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From the Border
by A.X. Perez
[email protected]

Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

The week of 19-25 February in El Paso, Texas.

A woman was struck in Downtown El Paso by a stray bullet from a gunfight in Juarez. Bullet struck her leg and the wound is described as relatively minor. It could have been worse as she was pushing a pram. The round was from an AR-15 and the gunfight was between carjackers and the police. There is some debate as to who did the shooting as the J Town police use AR's. Even with this El Paso, where guns are fairly easy to purchase, remains safer than most cities "protected" by strict gun laws.

A member of El Paso County Commissioners Court was busted for distributing marijuana. It is worth mentioning that ICE, IRS, DEA, and the FBI were in on this arrest. Interestingly , they were all in on Operation Gunwalker too (admittedly ICE more reluctantly than the others). The arrestee supports strict anti dope laws, guess he wanted to raise the price of his product. There are about eighty "civic leaders" in El Paso under indictment or convicted of corrupt practices. However unlike Lousiana we are not half under water and half under indictment (thank you Bobby Jindal.). We're in the desert. Half under sand maybe?

Across the state line in New Mexico videos have been released of a candidate for mayor of Sunland Park getting a lap dance. It appears he was being blackmailed by someone who didn't want him to run. Still not clear to me if video got out by accident or if extortionist backed threat.

Texas Wildlife Control types shot a bobcat in someone's back yard in Central El Paso. They thought it might have rabies (it didn't) and were being cautious. A puma was shot in the Downtown area last spring (and upstaged President Obama in the process). So actually we need lax gun laws to protect us from predatory wild life? As an aside, my cousin tells me they saw a deer eating my neighbor across the street's bush. My neighborhood has been heavily urbanized for decades.

Last week a recall of the mayor and several city representatives was cancelled as the signatures to carry it out were gathered illegally. Seems a judge had approved it to avoid frustrating the will of the people even if the petition was illegal. Appeal Court threw it out and chastised judge. Look up the issues involved and you will see that it is a case of democracy without law is a threat to liberty.

Welcome to the desert.

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