Suggesting Phoenix has the second most number of kidnappings out of any city in the world is not new: for instance, that very claim was immediately disputed after Sen. John McCain said it in 2010. However, a review of kidnapping statistics by a team of judges and criminologists earlier this year nearly doubled the official 2008 numbers, lending at least some credibility to the statement.
No matter what statistic it is that’s examined, be it the kidnapping ranking of Phoenix, shootings in El Paso, marijuana arrests in Brownsville or the number of new gang members in San Diego, the reality of today’s America is that drug violence has become a pervasive and pressing threat to most citizens.
It looks like we have managed to recreate the Roaring 20s. With a similar device.
“We have got to fix this problem, or else it’s going to get a lot worse for us here at home,” explained Terry Nelson, whose three-decades in law enforcement saw him serving the U.S. Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs Service. “We talk a lot about the 40,000 people who’ve died in the last five years in Mexico’s drug war, but we don’t talk a lot about Central and South America. The drug deaths down there per 100,000 are just as great as Mexico. Guatemala, El Salvador … These countries are just wiped out by drug cartels, and it’s not even in the news.”
Just last week, people on both sides of the border were shocked when authorities discovered a chilling scene where two bodies were hanging from a bridge, mutilated beyond recognition, next to a handwritten poster warning to avoid publishing about the cartels on social media or blogs. The situation has become so extreme that today more Mexican youths die from murder than vehicle accidents.
But what does this mean for American citizens? In short: the drug cartels have won, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Both Nelson and Franklin are members of the non-profit advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which aims to win the hearts and minds of law enforcement and conservative lawmakers, who’ve largely stood in the way of any significant changes to the nation’s drug policies.