stephen.buerger | Law and Justice in Real Time

The Cartel and its Effect on the United States

December 15, 2015 stephen.buerger

The Cartel is one of the biggest crime organizations in the world. They control a lot of what happens in Mexico and what they do not control themselves they are able to pay people off to control for them. This is a big problem in Mexico and is now a growing problem for America. The cartel can be compared to ISIS because of the brutal tactics they use the only difference is that money drives the cartel while religion drives ISIS. How does this affect the United States though? The cartel effects how we patrol the border, our economy and the flow of drugs into the United States.

The cartel is one of the biggest drug manufactures in the world. The flow of drugs from Mexico to the United States is the biggest incomes for the cartel. The cartel use to bring in a lot of the marijuana when it was illegal and hard to get ahold of. Now though since marijuana is more accessible the cartel has moved more into methamphetamine. They are still moving marijuana into the United States but now they are starting to transition into the harder drugs along with cocaine. This helps fuels the wars on drugs and makes it so that there is continued support for it. If there is a massive amount of drugs being moved over the border it makes it so there is more drugs in circulation making it harder for police to do their job. Not only are their drugs going over the border but there are people coming over as well. This in some places can make it hard for the economy. Since they are not paying taxes some areas where there are a lot of immigrants this can hurt the economy in these areas. The cartel charges around one to two grand per person and if they cannot pay them when they get there they kill them. Lastly while all these things come over the border to us we send money and guns over to Mexico. They transport all of their drug money back over to Mexico along with any other dealings they have in the United States. They also bring over to Mexico guns, since they are illegal in Mexico. In the United States it is fairly easy to get guns in the south. According to one of the leaders captured from the Zeta cartel gang they got all of their guns from the United States. As we can see they flood us with drugs and undocumented immigrants and we supply them with money and guns. It is a never ending cycle with us being the middle man.

It is a hard to break this cycle but there is a way. The first is to make it harder to transport these things over the border. If we can cut off their supplies crossing the border it would starve them of money. To do this though we need to make it so that there is no corruption at the border patrol or positions in government. This can be very hard though because the cartel can offer a lot of money to people and it can be hard to say no to that. Lastly to stop this we need to have help from the Mexican government and the FBI to preform raids on known compounds to get them out of areas that they control. This would loosen the control they have over Mexico making them unable to make cross border trades.

References

Picture #1: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=The+cartel&view=detailv2&&id=034B3077E41E8DE2B6F11EB965AEBED636857807&selectedIndex=46&ccid=e123sCUz&simid=608049206791376173&thid=OIP.M7b5db7b02533d22647aa71f2747f8d79o0&ajaxhist=0

Picture #2: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=los+zetas&view=detailv2&&id=B6257DD224BF11EB3F7884BE0870941FE09B79D6&selectedIndex=158&ccid=EoHHLLfK&simid=608044624068479549&thid=OIP.M1281c72cb7ca0a230b99a72a7ee6b9c1o0&ajaxhist=0

U.S. Department of Justice. (2009, October 22). More Than 300 Alleged La Familia Cartel Members and Associates Arrested in Two-Day Nationwide Takedown. Retrieved December 13, 2015, from https://www.fbi.gov/memphis/press-releases/2009/me102209.htm

Rokhy, R., & Klemack, J. (2013, August 7). Feds Bust Mexican Drug Cartel. Retrieved December 13, 2015, from http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Mexican-Mafia-LA-Eme-Drug-Bust-Meth-La-Familia-Los-Angeles-DEA-ATF-218561541.html

Grayson, G. (2014). The evolution of Los Zetas in Mexico and Central America: Sadism as an instrument of cartel warfare. SSI.

Weissenstein, M., & Alicia A. Caldwell , Associated Press. (2013, July 15). Leader of Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel captured. Retrieved December 13, 2015, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/15/zeta-mexico-cartel-captured/2519541/

The Freedom to Find a Job; Prisoner Re-entry and the Struggle of Finding a Job

November 11, 2015 stephen.buerger

Prisoner reform is one of the biggest topics being talked about right now by the media and congress. Once released from prison the recidivism rate for offenders is at a staggering high of 50%. In NYC, 89% of offenders violate their prole who are unemployed. 60% of offenders do not hold a job a year after release. Along with that 40% of offenders do not have a GED or high school diploma. So how do we stop the cycle of recidivism? It seems like common sense but people with jobs do far less crime then people with jobs. If we want to reduce recidivism offenders need to be able to find and hold a job. A lot of offenders though find it hard to find and hold jobs after being released from prison because of discrimination or not having the right education. The system we have right now sets up offenders to fail.

How does this apply to Privacy, Security, and Freedom of Speech though? If we were to fix these problems and offenders found it easier to get jobs that means we will have more offenders in the work place. This could make a lot of people nervous and some people might not feel safe. Employers are hesitant to hire people with criminal records because they are worried about the safety of their workers and how good of a worker they are. One of the harder barriers that offenders have to overcome is filling out a job application. In almost all job application their is a section where you have too fill out if you have been convicted of a felony. Most jobs will throw your application in the garbage if you fill out yes you have and wont even consider you for the position. On top of all of this there is a lot of jobs that have restrictions on hiring people with criminal records. For a small amount of jobs this is not a bad thing but for majority of jobs a reformed offender is just like any person. This creates a question of how much privacy should offenders get regarding to their criminal record.

Questions

1: Would you feel safe if you worked with someone who was once in prison?

2. Do you think that it should be legal to ask people if they have committed a felony on applications for jobs?

3. Should we bar people from certain jobs with criminal records no matter what their crime is?

4. Should the government help offenders find jobs after release?

Sources:

Gideon, L., & Sung, H. (2011) Rethinking Corrections: Rehabilitation, reentry, and reintegration, Sage Publication, Inc.

.Immages:

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=recidivism&view=detailv2&&id=8C55D8965A363A6360BF1E5357312941FE1E8F32&selectedIndex=5&ccid=9pvlQy9v&simid=607986122282632070&thid=OIP.Mf69be5432f6f1aab63a5c17f9e4632a4o0&ajaxhist=0

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lizzard+prisoner+meme&view=detailv2&&id=62CDA7A606B2225825564906F15A622C6D8EDD4A&selectedIndex=0&ccid=dWVQUR%2bi&simid=608012652293196082&thid=OIP.M756550511fa2e89e88323d270c843c3eo0&ajaxhist=0