reasons: it was hard work, it kept them outside on cold, rainy nights, and it reduced their chances for making a “good pinch.” In some departments, assigning officers to foot patrol had been used as a form of punishment. And academic experts on policing doubted that foot patrol would have any impact on crime rates; it was, in the opinion of most, little more than a sop to public opinion. But since the state was paying for it, the local authorities were willing to go along.

(more…)

Monday, April 26, 2010

Mexico: Cartels Take It Up A Notch And Focus Their War On Authorities

    Public Safety Secretary Minerva Bautista was among the wounded but was recovering from non-life-threatening injuries, according to the state attorney general’s office. She was traveling in a bullet-resistant sport utility vehicle.

   State Attorney General Jesus Montejano told the local Milenio television station that the attackers used assault rifles, grenades, a grenade launcher and a powerful .50-caliber sniper rifle whose rounds are capable of penetrating bullet-resistant materials.

  “In the ambush, they used concentrated fire from these types of weapons, forcing her and her escort to crash into a trailer truck that they had pulled across the road,” Montejano said.

***** 

   I posted three stories here, that are pretty telling of where Mexico is at with their war against the cartels.  There are two ways to read this.  Either the cartels are threatened more by the government and authorities, or the cartels are thinking in terms of taking the fight out of the authorities so they can continue to eradicate their competition.  So is the government a threat, or are they just getting in the way?  Interesting stuff, and this first article below goes into the various angles on this.

   My personal thoughts on it, is that the cartels will do whatever they need to do in order to win control over the drug markets.  If law enforcement or government officials directly or indirectly help their competitors, they will do what they can to remove that element of the equation.  Because I really think that if the cartels were purely focused on combatting the government, we would see way more deaths of officials.  The death toll figures support this as well, with most of the deaths in the war being members of the drug cartels. But this could change, and we will see how this goes.

   None the less, these are still attacks on the state.  And when the cartels start using .50 caliber sniper rifles (see second story below), grenade launchers, and assault rifles against armored motorcades in well coordinated ambushes, I tend to take notice.  Unfortunately, the next level will probably be more usage of IED’s in these ambushes and all of the rules of Iraq and Afghanistan will apply to this latest evolution of the drug war.

   The third story is another disturbing tale about cartels purposely attacking law enforcement.  Seven officers killed is pretty bad, and that indicates to me that the cartels have absolutely no fear or respect for law enforcement.  They are just obstacles that need to be removed, so they can focus on the bigger war of gaining territory for their drug operations. Thanks to Doug and others for sending me these stories. –Matt

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Body Guards

An injured bodyguard of Mexico’s Michoacan state’s public safety secretary walks with help from a police officer after being wounded during a shootout in Morelia, Mexico, early Saturday. A fellow bodyguard lies dead. 

Mexico says cartels turning attacks on authorities

By MARK STEVENSONThe Associated PressSunday, April 25, 2010

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s drug cartels have changed tactics and are turning more attacks on authorities, rather than focusing their fire on rivals gangs, the country’s top security official said Sunday.

Interior Secretary Fernandez Gomez-Mont said at a news conference that two back-to-back, bloody ambushes of government convoys – both blamed on cartels – represent a new tactic.

“In the last few weeks the dynamics of the violence have changed. The criminals have decided to directly confront and attack the authorities,” Gomez-Mont said.

“They are trying to direct their fire power at what they fear most at this moment, which is the authorities,” he said.

Officials here have long said that more than 90 percent of the death toll in Mexico’s wave of drug violence – which has claimed more than 22,700 lives since a government crackdown began in December 2006 – are victims of disputes between rival gangs.

Mexican drug gangs have been known to target security officials. The nation’s acting federal police chief was shot dead in May 2008 in an attack attributed to drug traffickers lashing back at President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against organized crime.

But such high-profile attacks were rare in comparison to inter-gang warfare. But after the large-scale attacks on officials Friday and Saturday, “casualties among the authorities are beginning to increase in this battle,” Gomez-Mont said.

On Saturday, gunmen armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a convoy carrying the top security official of the western state of Michoacan, in what appeared to be a carefully planned ambush.

The official survived with non-life-threatening wounds – she was traveling in a bullet-resistant SUV – but two of her bodyguards and two passers-by were killed. Of the other nine people wounded, most were bystanders, including two girls ages 2 and 12.

(more…)

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