The murder of three migrants NW of Tucson Wednesday has become a popular topic among some of my fellow liberal bloggers. Two that I read regularly, potential City council candidate Daniel Patterson and Man Eegee, seem to want to tag this as the work of vigilante groups. These vigilante groups have clearly have a negative image among many, myself included, and deservedly so. However, the groups do not have a history of violence as of yet. (Hannigan Brothers Being the exception.) The violent nature of this particular attack indicates it was committed by someone to whom violence is not something that is new to them, but quite a routine thing. If the vigilante groups had gotten to this level of violence, we would have seen a significant number of acts of a lesser violent nature, with the nature of violence increasing steadily. To me, this is clearly NOT the work of vigilantes.
I suspect, and posted so on both of the afore mentioned blogs, that this is quite likely the handiwork of a rival coyote gang. Violence between these coyotes is nothing new. A few years ago there was a running gun battle on I-10 between rival coyotes. There is a lot of money to be made smuggling people. Some of the same groups doing the smuggling are also drug runners. This level of violence is nothing new to them.
I hate the vigilante groups and think that their presence poses more problems than they pretend to solve, but let us be rational in our analysis of the situation and avoid the lynch mob mentality. Otherwise we are no better than they are.
