'We won't take it'

[Alpha Mare]

ASCENCION, MEXICO In this dusty farm town, an hour south of the U.S. border, more than 40 people were abducted - one a week - in the first nine months of the year.

Then, on Sept. 21, the kidnappings stopped.

That was the day a gang of kidnappers with AK-47 assault rifles burst into Lolo's seafood restaurant and tried to abduct the 17-year-old cashier. A mob of enraged residents chased down two of the teenage attackers and lynched them in a cotton field on the edge of town.

Across the country, and especially in northern Mexico, the breakdown of the legal system is giving way to a wave of vigilante violence. As Mexicans grow frustrated with the depredations of drug mafias and the corruption and incompetence of authorities, some are meting out punishment the old-fashioned way, taking an eye for eye, or in some cases, an eye for a tooth.

Members of the armed citizens' group in Ascencion said they're not trying to challenge the drug cartels or interfere with their smuggling operations, which would be suicidal. But they said they can no longer abide the kidnappings, rapes, shakedowns and other abuses that have terrorized residents.

Mexican gun control laws limit citizens to owning smaller-caliber weapons and a handful of bullets for home defense, but group members said they were not going to leave themselves vulnerable and outgunned.

In Ascension, the group has erected a siren tower, like the kind that might warn residents in Kansas of an impending tornado, to alert everyone in town that a kidnapping is in progress. Members of the group then quickly mobilize and block the highway that passes through town.

With support from local officials, the group has also dug a trench around the town, wide and deep enough that a vehicle could not escape by driving off-road.
Members of the group said they plan to turn suspects over to authorities but were prepared to "disappear" them if authorities fail to do their jobs.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/12/in-mexico-legal-breakdown-invites.html?showComment=1292048796843#comment-c6864790551402164910

 

[longview]

What took them so long? 

[true_blood]

Love to read stories like that. GOOD!
It's about time the people took things into their own hands. They have to. Don't expect that two-timer Calderon to do anything. He's too busy criticizing our border and being "buddy buddy" to the commie in the White Mosque.

[Wineslob]

What took them so long? 

Everyone has a breaking point. Look at the unconsitiutional garbage that we allow to happen.


Good on them, BTW.

[Evil_Conservative]

Good for that town.

At least there are people willing to fighting back.