My
country is corrupt. I posit that it is complicit in the
murder and annihilation of my race of people. I believe
they have been inventing ingenious, covert ways to undermine
population growth of people of color who may pose a threat
to the traditional power structure. Why
are you surprised? I find it hard to believe that anyone
is. Federal agent, John Dodson, says what he was asked to
do was beyond belief. When asked was he intentionally letting
guns go to Mexico? Dodson told CBS News, "Yes ma'am…the
agency was." This not unbelievable…
An
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the
Phoenix office
in 2010, Dodson's job was to stop gun trafficking across
the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and
watch it happen. Investigators call the tactic letting guns
"walk." In this case, walking into the hands of
criminals who would use them in Mexico
and the United
States, namely in urban, Black-populated
centers.
ATF
named the case "Fast and Furious." Real Hollywood
of them, except this isn’t fiction. Real lives are at stake.
Real people are dying…and the United
States government is in on it. Mexico, a major drug producing
and transit country, is the main foreign supplier of cannabis
and a major supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Although Mexico
accounts for only a small share of worldwide heroin production,
it supplies a large share of the heroin distributed in the
United
States. Drug cartels in Mexico control approximately 70% of the foreign
narcotics that flow into the United
States. Guess where that ends up?
The
US State Department estimates that 90% of cocaine entering
the United States transits through Mexico, with Colombia
being the main cocaine producer, followed by Bolivia
and Peru.
That’s why this Mexico
connection is so very important!
Surveillance
video shows suspected drug cartel suppliers carrying boxes
of weapons to their cars at a Phoenix
gun shop. The long boxes shown in the video being loaded
in were AK-47-type assault rifles. If I’ve said it once,
I’ve said a million times: “who needs an assault weapon?”
Only a person ready to commit an assault does.
So
it turns out ATF not only allowed it - they videotaped it.
Instead of arresting people, the ATF let them go across
the border. Documents
show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began
showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by
watching thousands of weapons hit the streets, the Fast
and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican
violence.
One
e-mail noted, "958 killed in March 2010 ... most violent
month since 2005." The same e-mail notes: "Our
subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone,"
including "numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles."
I emphatically say, our government is and always will be
aware and apprised of the harm it is doing to people - especially
people of color. That’s why it is allowed to continue. If
these people (Mexicans crossing the border) cause NRA supporters
and Tea Party activists discomfort, then they’ll “give them
tools to kill themselves”…in this case, guns. Just recall
the days of J. Edgar Hoover who allowed drugs into Black
ghettos from the 1930’s on. This tactic fuels work for law
enforcement, supplies subjects for prisons and keeps races
of people separate…the perfect demonic tool.
Dodson
feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence
in Mexico and on the border.
I categorically say that Dodson is right.
But
you ask, where’s the connection to American urban centers?
Though difficult to negotiate, it is feasible. Once guns
are trafficked into Mexico,
those ATF-blessed guns are used to protect shipments of
cocaine and marijuana into the U.S.
Just like the drugs bought and consumed here, the guns stay
here also. The only thing that leaves the U.S.
is the money exchanged.
It’s
a crime, and someone should be in jail. Instead of
allowing Kenneth Melson, acting director of the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to resign
under pressure, he should be in jail. He should be prosecuted
and convicted for conspiracy to traffic arms to known criminals
and to supply criminal enterprises. This, my friend, is
a crime at the highest levels of government. What are we
going to do? What are we going to demand? I know that a
Tunisian court sentenced ousted President Zine el Abidine
Ben Ali and his wife to 35 years in prison in absentia on
Monday after a one-day trial on corruption charges. Now,
that’s swift justice! So what’s wrong with us?
This country is quick to arrest the low-level street dealer; or the addict in
possession of a minute amount of drugs, but is quick to
holler from the mountaintops that they want the drug problem
stopped. These same Americans won’t holler from those same
mountaintops to stop the problem at its source: government
leaders. How utterly cowardly.
We complain of inequality in the dispensation of justice, but lay dormant when
it’s time to call for accountability - through indictment
and prosecution. Someone is liable…and it’s us. This is
not unbelievable.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, Perry
Redd, is the former Executive Director of
the workers rights advocacy, Sincere Seven, and author of
the on-line commentary, “The
Other Side of the Tracks.” He is the host of the internet-based
talk radio show, Socially Speaking in
Washington,
DC.
Click
here to contact Mr.
Redd.
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