Legacy media in the US isn’t dependable. This isn’t news. For big news, I go British. Any of the big dailies are factually reliable and the Daily Mail, she’s typo and fragment ridden, but she’s fast. So it came as no surprise when a friend in Louisiana posted a story from the Daily Mail about El Paso that should be Texas news but isn’t. I didn’t even find the KHOU story the Daily Mail took the video screenshots from. Obviously they did a story last night, but didn’t put it on their website.
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Mexican drug cartels have vandalized two billboards in El Paso with hanging dummies and threats. One billboard translates to “Silver or Lead”. The message to the police: accept cartel bribes or die.
The second instance of vandalism had a more obtuse warning, but the theme ran through since the message was written on an existing Drug Enforcement Agency billboard.The message was different this time, as the paint read: ‘Dying for drugs’ was written over a wanted poster calling for the capture of drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero.This second mannequin was dressed in jeans rather than the suit and tie from the other instance.The mannequins were a particularly jarring image for many familiar with the drug war, as some of the most violent drug lords south of the border regularly hang offenders off highway overpasses.
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The DM report notes KHOU’s caution that anti-drug groups could have done the vandalism as a publicity stunt. Perhaps. In either case, threats to the police deserve more research and more coverage. The citizens of Texas shouldn’t have to get important local news from a website out of London.
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