How did it get to this level?
We have criminal gangs in the US and the police here don't have to worry about that. It's mostly because of our justice system and the fact that you can't buy off any cop with some cash.
We have criminal gangs in the US and the police here don't have to worry about that. It's mostly because of our justice system and the fact that you can't buy off any cop with some cash.
1) "American sized" amounts of money being dumped into a "Mexico sized" economy.
2) (related to the above) The increased utility of any bribe to somebody living in Mexico. (we see this phenomenon in developing nations across the world^).
3) Comparative resources available to the police forces.
4) Pressure from the US to overextend the Mexican police force.
etc.
To boil this all down to "the police aren't doing their jobs" is a huge mistake.
EDIT: ^Apologies, it seems Mexico is now considered a "newly industrialized nation", as of 2011. I don't think this effects my point however.
In other words have overlapping independent organizations all investigating each other and add in people that don't stay in an area long enough to be bribed safely.
The same way the US got to the level where it decided to abolish alcohol prohibition.
This story is not new, just now politicians have a harder time admitting they did something wrong, and the prison (workers) lobby and the DEA will do all they can to continue.
Which is what I said. The reason the US isn't third-world is because most cops don't accept bribes. This sort of behavior infects society as a whole.
"3) Comparative resources available to the police forces."
Why are they out of resources? We need to figure things out if we ever want to stop it.
"4) Pressure from the US to overextend the Mexican police force."
It's because the violence and crime is spilling over to the US side of things. If they were stopping these guys, I don't think we would need to overextend anything. Does the US over-extend Canada's police force?
"To boil this all down to "the police aren't doing their jobs" is a huge mistake."
The police aren't doing their job because of a systematic problem of corruption. So I suppose it's just a symptom of a greater problem, but it still doesn't change the fact that there is a huge corruption problem with the Mexican police.
No. You said this: "The police aren't doing their job", which is what I particularly object to. They are doing it as well as anybody could reasonably be expected to.
And before you object to that 'reasonable' qualification, ponder the following: Somebody comes up to you and offers you enough money to pay off a good deal of your debt. But they don't stop there, they give you a choice! You can either accept this money, and go about your business, or you can decline this money, they will cut off your head, rape your wife, then cut off her's too.
Whatever you think you might do here, you cannot reasonably expect people to turn down the bribe.
"Why are they out of resources?"
Well that is really quite simple. Look up the amount of money the US spends on their "enforcement" and the answer should become clear.
"It's because the violence and crime is spilling over to the US side of things."
Look up the history of drug laws sometime. The laws predate the violence.