Monday, September 11, 2006

Police corruption taints US border security

Corruption knows no nationality.

While one may legitimately worry over drug cartel coercion of Mexican law enforcement, it would be a mistake to think American police are immune to drug-related corruption. Via DRC Net, we find yet another US cop on the take along the Texas-Mexico border:
In McAllen, Texas, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas issued a press release announcing the August 29 indictment of a former South Texas police officer for allegedly taking a bribe to protect what he thought was a cocaine shipment. Former Elsa City Police Officer Herman Carr, 45, is accused of taking a $5,000 payment from an undercover FBI agent to use his position as a law enforcement officer to protect a vehicle he was told contained five kilos of cocaine. He is charged with bribery and faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Such official venality at the border has become increasingly common, and not just on the Mexican side. That's why I've argued that new grants for US law enforcement on the border should prioritize funding for Internal Affairs units - instead we've thrown money at the same agencies that failed at border security for years.

As long as US demand and irrational border policies empower the cartels, Americans have little room to criticize Mexico about the drug war. When they do, Mexicans can rightly respond, as Christ told the multitudes in the Sermon on the Mount, "Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

EXCELLENT INFORMATION!!!

Until we address the wrongs in our policies and our own country, we damn well need not throw stones at others!

Few people know how many innocent Americans from infants to the elderly are being KILLED and abused and terrorized right here in our own country! Wrong house, wrong person, wrong place at the wrong time etc.... Yet NEVER is anybody held accountable??? And people wonder why the trust and respect for law enforcement is gone??? To avoid liability the truth and any possibility of seeking justice have been sacrificed! Not realizing with it goes any respect, integrity and faith, IN OUR SYSTEM AS A WHOLE, PERIOD!!!

And we can look a lot deeper in to our own country to see the depth of corruption from this failed policy called the war on drugs!

There Has To Be A Better Way!

Rusty White
Speaker www.leap.cc

Anonymous said...

Corruption is like hydrofluoric acid; it eats through the strongest containers. Few things can stop it; even stainless steel, which is commonly used to hold it, eventually erodes. As does civil government and democracy in the face of DrugWar sired corruption. For if an American legislator or bureaucrat is financially beholden to a drug lord, how can the people compete? How can their voices be heard when the system is remotely controlled from a foreign country? Talk about your 'special interests'; this kind is the worst type. Such corruption becomes so endemic and so pervasive that all attempts to root it out fail in short order; one might as well try to legislate gravity out of existence...which is pretty much what has been tried with illicit drugs. And it's about as effective.

Anonymous said...

I'm never surprised, any more, how cheaply they sell out.

The key to ending corruption is ending secrecy. So long as cops are permitted to work in secrecy they will sell us out.

Secrecy protects bad cops from being found out by other cops.

There is no justification for conducting the public business in private.

Anonymous said...

800 pound gorilla,

I'm not sure I follow your intent? Are you disagreeing that those entrusted with police powers and the powers of government positions, who violate that trust, and abuse those who gave them this trust even to the point of terrorize women and kids and some time kill innocent people, are not more guilt than those who have not been given this trust and power?

Those in government and law enforcement who abuse their powers have the ability to do far more harm than those without these powers do they not? Yet many times we see NO ACCOUNTABILITY at all, or a double standard of accountability? And each time this happens WE THE PEOPLE " WHO GAVE " these special powers so others had the tools " TO PROTECT AND SERVE " give up hope and turn against the system AS A WHOLE!

More and more we see the attitudes ON BOTH SIDES, of us against them! A nation of laws and one of equality for all, can not move forward IF ANYBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW, PERIOD!

Only with equal accountability and responsibility can we truly have Individual Rights and FREEDOM, don't you agree?

Rusty White
Speaker www.leap.cc

Anonymous said...

Look into Elsa PD further and you'll see years of corruption and mismanagement. Recently, one of their officers was arrested for sexual assault and kidnapping of his ex. His chief's response was, "well, it's under investigation..." That officer is still on the road.

Several other officers in the department tested positive for cocaine, including the one mentioned above.

Problem is, it's a small town with limited resources and is infested with cronyism, but boy o boy can they fund the high school football team. The community should pay less attention to the Maquina Amarilla and focus on their crooked cops.

Anonymous said...

I'm a law abidng citizen and in the last few years I've noticed an unbelievable amount of corruption within several local Sheriff Office's in the North Eastern side of Washington State and North Idaho. I believe part of the problem is most people ignore the corruption they see locally and only focus on the nation news. Typically a small town Sheriff is more of a politician than a well trained law enforcement officer and they are elected because he/she is corrupt enough to abide by the good ole' boy system of nepotism and cronyism. They'll ignore the crimes committed by people that are members of the local heirarchy. The small town police don't realise that corruption at the grass roots level of government is destroying the very foundation of America. A house cannot stand if the foundation has been undermined. People need to hold all small town politicians accountable for their actions.

Idaho Jim said...

I'm a law abidng citizen and in the last few years I've noticed an unbelievable amount of corruption within several local Sheriff Office's in the North Eastern side of Washington State and North Idaho. I believe part of the problem is most people ignore the corruption they see locally and only focus on the nation news. Typically a small town Sheriff is more of a politician than a well trained law enforcement officer and they are elected because he/she is corrupt enough to abide by the good ole' boy system of nepotism and cronyism. They'll ignore the crimes committed by people that are members of the local heirarchy. The small town police don't realise that corruption at the grass roots level of government is destroying the very foundation of America. A house cannot stand if the foundation has been undermined. People need to hold all small town politicians accountable for their actions.