Clarion Content

Phoenix news and it is not good. Did you know that Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the G-8? The Los Angeles Times says that Phoenix had 366 kidnapping for ransom reports last year and that they estimate more than twice that number go unreported! Guess what the economics of most of these kidnappings are grounded in?

Here's a little background. In the rest of America most all kidnappings involve estranged spouses and children, and so it was in Phoenix until a few years ago. As the United States has shifted its focus in the drug war, one result has been Arizona has become a key route for illegal narcotics into the United States from Mexico. The LA Times states that roughly half of the marijuana seized crossing the U.S.-Mexico border was confiscated in Arizona. This is despite Arizona only comprising some 370 miles of the nearly 2,000 mile border.

The LA Times reports,

"Most every victim and suspect is connected to the drug-smuggling world, usually tracing back to the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, Phoenix police report...Like construction or restaurant work, kidnapping in Phoenix relies on cheap Mexican laborers. The grunt work, like guarding the victim, is often done by young, unemployed illegal immigrants, desperate for work, who sign on for $50 to $200 a day...Certain Phoenix bars -- Señor Lucky's, Bronco Bar and El Gran Mercado -- are known as places where kidnappers recruit, much the way builders go to Home Depot to hire day laborers, police say...Kidnapping in Phoenix attracts immigrants whose American dream is to make it big in the underworld. In Mexico, cartels limit their options. But cartel control is weak in Phoenix. Many resort to kidnapping because 'for once, they're the guys with the gun, the ones with the power...They are in control. In Mexico they're not in control.'"

This kind of blowback, especially because the drug in question is primarily marijuana is one more reason the Clarion Content strongly supports legalization and urges President Obama to consider it seriously.

Wake-up people, the reality is even uglier than the words.

Labels: Politics