AZMEX CORRUPTION 19 FEB 2009
Richardson: Law enforcement circus continues
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BILL RICHARDSON, COMMENTARY
February 19, 2009 - 9:48PM
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and children of all ages, once again it's show time.
Performing for your entertainment this week is the renowned TAG Team of Thomas, Arpaio and Goddard. Once again we're going to be treated to the state's master showmen of elected law enforcement officials.
The first act was Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who started the week's entertainment by rounding up "deadbeat dads" on Valentine's Day. Joe stole for show. The sheriff gave us the same old schtick, including his world-renowned growling for the camera, as he showed off another catch of low-hanging fruit chained up in pink handcuffs. If you're easy to find and arrest, he'll track you down and parade you around like you're Charles Manson, even if your charged with a cracked windshield.
Not to be outdone, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who wants to be governor, dragged out his signature cause of cold pills and meth in an attempt to hog Joe's limelight. Even though meth is now controlled by the Mexican drug cartels and local lab seizures are down from more than 200 in 2002 to less than a dozen in 2007, Goddard is out beating that same old cold pill drum for the crowds.
If Goddard chose to, he could easily lead the reform of Arizona's outdated and inefficient statewide law enforcement system and attack organized crime. Instead he follows Arpaio's example of picking the easy ones that make for good sound bytes and pretty pictures.
And bringing up the rear is Arpaio groupie and another governor wannabe, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
Thomas also never misses an opportunity to get media attention. The politically ambitious lawyer announced that he has decided the victimization of elderly citizens deserves the attention of his office. He's just figured that out?
Unfortunately for Thomas, the attorney general's office has for decades taken the point on these types of difficult, costly and lengthy prosecutions. Arpaio's dutiful sidekick and legal muscle may want to bite the bullet and pass off the prosecution of elder abusers to the pros and stick to going after the minnows that's he's shown a real vocation for. For all the tough talk and macho bravado, Thomas doesn't worry the sharks in the sea.
While the TAG Team was jockeying for local headlines to promote their own agendas, the Los Angeles Times ran another story as part of their series on the Mexican drug cartels and organized crime gangs that are destroying Mexico and spreading though the United States. The Feb. 12 story was titled "Phoenix, kidnap-for-ransom capital," more national and international recognition of Arizona's steady decline.
According to the Times, there were 366 reported kidnappings in Phoenix alone in 2008. The word "reported" is key because just like with sexual assaults, many more go unreported. And while there are those who will beat the anti-immigrant drum and blame the problems on undocumented aliens, kidnappers from around the world target anyone with the ability to pay a ransom. Kidnappings might soon be coming to a neighborhood near you. They may already be there and you just don't know it. Mexico is only 90 minutes away.
Kidnappings are used by organized crime to get cash and instill fear.
The Times also reported that Arizona has become the new drug gateway into the United States. Maricopa County has long been a major transshipment point for drugs from Mexico. Sadly, the TAG Team's show only distracts the public from the real threat of organized crime that the U.S. Justice Department reports is responsible for 80 percent of the crime in America.
Organized crime has only prospered under the Tag Team's rule. Instead of fixing what's broken and doing the jobs the public voted them into office to do, our elected law and order watch dogs are continually groveling for free publicity to satisfy their political ambition and insatiable quest for attention.
If you want protection, buy a gun and get a dog because the TAG Team is primping for their next media appearance.
Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net.
Publication: Tribune 2003-Current; Date: Jan 6, 2006; Section: East Valley Opinion; Page: 34
PUBLIC CORRUPTION
- Will mordida put bite on Arizona?
Scale of bribes with which drug cartels can tempt officials is cause for concern
- Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@ cox.net.
La mordida (the bite, or squeeze) — bribery reaching into the highest levels of government.
It’s what has allowed the Mexican drug cartels to grow into multi-billion-dollar a year businesses that control much of the hemisphere south of the US. border. It’s a way of life in Mexico.
The recent arrests in Arizona of fifty U.S. officials by the FBI on corruption charges are cause for very serious concern. An explosive wave of organized crime and corruption is coming to America, and as usual our elected leaders seem to be “stuck on stupid.”
“Build the fence, don’t build the fence.” Maybe 25 years ago a fence would have kept the illegals out. By the time the U.S. government could even get enough American citizens to work on such a massive project most of Mexico will have already been living here, happily and illegally.
And what about all of the political posturing by Gov. Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Terry Goddard, Valley mayors, city councils and law enforcement officials over controlling cold medicine in a purported effort to control methamphetamine production? Maybe a good move decades ago, but more than 90 percent of the meth in the U.S. is now manufactured in Mexican “super labs” with shiploads of chemicals from China. Mexico can surely produce all of the meth the U.S. demands.
Arizona politicians are always a day late and dollar short, unless it comes to their political war chests. For most politicians, who wouldn’t know an illegal from a legal, or meth from heroin, it’s all about the “M” word. They constantly yell “Meth” and “Mexicans” to get Media attention and Money.
Will mordida become one of Arizona’s favorite “M” words? The ongoing FBI investigation into corruption is directly related to the drug trafficking and organized crime that are also a big part of Arizona’s booming economy.
The 50 the FBI has arrested so far have been lowlevel crooks who transported small loads of narcotics and sold drivers licenses. These little fish were easy prey. One old-time cop said catching these mopes is easier than fishing with hand grenades at a trout farm.
In the early ’80s, the FBI’s Operation Greylord used similar tactics in a narcoticsbased investigation of official corruption in Chicago. Greylord targeted and caught the big boys in the public corruption food chain who had sweeping powers to compromise the integrity of much of the system. That’s a far cry from the flunkies who have been arrested so far in the ongoing corruption investigation.
Hopefully the FBI is looking a little higher up in government, as they did in Chicago. The Mexican drug cartels are making billions of dollars every year and have a very successful record of corrupting people at the highest levels of government and business throughout Latin America.
Judging on state and federal history, some of our own politicians, high-ranking law enforcement officials, judges, lawyers and their political operatives have taken their fair share of mordida. It’s been 15 years since the Phoenix police and Maricopa County Attorney’s Office conducted the AzScam investigation into corrupt officials who took payoffs to help organized crime.
The AzScam investigation targeted and captured many at the highest levels of Arizona government. It wasn’t that hard to get some of the state’s most trusted leaders to take what they thought was the mob’s blood money. Some AzScam crooks went to jail; others snitched and some walked away scot-free. It was the last investigation that targeted Arizona’s power brokers who were suspected of selling out.
Those who want to compromise our system of laws today could offer mordida in the hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars, not the few thousand or a couple hundred that changed hands during AzScam.
The threat of public corruption by Mexican drug cartels won’t stop at the border no matter how tall the fence is or how many border patrolmen there are. The only stop the cartels will make is to drop off the cash to ensure nothing interferes with their business and growing profits. While politicians and law enforcement officials try to give the appearance of action and leadership on emotional issues, you have to wonder if official corruption and la mordida are slowly becoming a way of life in Arizona.
The FBI won’t be able to stop it alone. One mobbusting FBI agent said vice has been around forever. It’ll never go away.
The real evil is the money it can generate to enable the corruption of public officials.
The ASR&PA has provided the following archived articles, information, and data for informational and research purposes; the content, comments, opinions and reports are those of the various authors or organizations, and do not necessarily reflect the positions, beliefs or views of ASR&PA.
The situation in Mexico has serious consequences for our Rights, and even our lives here in AZ and all along the Mexican border. We cannot emphasize enough how much it is in our interest to have a free, safe and prosperous Mexico as our neighbor. Many of us have family, friends there and they are our neighbor.
We strongly support the Human Rights of the Mexican people to be able to defend themselves. That means the Mexican people should once again have the rights and resources to possess, bear and use modern and effective firearms. As over 70 years of corrupt federal government and it's attending gun control have shown, the bumper sticker is so true. "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". Mexico is a textbook example of the failures of gun control. While some very limited firearms are permitted on paper, and in practice, the real effect has been to disarm the good people of Mexico.
That was done by the very corrupt political party that ran a country rich in natural resources and people, into the ground to prevent a revolution, not to "control crime" as was the pretense.
As the archived reports will show, the defenseless people of Mexico have suffered way too much. They deserve much better. We need to help.
Given the gravity of the ongoing drug war in Mexico our neighbor to the south, ASR&PA has been working to monitor the border situation and it's many effects on our state and our members:
Including drug and human trafficking, with related issues of murders, kidnappings, home invasions, extortion, destruction of wildlife habitat, illegal immigration, white slavery, money laundering, expenses of incarceration and medical treatments, the list goes on and on. Also de facto cession of areas of the state to the DTO's; fugitives, cash, firearms and ammunition running south. Most of these issues could be significantly reduced by simply securing the border.
To get it out of the way, ASR&PA does support legal immigration, trade, and travel between our countries. Especially so that we and our Mexican neighbors can once again freely and safely travel to our neighboring countries for competition, training, hunting and just enjoy good company.
We strongly support the Human Rights of the Mexican people to be able to defend themselves. That means the Mexican people should once again have the rights and resources to possess, bear and use modern and effective firearms. As over 70 years of corrupt federal government and it's attending gun control have shown, the bumper sticker is so true. "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". Mexico is a textbook example of the failures of gun control. While some very limited firearms are permitted on paper, and in practice, the real effect has been to disarm the good people of Mexico.
That was done by the very corrupt political party that ran a country rich in natural resources and people, into the ground to prevent a revolution, not to "control crime" as was the pretense.
As the archived reports will show, the defenseless people of Mexico have suffered way too much. They deserve much better. We need to help.
Given the gravity of the ongoing drug war in Mexico our neighbor to the south, ASR&PA has been working to monitor the border situation and it's many effects on our state and our members:
Including drug and human trafficking, with related issues of murders, kidnappings, home invasions, extortion, destruction of wildlife habitat, illegal immigration, white slavery, money laundering, expenses of incarceration and medical treatments, the list goes on and on. Also de facto cession of areas of the state to the DTO's; fugitives, cash, firearms and ammunition running south. Most of these issues could be significantly reduced by simply securing the border.
To get it out of the way, ASR&PA does support legal immigration, trade, and travel between our countries. Especially so that we and our Mexican neighbors can once again freely and safely travel to our neighboring countries for competition, training, hunting and just enjoy good company.
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