Juarez Violence Sparks Sun Bowl Fears for O.U. Fans
Hisler
harmless and cuddly like stuffed animals and more law abiding than
American citizens. OU fans have good reason to fear Mexicans.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_14014703
OKLAHOMA -- Hollywood hasn't given El Paso, Texas, the most
flattering of depictions.
On a NewsOK.com online poll, almost half of the more than 800
respondents who aren't going to the Sun Bowl noted their reasoning
was they don't feel safe with all the violence happening across the
border from El Paso
story below
Hollywood hasn�t given El Paso, Texas, the most flattering of
depictions.
http://newsok.com/juarez-violence-sparks-sun-bowl-fears-for-ou-
fans/article/3425571
Sooners...
In "Kill Bill,� Uma Thurman�s wedding party is slaughtered while
she is left for dead in an El Paso chapel. At the end of "No
Country for Old Men,� Josh Brolin is shot and killed, presumably by
members of a Mexican drug cartel, outside his motel room in El
Paso.
In Ciudad Juarez, located just across the Mexican border from El
Paso, scenes like those are hardly far-fetched. In a vicious turf
battle prompted by the Mexican government�s attempt to wipe out the
drug cartels, Ciudad Juarez is at the heart of the conflict and the
violence. This year alone, nearly 2,500 people have been killed in
what�s become the murder capital of the world, according to the El
Paso Times.
"To see the lawlessness over there is very sad,� El Paso Mayor John
Cook said.
But Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, separated only by the Rio Grande and
a couple of border checkpoints, are worlds apart.
Despite its movie reputation, El Paso � home of the Sun Bowl where
the University of Oklahoma will play Stanford on New Year�s Eve �
remains one of the safest cities in the United States.
Just last month, one study declared El Paso the second-safest big
city in the country, trailing only Honolulu, according to the El
Paso Times.
Yet many Sooner fans who annually travel to OU�s bowl games are
sitting this one out. And concerns about safety are playing a role.
On a NewsOK.com online poll, almost half of the more than 800
respondents who aren�t going to the Sun Bowl noted their reasoning
was they don�t feel safe with all the violence happening across the
border from El Paso.
"Juarez has the highest murder rate in the world,� said Edmond
resident Craig Blankenship, who has traveled to the last 10 OU bowl
games with a group of about 20 family and friends. "We�re not
interested in El Paso. We will stay at home and watch it on the
tube.�
Blankenship is not alone. Thousands of tickets in the 50,429-seat
Sun Bowl Stadium remain unsold, despite a charity drive by the
university to have fans purchase tickets for troops stationed at El
Paso�s Fort Bliss.
Many of OU�s players share a similar apprehension about how safe
they�ll be in El Paso.
"They said there�s something going on across the border right
there, that it�s not safe,� senior cornerback Brian Jackson said.
"They should have moved the bowl game. It�s the well-being. You�ve
got to think about our well-being first, don�t you?�
But Cook wants Jackson and the rest of Sooner Nation to know
they�ll be safe in his city, which has successfully prevented the
violence of Ciudad Juarez from spilling into El Paso.
"On this side of the border, we have very little criminal
activity,� Cook said. "There�s very little tolerance to crime in El
Paso.�
In Ciudad Juarez, as drug cartels battle for control of the
lucrative smuggling corridor around El Paso, daytime shootings and
gruesome mutilations have become common occurrences.
But in El Paso, only 18 people were killed last year, a remarkable
number for a city of about 742,000.
That figure is down to 12 this year, a major reason why El Paso
continues to top the safest-city charts, according to the El Paso
Times.
"I�d raise a kid here, as much as I would raise a kid in Claremore,
Oklahoma,� said Sun Bowl media relations director Trent Hilburn,
who grew up in Claremore, and worked for several years in Durant.
"This is a nice, safe place.�
While cartel-related kidnappings have become problematic in places
such as Phoenix, El Paso has largely avoided that crisis.
In fact, only two people have been kidnapped in El Paso this year,
city officials said. And both were believed to be people who were
stealing from the cartels; one man had his hands cut off, a common
sign of that offense.
"I was speaking to a neighborhood association recently, and one
woman interrupted and said she was afraid the cartels were going to
come get her,� Cook recalled. "I said, �My advice to you is to stop
stealing from the cartels.��
Howard Campbell, an anthropologist at the University of Texas-El
Paso, said one major reason why the violence hasn�t come over from
Ciudad Juarez is a high concentration of U.S. law enforcement in El
Paso, which is home to several federal and local authorities, in
addition to Fort Bliss, providing for a law-abiding atmosphere.
"The cartels have this obsession with avoiding U.S. law
enforcement; they have this perception that U.S. law enforcement is
100 percent efficient,� Campbell said.
"That�s somewhat true when you compare it with Mexican law
enforcement, which is basically 0 percent efficient.�
Campbell also pointed out that El Paso has a large immigrant
population, members of which tend to be cautious and respectful of
authority.
"El Paso is a city of immigrants,� he said.
"And studies show that immigrants, in general, commit fewer crimes
than citizens.�
Sooner fans coming to El Paso will be as safe as any place in the
country, Campbell noted, provided they stay on the U.S. side of the
border.
"It used to be normal for Sun Bowl fans to go over there by the
thousands,� Campbell said. "At this point, that�s not a good idea.
"But people shouldn�t fear El Paso at all. There�s a lot of things
people can do; Mexican cultural things, which is what they would
have gone to Juarez for anyway.�
Read more: http://newsok.com/juarez-violence-sparks-sun-bowl-fears-
for-ou-fans/article/3425571#ixzz0ZyY2JzZs
Metspitzer
>Nice propaganda piece tries to sell the idea that illegal aliens are
>harmless and cuddly like stuffed animals and more law abiding than
>American citizens. OU fans have good reason to fear Mexicans.
>
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/fugitives/fuglist.htm
Pick a state. Any state.
Coming to a city near you.
hal
>Nice propaganda piece tries to sell the idea that illegal aliens are
>harmless and cuddly like stuffed animals and more law abiding than
>American citizens. OU fans have good reason to fear Mexicans.
The worst part about El Paso is the Texans, not the Mexicans.
john redthorn
without suffering the death penalty. After we kicked their ass in the
war we should have done the right thing and executed all of them that
were on our side of the border.
PSYCHO911
YOU ARE A STUPID IDIOT AND A RETARD, ARE YOU GOING TO QUIT YOUR JOB
AND WORK IN THE FIELDS.