Mexican Government Legitimizes Self-Defense Forces, Arrests Cartel Leader, Choosing Right Side

In the ongoing and long running battle between the self-defense forces in Michoacán State in Southwestern Mexico and the Knights Templar cartel, the Mexican government has finally chosen sides and has chosen right.  The Houston Chronicle reports  that the government said it had reached an agreement with the leaders of the self-defense forces to incorporate the armed civilian forces into the old and largely forgotten quasi-military units called Rural Defense Corps.  At the same time, the government captured one of the top leaders of the Knights Templar drug cartel that had branched out into extortion, had taken over the country’s second largest port and was essentially extorting and exporting minerals.

 

Self-defense forces

The self-defense forces, which had been operating to take back their state for a year without the help of the government created a civil crisis a week ago when they surrounded the cartel stronghold and forced the army to come into the town. At first the army tried to disarm the self-defense forces, which rightfully drew the condemnation of the country and the rest of the world.  The army accused the self-defense forces of fomenting civil war, largely ignoring that the cartel had already started the civil war by operating a de facto government in Michoacán State. (see prior coverage here).

"The self-defense forces will become institutionalized, when they are integrated into the Rural Defense Corps," the Interior Department said in a statement. Police and soldiers already largely tolerate, and in some cases even work with, the vigilantes, many of whom are armed with assault rifles that civilians are not allowed to carry.

Vigilante leaders will have to submit a list of their members to the Defense Department, and the army will apparently oversee the groups, which the government said "will be temporary." They will be allowed to keep their weapons as long as they register them with the army.

The military will give the groups "all the means necessary for communications, operations and movement," according to the agreement.

This a good move by the government in recognizing that it cannot let the criminal cartels run parts of the country in the name of order.  The people eventually will, and did, rise up.  The government had to pick sides and picked the right one.  It needs to stamp out the cartels.  It is a good start.

Florida Reform School Grave Tally Stands at 55 for Now, Half Done

In a horrific story of abuse at a now-closed reform school in the Florida panhandle that operated from 1900 until it was shut in 2011, forensic anthropologists from the University of South Florida have uncovered the remains of 55 African-American boys.  This is more than twice the amount that the Dozier School reported had died during the tenure of the school.  The school was segregated for much of its existence.  The anthropologists haven’t searched for or found the white section yet.

Family at the Dozier School

MSN reports (along with the Wall Street Journal, that has been reporting on the story for some time as it has developed) that the anthropologists have been using ground sensing technology to find areas of decreased density, then unearthing and cataloging the remains. They have been taking DNA samples from relatives who had loved ones die or disappear at the school – which had a reputation for shocking brutality.

The Dozier School began as a reform school for boys who committed relatively major crimes, but over the years began to house kids with lesser offenses.  None of them were capital offenses.

Robert Straley, now age 63, was one of the former inmates who initially brought allegations of the brutality at the school. He was sent there in 1963 for car theft.  He said he was whipped 35 or 40 lashes with a three foot long whip the first night he was at the school (WSJ article).  The school “was brutal beyond belief.”

Hopefully those who committed this brutality, and allowed it to go unchecked for all those years, will be taken to task.  Hopefully the families who lost loved ones, who lost children, will have some closure.

Cracked and Smacked-up Woman Leaves Alligator at O’Hare Airport in Chicago

Why would someone in Chicago have an alligator to begin with? Why would someone in who has a crack problem with crack and heroin have an alligator?  And why would that person then bring the alligator to the airport?  The second question answers the third.  Because crack is whack and smack is back.  The only reason why someone in a freezing city thousands of miles from the natural habitat of an alligator possesses a baby alligator is that they are on drugs.  And they are trying to sell the alligator to someone who thinks it’s cool. Who is also probably also on drugs.

Alligator left at O'Hare

Finding someone in the middle of a Chicago winter who wants to buy an alligator was apparently tough, though, because someone tried to flush a 25-inch (two foot long) alligator down a toilet, and then the crack/smack head took the alligator to save it and brought it to the airport and promptly forgot it there.  Where someone saw it and alerted authorities.  Of all the things you expect to see at O’Hare, it’s not a baby alligator.  At Midway, maybe, or at least the old Midway. But not O’Hare.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Alexis Prokopchuk of Oakbrook Terrace, has been charged with animal cruelty and reckless conduct after leaving the baby alligator at O’Hare to fend for itself. It was spotted under an escalator and was in “poor condition, suffering from an improper diet.”  Not surprising.

The following is both comedy gold and completely explains her actions:

Prokopchuk had been spotted on surveillance cameras on the CTA Blue Line holding the gator and then entering the lower level of Terminal 3, where she let it loose, according to a police report.

Prokopchuk told officers she and her ex-boyfriend took the gator from a friend who was going to flush it down the toilet, the report said.

Then, on Nov. 1, she "was so (high) on crack cocaine and heroin and had taken some pills," that she lost the gator after coming to the airport, the report said.

How was it that no one on the Blue Line saw her holding a live alligator and reported it.  The Blue Line of the CTA “L” is not that dodgy, at least not near O’Hare.  But, people don’t want to deal with crazy, so leave the crazy alone on the train.  Same with the airport.  Apparently airport police weren’t watching level three when she came in with a live alligator.

It can be chalked up to drugs.  Prokopchuk is heading to court. Hopefully drug court.

Next time you’re in the airport and see someone carrying a live reptile, don’t assume it’s a service alligator.  It’s probably a drug alligator.  Call the airport police over.  The alligator is probably high, too.