Three Weapons Could Kill the Cartels
Will President Obama and Attorney General Holder bring three important enforcement and prosecution weapons to bear against the Mexican drug cartels?
Much of the media as of late has been focused on the Texas-Mexican border area of South Texas looking for carnage as manifestations of drug cartel incursions into the United States. While the reality is that McAllen, Texas has a violent crime rate incidence of 0.3% that is very low. Far away north looking at America’s major cities there is a much higher violent crime rate such as Atlanta at 1.5% which is actually five times worse than McAllen. Many of us border folk are wondering why the media is not focusing on the drug problem in America?
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, admitted to the world today the voracious consumption of drugs in the United States especially in the urban centers is the bank paying for the violence in Mexico. Is the Obama administration giving enough attention to fighting the urban gangs in America’s cities that are getting stronger by the day?
In February 2009 the federal government released the National Gang Threat Assessment report that painted a dark picture of a growing gang infestation. Criminal gangs they said commit as much as “80 percent of all crime in many communities through out the nation”. The primary retail-level distributors of drugs like cocaine and marijuana are almost always gang members which more often than not have at least an affiliation if they are not outright members of Mexican drug cartels.
A related report called the National Drug Threat Summary 2009 said that Mexican drug trafficking organizations represent the greatest crime peril for the United States. Local ethnic gangs in many cities are forming alliances with Mexican gangs to market heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and amphetamines.
During his acceptance speech as the new Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy , Gil Kerlikowske, said the focus of the new administrations efforts would be to reduce the demand for illegal drugs. The new drug czar called for a seamless comprehensive approach requiring cooperation of prosecutors, law enforcement, courts, and treatment providers. He discussed expanding commitments to drug courts, treatment programs, and prisoner rehabilitative efforts as well as “counternarcotics initiatives”.
In the Obama panoply of action his administration has omitted mention of three of the most powerful weapons that could be used against gangs: gang injunctions,conspiracy charges, and changing the criminal illegal alien policy.
Gang injunctions were formulated in California during the 1980s. The idea is to suppress gang members from associating with each other in criminal activities. If a gang member is caught associating with other gang members which can include wearing clothing or making gestures which signal to the public or his associates he is gang member or acting as a look out he can be prosecuted. If he is in the commission of a criminal act than additional charges can be brought because he is a gang member.
The American Civil Liberties Union among others has been the main champion against this enforcement tool. In a recent opinion they filed against the Los Angeles Police Department they claim that gang injunctions were the equivalent of putting people on parole who have not been convicted of a crime.
Detractors of this approach say instead communities should be providing alternative youth programs or counseling. Further they claim such laws do violate personal liberties and do not allow due process by alleging guilt by association. Despite early legal challenges they have been proven legal if they are very specific in detail to the names of those involved, where they can go, and what they can do.
Criminal conspiracy can be brought in federal or state courts against gang members. Their use against organized crime became famous in the 1960s against the Mafia. In simple terms a conspiracy is an agreement between persons to break the law. According to defense attorney, Jeffrey Jenson, the prosecution typically has to show two things: that a conspiracy existed and that the accused was a member of the same conspiracy. For drug related offenses this means that drugs or weapons do not have to be gotten as evidence. Wiretaps, financial records, photographs, and recordings can be used a primary evidence in a criminal court to prove conspiracy whereas they might not be in proving a drug case.
The American Civil Liberties Union among others has been the main champion against these enforcement tools. Both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Holder have spoken out against the use of these types of measures when they involve young men and instead of stressed community intervention rather than law enforcement and subsequent incarceration.
As I recently wrote in the American Daily Review we need to revise the SCAAP law which currently does not allow reimbursement of local jails for illegal aliens who are charged but not convicted of a serious crime. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) along with many others in Congress is pushing for this change in the SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) Reimbursement Protection Act of 2009 (S.168). This is necessary because there is not enough federal beds available for these threats to our society.
These measures like every measure in laws do have the potential for abuse. Those that carry them out should be overseen by the court system as are all laws to protect the Constitution. I do not think drug treatment programs for drug users is going to stop the Mexican cartels. If the battle against the cartels is going to be won the United States needs to step to the plate and stop ignoring the problem as Gil Kerlikowske has said. For America’s benefit lets hope the President and the Attorney General support the use of these important tools.
Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Revew
