By Steve Knight/editor-in-chief
“One riot, one ranger.”
Unlike the events that sent Texas Ranger Capt. William McDonald, who coined that phrase, to Dallas in 1896, preventing an illegal heavyweight prizefight between Pete Maher and Bob Fitzsimmons, it is going to take more than one ranger to solve the drug war at the Texas-Mexico border.
But just like Mighty Mouse, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has come to save the day.
Surrounded by Texas Rangers officers, Perry announced his intention Sept. 10 to create Ranger recon teams that would be deployed to high-traffic, high-crime areas along the border.
“Our philosophy is based on putting boots on the ground and equipping those vigilant personnel with the technology, training and funding they need to help stem the flow of contraband across our border,” he said.
Of course, Perry took the opportunity to criticize the Obama administration.
“This is the latest in a series of aggressive actions we’ve taken to fill in the gap left by the federal government’s ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border,” he said.
While the governor should be lauded for taking this action, the border drug war did not just flare up in the last nine months.
Why did Perry decide to take this aggressive step now and not a year ago?
The simple answer — Perry was not gearing up last year for what may become the closest gubernatorial election in years.
In the presence of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Perry announced Sept. 15 more proposals to secure the border areas providing $110 million “to equip our law enforcement community with the tools and resources necessary to fight the spread of transnational gangs in our state.”
Transnational gangs, including Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia and Texas Syndicate, engage in crimes ranging from human smuggling to drug trafficking and have done so for many years.
The gangs and cartels kill thousands of innocent and not-so-innocent people every year. These ruthless people are too dangerous and too much of a threat to our security to be used as a political ploy.
Too many riots, too few rangers, one out-of-touch governor.
