Concens About "Spillover" caused by the Mexican Drugwar

Reading through blogs this one really caught my eye, Concern about 'spillover' from Mexican drug fighting belated, naive this blog is written by Scott Henson. This is basically about the sudden concern with the drugwar in Mexico, that really isnt anything new. And Henson makes many valid points to back this up. And I can actually relate to him on an example he presented , stating how his friends just traveled into Mexico for and had no issues. I personally was in Del Rio (border town) for a week, literally 5 min away from good ol Mexico and not once did I fear anyone or felt insecure while I was there, I even took an afternoon jog and went to the lake where as a matter a fact the have an open gate to Mexico that sometimes has border patrol and other times does not from what I hear, so how perfect is that for our good ol mexican drug lords right. But I did feel alot safer in Del Rio than in Houston or even in my apartment complex here in Austin, funny but true.
Seems like the media just wants to scare people away and I totally agree with Henson's allegations. I believe that if you are not inovoled in the drug buisness than theres nothing to worry about espescially safety when in Mexico, but if your already involved then good luck! But drugs have been here for a while, the drug lords are well established its no secret or anything new. He does a great job in not only quoting the DTO (drug tafficking organizations) but also the Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan that the United States is fully aware of whats going on and does not take a genius to realize that yes there are drugs around us everywhere and no this did not happen from day to night, eventhough Gov. Perry speaks of a spill over as if our borders had never had these issues before.
Henson does a wonderful job with his evidance to back up his findings, as far as statical numbers and also towards the efforts of border towns alongside of law enforcement working together without DTO in the mix. This is a great article, Henson is very passionate and oppionated about his stand and I couldnt agree with him more there are drugs in America, everywhere, can we get rid of them ... Not a chance.. but can we reduce it.. possibly..

Gov. Perry wanted to clear his name!!

After reading this article on KXAN, about how Governor Rick Perry granted a posthumous pardon (posthumous meaning: event after someones death) to falsely accused Tim Cole. According to this article this is the first posthumous pardon in the state of Texas;

Tim Cole had been sentenced for 25 years of jail for supposed "aggrevated sexual assualt" on Michele Jean Murray back in 1985. Cole had served 20 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit. On Dec 2nd, 1999 he died of an asthma attack at the age of 39 while still serving his sentence. Yet later his DNA proved he was innocent of the crime he had been incarcerated for several year. Then in Febuary of 2009 the real rapist of Murray turned himself in, Jerry Johnson admitted to having had assulted Texas Tech student in 1985 and also too the resposibility for allowing Cole to take the blame. And now a year later Gov. Perry decides to offer pardon for this injustice.

Well the primarys are tomorrow, why do this today a day before?? Is our governor maybe trying to pull some last minute votes, by showing fellow texans that he does have a heart along with his great hair? Sounds fishy to me... and a little bit to late in my opinion. Not only was the pardon given but Perry also signed the Tim Cole Act, law that will go into force later on this year increase the amount to $80,000 for each year they were wrongfully accused.

But why not do this a year ago?? Regaurdless of if it was for the pull of the votes this goes to show us that there are many lose ends in our law enforcement agencies. Seems like they just want to find someone to pin the fault on and close the case , not caring if they have the right guy. Sen. Rodney Ellis (D) also admitted in his statement that our investigative produres fell short, "Tim's wrongful conviction was due to the use of faulty eyewitness identification procedures, the most frequent cause of wrongful convictions in Texas and the rest of the country. Every law enforcement agency in Texas should have written eyewitness identification procedures based on best practices, but unfortunately only 12 percent have any written procedures at all."

This is truly sad that an innocent individuals life was cut short because of lack of following proper procedures, Cole was 19 when he was sentenced. He never lived life, because it was taken from him wrongfuly. And makes us think of the possibility there might still be of innocent people sentenced in error. Hopefully this opens the eyes of a lot of people and opens doors to correct these error and save innocent lives.