THE BORDER REPORT

So I received this email from Google late last night. Apparently they have a blanket policy against gore on Web sites. While Google has the right to dictate whom they wish to advertise with, I guess I have a few rights, too, starting with the right to tell an advertiser to piss off. To my way of thinking, intent must be considered before considering photos as pornographic. So I'll continue posting photos of whom and what I please and Google can keep their (low-end) few hundred dollars a year. Hello, While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as http://borderreporter.com/2008/09/decapitations-whats-next/. Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your website. As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on pages with violent or disturbing content, including sites with gory text or images. As a result, we have disabled ad serving to the site. Your AdSense account remains active. However, we strongly suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&stc=aspe-2pp-en) to ensure that all of your remaining pages are in compliance. Please note that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future.

THE BORDER REPORT

El Imparcial is reporting that Puerto Penasco's chief of police was gunned down last night along with his bodyguard. Police chief Erick Landagaray Macías took six AK-47 rounds and his bodyguard another seven. Both men survived and were taken to a hospital in Hermosillo. It's the third or fourth shooting in that area since last week; there have also been gun battles up the highway in Sonoyta. Last month, the government of Sonora grew testy with the State Department who had published a warning that armed men were running fake checkpoints on the highway from Sonoyta to Rocky Point. The state government and the American business community in Rocky Point, in their typical fashion, claimed the warnings were not true.

THE BORDER REPORT

Here's a story I wrote for High Country News about a murder mystery on the Arizona-Sonora border. Well, the mystery, and its ensuing political theatrics.

THE BORDER REPORT

Well here's a fine idea from our elected politicos. Madres, que bola de ratas. Fearing that terrorists will smuggle a nuclear weapon (!!!) across the border, a Republican nominee for a northern New Mexico district thinks it's a fine idea to install land mines along the U.S.-Mexico border. I would like to say that Republican hopeful Tom Mullins is merely stoking the fires of fear that propagate so many wild tales of the borderlands, but I don't know the guy well enough to judge whether he's serious or merely insane. Or both. On one hand, he could be taking the land mine position to posture for the low hanging votes of northern New Mexico's hard right wing. On the other, he could be an inept interviewee, I've seen that type before, people who suddenly find themselves rambling out loud and what comes out ain't pretty. I strongly suspect the man lost control of his mouth – which is nice because stream-of-consciousness provides a useful window to a man's thoughts – and abruptly found himself talking "nuclear weapons" and "land mines" when he meant to say "illegal immigrant" and "drug-runners." According to The Associated Press, Mullins made the comments during a radio interview with KNMX in Las Vegas, last month. In the interview, he advocated placing land mines and barbed wire along the border and placing signs along the line showing people where they could cross legally. Mullins seems to be another militant with only the vaguest idea of the problems encountered along the border. In a blog post he wrote up last month, he advocated for the rise of armed militias, tying the necessity for their formation to the wars across the Mexican border. At least he had the presence of mind to tell the AP reporter he wasn't suggesting we actually install land mines, for Chris'sakes; are you insane? he just thought it was an interesting idea. Think, then speak, Mullins. It'll do wonders for your burgeoning political career.

THE BORDER REPORT

Well here's a move we didn't predict: It appears that first came the gun, then came the rocks. A cellphone video obtained by Univsion shows a U.S. Border Patrol agent drawing his weapon to keep two Mexican nationals from fleeing back to Mexico, an escalation that puts last Monday's killing of a teenage boy nicely in context. The Americans were quick to inform the media last night that the dead kid, Sergio Hernandez, was a known migrant smuggler, a tactic that suggests a bit of desperation on the their part. And I think we're beginning to see why. The agent draws his weapon at about 0:55 in the video as two Mexican nationals were running back south of the line. He rode up on his bike, intercepted the two and had his weapon out, reaching with one hand to grab one of the suspects by the arm. Border Patrol agents are not supposed to draw their weapons unless they are under threat. If El Paso agents have been pulling weapons indiscriminately like this regularly, it goes a long way toward explaining why the Mexican cops had their own weapons out and pointed at the Border Patrol agents, a move that the Americans were also quick to point out. I'm working on getting the agency's weapons protocols and will post when I receive them.