How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime

1) "American sized" amounts of money being dumped into a "Mexico sized" economy.

2) (related to the above) The increased utility of any bribe to somebody living in Mexico. (we see this phenomenon in developing nations across the world^).

3) Comparative resources available to the police forces.

4) Pressure from the US to overextend the Mexican police force.

etc.

To boil this all down to "the police aren't doing their jobs" is a huge mistake.

EDIT: ^Apologies, it seems Mexico is now considered a "newly industrialized nation", as of 2011. I don't think this effects my point however.

Which is what I said. The reason the US isn't third-world is because most cops don't accept bribes. This sort of behavior infects society as a whole.

"3) Comparative resources available to the police forces."

Why are they out of resources? We need to figure things out if we ever want to stop it.

"4) Pressure from the US to overextend the Mexican police force."

It's because the violence and crime is spilling over to the US side of things. If they were stopping these guys, I don't think we would need to overextend anything. Does the US over-extend Canada's police force?

"To boil this all down to "the police aren't doing their jobs" is a huge mistake."

The police aren't doing their job because of a systematic problem of corruption. So I suppose it's just a symptom of a greater problem, but it still doesn't change the fact that there is a huge corruption problem with the Mexican police.

As to the police doing their jobs, you have to keep in mind that the drug organizations in Mexico columbia are heavily armed, more so than the local police. The Zetas for example, rose to power after being founded by Mexican special forces, a group analagous to our Green Berets. When you combine this strong knowledge of tactical warfare with a callous ruthlessness, they're not so easy to just shut down.

They are also very well financed. The drug gangs in the U.S are a joke compared to Mexico. They can't even be put in the same league. Drug gangs in the U.S. are like retail corner shops. Drug organizations in Mexico are like Walmarts, supplying these corner shops.

So in effect you have drug organizations which are more powerful than in the U.S. and a law enforcement system which is weaker than the U.S. Law enforcement couldn't easily stamp out these organizations (without HEAVY loss of life) even if corruption weren't an issue.

No. You said this: "The police aren't doing their job", which is what I particularly object to. They are doing it as well as anybody could reasonably be expected to.

And before you object to that 'reasonable' qualification, ponder the following: Somebody comes up to you and offers you enough money to pay off a good deal of your debt. But they don't stop there, they give you a choice! You can either accept this money, and go about your business, or you can decline this money, they will cut off your head, rape your wife, then cut off her's too.

Whatever you think you might do here, you cannot reasonably expect people to turn down the bribe.

"Why are they out of resources?"

Well that is really quite simple. Look up the amount of money the US spends on their "enforcement" and the answer should become clear.

"It's because the violence and crime is spilling over to the US side of things."

Look up the history of drug laws sometime. The laws predate the violence.