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Tucson Sheriff Authorizes Use of Mass Lethal Force Against Drug Suspects

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Wed Dec 22, 2010 at 09:17:00 AM EST
Tags: cartels, Tuscon, Paul Babeu (all tags)
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Phoenix's Sheriff Joe Arpaio may have a rival in the category of worst Sheriff in America. Pinal County (Tucson)Sheriff Paul Babeu has announced his department will institute a policy authorizing (mandating) the use of lethal force against suspected drug smugglers.

"I've given specific instruction, no less than lethal force is going to be used. It's all lethal force only and we go into that environment knowing that we're likely expecting an armed threat from these people," Babeu said.

Good thing for this Sheriff's deputy, he's in Texas and not Tucson. [More...]

[Former Cameron County Deputy Sheriff]Jesus A. Longoria pleaded guilty on Friday. He admitted to attempting to allow a load of semi-automatic firearms to be unlawfully exported into Mexico in exchange for money. He said the weapons were on their way to the cartels.

Not to mention that the Cameron Sheriffs' Department just got spiffy new AR-15's to use on patrol against smugglers. And the deputies only need 24 hours of training to get one. Welcome to Guatemala.

Whatever happened to "serve and protect"?

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    Tucson Sheriff Authorizes Use of Mass Lethal Force Against Drug Suspects | 20 comments (20 topical)

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    It's Tucson, not Tuscon. (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by Chuck0 on Wed Dec 22, 2010 at 08:10:48 AM EST
    Yeah, I know, picky, picky, picky.

    I've seen Babeu (none / 0) (#1)
    by gyrfalcon on Wed Dec 22, 2010 at 12:24:21 AM EST
    on Fox a number of times now, and he's a really, really nasty piece of work.  I couldn't remember which part of Arizona he's in, but seeing your headline, I immediately knew it had to do with him.

    He's a really vivid throwback to the Southern sheriffs of Jim Crow days.

    As if the cartels won't shoot back? (none / 0) (#3)
    by SeeEmDee on Wed Dec 22, 2010 at 07:12:48 AM EST
    Remember what happened when Bush Too (not a misspelling) egged on al-Qaida by telling them to 'bring it on'? Quite a few grunts got whacked within 24 hours of his (safely) boastful jibe.

    Presidente Calderon has given the American DrugWarriors what they have always said they wanted: to "fight the DrugWar as if it were a real war!" Well, real war creates collateral casualties amongst the innocent, as many Mex families caught in the crossfire have found out the hard way. Calderon's name is scheisse in many Mex border towns...the ones that haven't been abandoned.

    But, given that the DrugWar is racist to the core, literally from its' very inception, I suppose the Anglos sitting in their 'drug control' offices in Warshington don't mind it at all if 'little brown brother' gets the chop.

    Why sheer firepower (none / 0) (#4)
    by Harry Saxon on Wed Dec 22, 2010 at 07:47:43 AM EST
    doesn't win battles these days, from www.exiledonline(dot)com:

    Let's take the best-case scenario and say that this new weapon, the XM25, makes every American infantry squad so lethal that the Taliban and the Iraqi insurgents lose a huge number of men and can't afford stand-up fights any more. What that would do is force an accelerated evolution in the same direction guerrilla war's been evolving for more than 100 years: away from trying to fight the invading army on its own terms and toward assassination, bombs, betrayal--all the ways insurgents love to fight and conventional armies hate. In practical terms, that means more Taliban enlist in the Afghan Army and wa