If this should be merged with the immigration thread, that's cool. I thought this was pretty


PHOENIX – A veteran sheriff's deputy was shot and wounded Friday after encountering a group of suspected illegal immigrants who apparently had been hauling bales of marijuana along a major smuggling corridor in the Arizona desert — a violent episode that comes amid a heated national debate over immigration.

State and federal law enforcement agencies deployed helicopters and scores of officers in pursuit of the suspects after the deputy was shot with an AK-47 on Friday afternoon, and the search continued into the night. Deputy Louie Puroll, 53, had a chunk of skin torn from just above his left kidney, but the wound was not serious. He was released Friday night from Casa Grande Regional Medical Center.

The shooting was likely to add fuel to an already fiery national debate sparked last week by the signing of an Arizona law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in the state.

Puroll was found in the desert after a frantic hourlong search, suffering from a gunshot wound, Pinal County sheriff's Lt. Tamatha Villar said. The 15-year department veteran had been performing smuggling interdiction work before finding the bales of marijuana and encountering the five suspected illegal immigrants, two armed with rifles.

"He was out on his routine daily patrol in the area when he encountered a load of marijuana out in the desert. He obviously confronted the individuals and took fire," Villar told The Associated Press. "I was speaking with him just a bit ago, and he's doing fantastic."

The deputy was alone about five miles from a rest stop along Interstate 8, about halfway between Phoenix and Tucson. The area is a well-known smuggling corridor for drugs and illegal immigrants headed from Mexico to Phoenix and the U.S. interior.

"Over the past 12 months we've seen an increase in the amount of drugs, and an increase in violence that has been going on in this particular corridor," Villar told KPNX.

"We've had increasing concerns in this area about being outmanned and outgunned, and unfortunately this evening, this is coming true," she added.

The shooting came as Arizona grapples with backlash over its enactment of a tough new law targeting illegal immigration. Civil rights activists, concerned the law will lead to racial profiling, have called for a boycott of the state.

The law signed by Gov. Jan Brewer last week is supported by many in the state, which has become a major gateway for drug smuggling and human trafficking from Mexico.

Its passage came amid increasing anger in Arizona about violence, drug smugglers, drop houses and other problems caused by poor border security.

Villar said the search for the suspects involved numerous helicopters from state and federal law enforcement agencies and scores of officers near Interstate 8 and Arizona 84 about 50 miles south of Phoenix.

"The deputy is a search-and-rescue deputy, so its not uncommon for them to work those areas A) looking for drugs and B) looking for people who need assistance out there," Villar said. "Obviously its a high-traffic area for drug- and human-smuggling."

If this sherriff wasn't a racist he wouldn't have targeted this guy. The illegal probably just got scared and over reacted.

This isn't really about illegal immigrants. It's about drug smugglers. To blend the two together is to miss many points.

Oh I agree, but it will be blended together to 'prove' a point.

the price we have to pay to keep our kids from getting high and eating too many funyuns

Just think, if we legalized drugs and illegal immigration we wouldn't have any of these crimes!

here is an interesting site i found to compare crime from your city to another

http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/

I was actually on that site this morning. My wife uses it all the time, trying to figure out where she REALLY wants to live.

Well, you could easily get rid of the drug smugglers.

Check out what known liberal media outlet The Arizona Republic ( ) says about the spike in border crime and violence!

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... exico.html

Violence is not up on Arizona border
Mexico crime flares, but here, only flickers

by Dennis Wagner - May. 2, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

NOGALES, Ariz. - Assistant Police Chief Roy Bermudez shakes his head and smiles when he hears politicians and pundits declaring that Mexican cartel violence is overrunning his Arizona border town.

"We have not, thank God, witnessed any spillover violence from Mexico," Bermudez says emphatically. "You can look at the crime stats. I think Nogales, Arizona, is one of the safest places to live in all of America."

FBI Uniform Crime Reports and statistics provided by police agencies, in fact, show that the crime rates in Nogales, Douglas, Yuma and other Arizona border towns have remained essentially flat for the past decade, even as drug-related violence has spiraled out of control on the other side of the international line. Statewide, rates of violent crime also are down.

While smugglers have become more aggressive in their encounters with authorities, as evidenced by the shooting of a Pinal County deputy on Friday, allegedly by illegal-immigrant drug runners, they do not routinely target residents of border towns.

In 2000, there were 23 rapes, robberies and murders in Nogales, Ariz. Last year, despite nearly a decade of population growth, there were 19 such crimes. Aggravated assaults dropped by one-third. No one has been murdered in two years.

Bermudez said people unfamiliar with the border may be confused because Nogales, Sonora, has become notorious for kidnappings, shootouts and beheadings. With 500 Border Patrol agents and countless other law officers swarming the Arizona side, he said, smugglers pass through as quickly and furtively as possible.

"Everywhere you turn, there's some kind of law enforcement looking at you," Bermudez said. "Per capita, we probably have the highest amount of any city in the United States."

In Yuma, police spokesman Sgt. Clint Norred said he cannot recall any significant cartel violence in the past several years. Departmental crime records show the amount of bloodshed has remained stable despite a substantial population increase.

"It almost seems like Yuma is more of an entryway" for smugglers rather than a combat zone, he said.

Perceptions vs. reality

Since the murder of Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz by a suspected illegal immigrant in March, politicians and the national press have fanned a perception that the border is inundated with bloodshed and that it's escalating.

In a speech on the Senate floor last week, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that the failure to secure that border between Arizona and Mexico "has led to violence - the worst I have ever seen."

He reiterated that Saturday after speaking at the West Valley Military Family Day event in Glendale, saying the concern that drug violence could spill across the border remains intense because Mexico's political situation is volatile.

"The violence is on the increase," McCain told The Arizona Republic. "The president of Mexico has said that it's a struggle for the existence of the government of Mexico."

Congressional members, including Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and John Shadegg, R-Ariz., sent President Barack Obama a letter asking that National Guard soldiers be sent to the border because "violence in the vicinity of the U.S. Mexico border continues to increase at an alarming rate."

And last month, as she signed Arizona's tough new law cracking down on illegal immigrants, Gov. Jan Brewer also called for National Guard troops. The law makes it a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires authorities to check documents of people they reasonably suspect to be illegal. Brewer said she signed it to solve what she said is an Arizona "crisis" caused by "border-related violence and crime due to illegal immigration."

Clarence Dupnik, the sheriff of Pima County, said there always has been crime associated with smuggling in southern Arizona, but today's rhetoric does not seem to jibe with reality.

"This is a media-created event," Dupnik said. "I hear politicians on TV saying the border has gotten worse. Well, the fact of the matter is that the border has never been more secure."

Even Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, among the most strident critics of federal enforcement, concedes that notions of cartel mayhem are exaggerated. "We're not seeing the multiple killings, beheadings and shootouts that are going on on the other side," he said.

In fact, according to the Border Patrol, Krentz is the only American murdered by a suspected illegal immigrant in at least a decade within the agency's Tucson sector, the busiest smuggling route among the Border Patrol's nine coverage regions along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Still, Dever said, the slaying proved useful to southern Arizonans who are sick of smugglers and immigrants tramping through their lands.

"The interest just elevated. And we keep the pressure on because next week something else is going to happen, and the window of opportunity will close," Dever said.

Cochise County's crime rate has been "flat" for at least 10 years, the sheriff added. Even in 2000, when record numbers of undocumented immigrants were detained in the area, just 4 percent of the area's violent crimes were committed by illegal aliens.

Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said his town suffers from home invasions and kidnappings involving marijuana smugglers who are undoubtedly tied to Mexican organizations. However, he added, most of those committing the rip-offs are American citizens.

"I think the border-influenced violence is getting worse," Villasenor said. "But is it a spillover of Mexican cartel members? No, I don't buy that."

More help on the border

While the nation's illegal-immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2004, according to federal records, the violent-crime rate declined 35 percent.

More recently, Arizona's violent-crime rate dropped from 512 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2005 to 447 incidents in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available.

In testimony to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security last month, Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney for Arizona, noted that Arizona now has more than 6,000 federal law-enforcement agents, with the majority of them employed by the Border Patrol. That represents nearly 10 agents for every mile of international line between Arizona and Sonora.

Border Patrol presence has been backed by increases in counter-smuggling technology and intelligence, the establishment of permanent highway checkpoints and a dramatic increase in customs inspectors at U.S. ports.

"The border is as secure now as it has ever been," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate panel last week.

Given that level of security, Bermudez and others say, it is no wonder that cartel operatives pass through border communities as quickly as possible, avoiding conflicts and attention.

In fact, violent-crime data suggest that violence from Mexico leapfrogs the border to smuggling hubs and destinations, where cartel members do take part in murders, home invasions and kidnappings.

In Phoenix and Tucson, cartel-related violence is hardly new.

In 1996, for example, Valley law-enforcement agents estimated that 40 percent of all homicides in Maricopa County were a result of conflicts involving Mexican narcotics organizations, mostly from Sinaloa state. A decade later, the Attorney General's Office exposed a $2 billion human-smuggling business based in metro Phoenix, where criminals often assaulted illegal aliens while holding them for payment of smuggling fees. More recently, cartel-related home invasions and abductions put Phoenix among the world leaders in kidnappings.

'A third country'

During a national border security expo in Phoenix last week, David Aguilar, acting deputy commissioner for Customs and Border Protection, said policy makers and the public need to understand that the border is not a fence or a line in the dirt but a broad and complex corridor.

"It is," Aguilar explained, "a third country that joins Mexico and the United States."

He emphasized that the cartels operate throughout Mexico and the United States, and he noted that those who think of border security in terms of a "juridical line" really don't understand the dynamics.

Aguilar said that Juarez, Mexico, is widely regarded as the "deadliest city in the world" because of an estimated 5,000 murders in recent years. Yet right across the border, El Paso, Texas, is listed among the safest towns in America.

A review of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports suggests that Arizona's border towns share El Paso's good fortune. Douglas and Nogales are about the same size as Florence but have significantly lower violent-crime rates. Likewise, Yuma has a population greater than Avondale's but a lower rate of violent offenses.

In Nogales, Ariz., residents seem bemused and annoyed by their town's perilous reputation. Yes, they sometimes hear the gunfire across the border. No, they don't feel safe visiting the sister city across the line. But with cops and federal agents everywhere, they see no danger on their streets.

"There's no violence here," said Francisco Hernandez, 31, who works in a sign shop and lives on a ranch along the border. "It doesn't drain over, like people are saying."

Leo Federico, 61, a retired teacher, said he has been amazed to hear members of Congress call for National Guard troops in the area.

"That's politics," he said, shrugging. "It's all about votes. . . . We have plenty of law enforcement."

Way too much sense being talked in that article PD.

So, because the violence occurs primarily in transhipment cities further north, its okay that the drugs and people are flowing freely across the border?

liberal indeed

Nogales, Arizona United States
Violent Crime 5 3
Property Crime 6 3

well above the average of the US in general

safest places indeed

Oh, and golly gee! That rancher who was murdered in Cochise County, the one that got this whole anti-immigration bill rolling in the statehouse, it turns out the Sheriff's focus is on AMERICAN CITIZENS now.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/ ... 2f0d5.html

Authorities say slaying that sparked outcry over border security was not random
American is focus in Krentz killing

Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Monday, May 3, 2010 12:00 am

The killing of a Southern Arizona rancher that sparked an outcry to secure the border was not random, and investigators are focusing on an American suspect, the Arizona Daily Star has learned.

High-ranking government officials with credible information spoke to the Star, citing a desire to quell the fury over illegal immigration and drug smuggling set off by the shooting death of longtime rancher Robert Krentz on March 27.

They said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is investigating a person in the United States, not in Mexico, in connection with the shooting.

The Star's policy is not to use unnamed sources except in instances in which the information is of high public interest.

Reached Sunday by telephone, Dever would not comment.

Krentz was found gunned down on his ranch northeast of Douglas a day after his brother reported drug-smuggling activity to the Border Patrol that led to the seizure of 290 pounds of marijuana and the arrest of eight people on the ranch.

The night of the killing, officers followed a single set of footprints to the U.S.-Mexico border, Dever said.

That sparked widespread speculation that Krentz was killed by an illegal immigrant or a drug smuggler from Mexico. In the ensuing weeks, the killing became symbolic of Arizona's porous and violent border, setting off a flurry of demands from residents, politicians and law enforcement leaders for more troops and resources to the border.

"Rob has become a martyr for this cause, a symbol," U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth said at a community meeting held on March 31 in the unincorporated community of Apache, near where the Krentz family has worked its 35,000-acre ranch for 100 years.

Many, including Dever, believe the killing propelled into law an immigration-enforcement bill passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer that has thrust Arizona into the international spotlight.

"The fact that it got passed has a lot to do with the reflection and response to the Rob Krentz murder," Dever said from Washington, D.C., on April 20 after testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

During testimony that day, Dever said Krentz "was senselessly gunned down on his own property" and that "his murderer was tracked to the Mexican border, and has since evaded capture," according to a copy of the testimony.

"We cannot sit by while our citizens are terrorized, robbed and murdered by ruthless and desperate people who enter our country illegally," Dever said.

Forty-eight hours after the killing, Dever told reporters that investigators believed the shooting was carried out by one person, but that they didn't know if it was a man or a woman, or the person's nationality. But Dever said they had reports that Krentz made reference to an "illegal alien" over a two-way radio he used to communicate with his brother while working that day on the southern part of their ranch.

"Given the location, (I) guarantee it was not somebody on their way to Walmart to go shopping," Dever said on March 29.

The Southeastern Arizona valley where Krentz was killed is a heavily trafficked people- and drug-smuggling corridor that has seen an increase in burglaries in recent years. Sheriff's investigators and most residents believe the crimes are being committed by drug smugglers heading back to Mexico.

Ranchers and residents in the valley said the Krentz killing had cemented the transformation of illegal border activity from irritating to deadly.

Politicians from both parties across the country have weighed in on the killing and proposed plans for how to protect border residents.

Dever himself has appeared in political ads for candidates advocating for more border enforcement, including a new radio spot for Sen. John McCain.

In it, Dever says, "The drug wars in Mexico spilled over into our state - burglaries, home invasions, even murder."

At least the high ranking official openly admits to his/her motives (couldn't possibly be politically motivated, could it), "citing a desire to quell the fury over illegal immigration and drug smuggling". Imagine those horrible people of Arizona expecting laws to be enforced. The moxy of them to not like illegal activity. Those racist bastards.

We all know that only racist Arizona politicians would lie, but this high ranking informant has no agenda and has pledged scouts honor to only tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Sheriff Dever was testifying before Congress and on the news all the time when this was "clearly" an illegal immigrant, but now that someone is breaking the news that his investigation is now focusing on an American, Dever has no comment. I'm sure there's no truth in this story.

Maybe at the time of testimony Sheriff Dever was quite certain of what he said.

I'm sure he was. I'm not doubting his sincerity. It's just if there was nothing to this story about the prime suspects being Americans, you'd think that based on how vocal he was about it being illegals, he'd be quick to deny the story to the paper when they asked him for comment.

Truth be told, I have mixed feelings when law enforcement get caught up in anything at all political. Even if they stake out a stance I agree with.
Law enforcement, being part of the justice system should be pretty much blind to the politics. It's never going to happen but good things almost never happen when their involvement in the politcal process goes up. I've always found the electing of judges and some law enforcement personnel very odd and unsettling in the US as compared to Canada.