hugeupside

What do we know about now resigned DEA head Michele Leonhart? My interest piqued when I read her 2011 statement to the Washington Post that Mexican drug cartel violence - including against women and children - signaled drug war success . That cartels were like " caged animals attacking one another ". Previously, I assumed DEA was unaware the violent consequences of prohibitive North American drug trade policy. Wrong. Leonhart signaled awareness. More: she signaled her understanding that drug trade violence signaled successful drug enforcement administration. By that standard of success, it's easier for me to understand Leonhart's March 12, 2015 testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee for 2016 federal law enforcement budget: Leonhart's prepared remarks PDF ;  CSPAN's video of the session .  Appearing with other federal law enforcement bosses - ATF, FBI, US Marshals - the purpose of her appearance was to request $2.092 billion to fund 2016 D...

please don't come around these parts, to tell me that we're all a bunch of animals Anderson Paak re: Baltimore Cheap life in the Mexican-American drug war is " carne asada ". This is a story about us. About animals in America. Jennifer Hudson (b Chicago, Illinois 1981) in W Magazine ( citation ): We’re acting like animals. It’s unfortunate that things are this way, but it’s not going to change unless we do something about it. Even in filming the movie, there were times where more and more incidents kept happening. And Spike kept writing it into the movie. Those who don’t get it, it’s like, how don’t you get it when this is what the issue is? And if you do have a problem with it, have a solution to come along with it. What plan do you have? How do you not try? And what are we supposed to do—just kill each other? Michele Leonhart (b Fargo, North Datoka 1956) in Washington Post ( citation ): U.S. and Mexican officials say the grotesque violence is a ...

Chicago Tribune runs moving testimony about conscious consumption of alcohol . Not Eliot Ness nor untouchability necessary. Hypothetically, some of best public health outcomes are the consequence of self-examine. Not doctors. Honesty about basics. What we eat and drink. What we look like in the mirror. That's a policy hypothesis. Also personal hope. The opinions, hypotheses, and errors below are mine. Not my employer nor anyone else. The most important hashtag in 2016 is #ChicagoIguala . That tag simply expresses the common insecurity linking North American lives, deaths, and drug war along a violent north-south interstate highway network. Chicago, Illinois USA (2.6M) and Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico (110k). Two North American towns. One US metro, one Mexican suburb. Google estimates it t akes 35 hours to drive between them . Compressed into a unique ID, #ChicagoIguala says in Twitter-friendly short-hand: "North America Free Trade Agreement" (Clinton, 1994) in legally, hi...

#ChicagoIguala ( twitter ) refers to the trade corridor connecting two battlefields in the narcotics wars - one in Mexico. One in Chicago. A unique attribute of markets along the corridor is the frequency of violence, shooting, and unsolved murder. From that perspective, #ChicagoIguala is shorthand for a multi-year, transcontinental murder mystery involving 100s of thousands of Americans. It's also a symbol for state complicity and corruption in extrajudicial killing, kidnapping and disappearances. It's code for "a blackout in our history". Document storage at Juarez, MX PD. As see in Narcocultura . A road map or way finding tool (of sorts) to American security. I hypothesize that insecurity and security are decided in these towns . These are selected by two different methodologies right now: US comes from FBI Table 6 2014 and is sorted for homicides per capita per square mile - a density of homicide metric ( source ) pan American data comes from Seguridad ...

Together, these 5 cities on the Great Lakes summed 896 homicides in 2014 per FBI. The red marker is Gary, Indiana: Lake County Sheriff John Buncich attributed the violence to gangs fighting over drug customers, some coming in from out of town, mostly to buy marijuana. He said gangs sometimes spin off and form smaller factions, battling within just a few blocks and complicating police work. "The weaponry they are using is ridiculous," Buncich said. "The amount of firepower is ridiculous." Read the whole thing . Gary guns also show up at 19% of Chicago murder scenes .  Presumably, Chicago traders acquire Gary, Indiana guns for Sinaloa drugs and/or proceeds from the same? original data source: FBI Table 6 2014

This is a map of 28 cities within the United States . (28 is an arbitrary number.) It plots homicide per capita per square mile. These cities have the most homicide per person per square mile. What does that even mean? I'm not sure - and if anyone knows of a proper name for this metric, please let me know. FWIW I consider it the "density" of homicide - where density is both social density (ie "per capita") and geographic density (ie "per square mile"). I think those attributes of homicide express important social attributes of violence, like proximity and intensity. In these 28 cases, where the social fabric in real physical space is most "war-torn" . Where killing hits "closest to home". Where there are witnesses and bystanders to murder. Clicking on the city will show the underlying calculations and the rank of the city. I will try to clean those up - this is a work in progress. Feedback and questions are welcome. ...