The savagery of the Mexican drug cartels revealed itself once again this week, with the vicious murder of a police officer who was involved in the botched arrest against kingpin Joaquin &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzman&#8217;s son last month.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexico-police-el-chapo-shot-155-times-cartel-killing">Fox News</a>, a 30-year-old officer, named only by police as Eduardo N., died on Wednesday by 150 bullets during a daylight assassination in Culiacan, Sinaloa. The killing came three weeks after the cartel successfully forced the police into releasing El Chapo&#8217;s son during a violent shootout that left eight people dead and more than 20 wounded. More from <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexico-police-el-chapo-shot-155-times-cartel-killing">Fox News</a>:
<blockquote>Mexican newspaper Excelsior shared CCTV footage from Wednesday’s attack that showed the police officer parking his white vehicle outside a shopping center. Moments later, a red vehicle pulls up alongside him and armed gunmen men leap out, firing rapidly from close range.
Within 30 seconds, the gunmen fired 155 shots at the police officer, before leaping into the vehicle and running off, the outlet reported.
Officials said the officer was a member of Sinaloa’s State Preventive Police who had been assigned to protect Undersecretary of Public Safety Carlos Alberto Hernandez Leyva.</blockquote>
The targeting of Eduardo N. undoubtedly sends a message that the cartels will target anyone even tangentially involved in the crackdown on their operation, considering that the officer was only part of an anti-drug security unit patrolling the region at the time of the arrest and was not directly involved in the operation.
As the cartel violence in Mexico boils to unprecedented levels, President Trump has called on the country&#8217;s leader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">to declare war</a> on the cartels with the full aid of the United States. His pressing call occurred shortly after three women and six children from a U.S. family were killed in the Mexican state of Sonora earlier this week.
&#8220;A wonderful family and friends from Utah got caught between two vicious drug cartels, who were shooting at each other, with the result being many great American people killed, including young children, and some missing,&#8221; Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
&#8220;If Mexico needs or requests help in cleaning out these monsters, the United States stands ready, willing [and] able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The great new President of Mexico has made this a big issue, but the cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!&#8221;
&#8220;This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,&#8221; the president concluded. &#8220;We merely await a call from your great new president!&#8221;
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has soundly rejected Trump&#8217;s call to war.
&#8220;The bad cannot be confronted with the bad. The bad needs to be confronted doing the good,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We believe that the most important (thing) is life, protecting the lives of everyone; the lives of the military, the lives of the presumed delinquents, and the lives of civilians. If we had acted as they asked, implored us, there would have been more than 200 dead.&#8221;

MEXICO-US-RELIGION-MORMON-ATTACK

Cartels Murder Cop Who Aided In The Arrest Of El Chapo’s Son

Drugs

Mexico

Mexican officials say they have made an arrest in response to the horrific massacre of nine American citizens — three women and six of their young children — in the Mexican state of Sonora.
&#8220;The suspect was holding two bound-and-gagged hostages in the hills of Agua Prieta in Sonora state, the ministerial Agency for Criminal Investigations (AMIC) said,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/americas/mormons-attacked-us-mexico-border-wednesday/index.html">CNN</a> reports. &#8220;The suspect had several rifles and a large amount of ammunition, including a number of large-caliber weapons, the agency said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.&#8221;
Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Peniche Espejel confirmed the arrest in a radio interview on Tuesday. &#8220;We are waiting for some more intelligence in order to issue an official statement,&#8221; he said, declining to confirm more details about the suspect&#8217;s potential role in the ambush of the family.
While Peniche Espejel pointed to the Los Jaguares cartel, which CNN describes as a newly formed offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel, as potentially being behind the attack, U.S. officials have indicated that rival cartel La Línea is under scrutiny.
While some officials have said that the attack may have been a result of mistaken identity, former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda told CNN that the LeBarón family&#8217;s history of conflict with the cartels suggests that they may have been targeted.
&#8220;They had stood up to the drug cartels, and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights,&#8221; said Castañeda.
&#8220;Their long-standing tensions, and apparently the woman who was driving in the first car that was attacked was an activist,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;She was someone who was very active in her community, defending her family, her fellow members of the community against cartels, on the issue of water rights.&#8221;
After having received protection from federal police since 2011, said Castañeda, the protection was reduced earlier this year.
As reported by <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/11/05/least-women-children/">The Salt Lake Tribune</a> Monday, a total of nine members of the LeBarón and Langford families — U.S. citizens who are a part of the Sonora-based La Mora community — were killed in the cartel ambush. Gunmen opened fire on vehicles carrying several family members and subsequently lit the vehicles on fire, with some of the victims still inside.
&#8220;Maria Rhonita Miller and four of her children died on a road in northern Mexico, according to [Lafe Langford Jr.] and social media posts,&#8221; the Tribune reported. &#8220;The bodies of Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and Christina Marie Langford, 31, were found later Monday, Lafe Langford Jr. said. The bodies of two of Dawna Ray Langford’s children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, also were recovered Monday.&#8221; Among the children murdered were Rhonita Miller’s twin 6-month-old babies and two children aged 10 and 12.
&#8220;On the morning of November 4th, 2019, three mothers in three vehicles, with fourteen children between them, set out from LaMora, a small family community in the mountains of northeastern Sonora,&#8221; Kendra Lee Miller, a relative of the victims, wrote in an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kendraleemiller92/posts/10162303510900316">account</a> of the attack posted on Facebook Tuesday. &#8220;Two of them to see family in Chihuahua, and one of them to pick up her husband from the airport in Phoenix, AZ. They never made it. They were ambushed by the Mexican cartels; shot, burned, and murdered in cold blood. These were innocent civilians, American citizens simply trying to live peaceful lives.&#8221;
&#8220;For 11 hours, their families all over Sonora, Chihuahua, and the Midwestern US waited in fear and horror for any news of possible survivors,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;The first vehicle was found full of bullet holes and completely ablaze. Nita and the four of her seven children she had taken on the trip were burned to mostly ashes and only a few charred bones left to identify that all five had been inside. It appeared that one tried to escape as the front passenger door was open and the remains were partially in and out of the vehicle.&#8221;
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<div class="zn-body__paragraph">Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">Trump Declares ‘WAR’ On Mexican Drug Cartels After 3 Women, 6 Children From U.S. Family Massacred</a></div>
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Cartel Attack

Cartel Attack On U.S. Family: Suspect Arrested; Official Says Family May Have Been Targeted

What is national security if not the obligation of a sovereign nation to secure its citizenry against the threats posed along the border by a lawless neighboring state overrun by murderous transnational criminal organizations?
Following the horrific <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">overnight news</a> of nine Americans — three women and six children — killed across the Mexican border when they found themselves caught in the midst of a cartel turf war shootout, this is the question that ought to be on the mind of every American policymaker. The bipartisan foreign policy clerisy may seem <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-why-do-political-elites-care-more-about-turkeys-border-than-they-do-about-our-own-border">disproportionately focused</a> right now on a centuries-old Islamic sectarian war raging along the Turkish-Syrian border, but it is long past time for our leading foreign policy and national security hands to turn their attention to a much nearer and more immediately harrowing threat: Mexico.
The unfortunate but sober reality right now is that Mexico is best described as a failed state. One longstanding defining characteristic of a modern nation-state, after all, is a monopoly on the use of force; truly sovereign states are not overrun with drug-peddling marauders, terrorist militias, or other roving bands of vigilantes with the collective willpower and requisite military-style hardware to take &#8220;enforcement&#8221; matters into their own hands. There is a reason that the Old West was called &#8220;<a href="https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-old-west">wild</a>.&#8221;
Under this rudimentary criterion of what is necessary for national sovereignty, modern Mexico fails the test. The Mexican government does not have anywhere remotely resembling a monopoly on the use of force within its own territory. On the contrary, transnational criminal organizations flourish throughout the country, physically hold territory like mini-ISIS &#8220;caliphates,&#8221; literally <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/gun-battle-involving-el-chapos-son-highlights-growing-challenges-to-mexican-government-control/2019/10/19/e39d57be-f1b3-11e9-bb7e-d2026ee0c199_story.html">out-gun the Mexican government</a> in live shootouts, control vast swaths of the the illegal alien human trafficking corridors currently <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/happens-illegal-aliens-mexican-cartels-shut-government/">wreaking so much havoc</a> on America&#8217;s territorial integrity, and collectively have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservative-favorite-rep-chip-roys-maiden-floor-josh-hammer">&#8220;operational control&#8221;</a> of large chunks of the U.S.-Mexico border.
And now, American citizens — women and children, that is — are paying the ultimate price due to Mexico&#8217;s inability to control its own emerging anarchy. American citizens are paying the ultimate price due to Mexico being an inveterate narco-state full of kleptocratic politicians who are invariably either too venal or too reckless to actually take the fight to the cartels.
To be sure, President Trump ought to double down in his efforts to build a physical border wall separating our nation from the failed state to our south. But Trump should go further. It is far past time for the U.S. State Department to formally designate the leading Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. As Daniel Horowitz has persuasively <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/time-designate-mexican-cartels-terrorist-organizations/">argued</a>, these cartels are no longer run-of-the-mill drug mules — they are full-on paramilitary terrorist organizations and some even have close organizational ties to international jihadist outfits like <a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/">Hezbollah</a>. Such a State Department formal designation would, as a threshold matter, more easily permit the various levers of the federal government apparatus to crack down on the cartels’ financing sources.
But Trump should go even further still. He should rally congressional Republicans to pass a formal authorization for the use of military force, similar to the post-9/11 AUMF of 2001, that effectively declares war on the leading Mexican cartels. In what world does it make sense to intervene in and referee Islamic civil wars overseas whilst allowing a failed state on our very border to allow murderous criminal rings to run amok and kill vulnerable U.S. citizens? In what world does it make sense to waste precious blood and treasure on trying to make a Madisonian democracy out of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-never-forget-911-we-need-rethink-how-we-josh-hammer">Kabul</a> while there is a corrupt and violent wasteland claiming American lives right in our own backyard?
Ranchers across our beleaguered border have long suffered from the effects of cartel violence; now, they are joined by the members of an innocent Utah family that tragically found itself stuck in the middle of a cartel turf war shootout. The situation in Mexico is rapidly escalating into a national emergency, and the Mexican government itself has repeatedly shown itself over the decades to be incapable of rooting out its own domestic rot. The time has come for the U.S. government to step in and defend its own sovereignty and security alike. Indeed, the U.S. government is actually morally obligated to do so.

Border Patrol truck

HAMMER: The U.S. Is Morally Obligated To Take On The Mexican Drug Cartels

Crime

Foreign Policy

In a harrowing and tragic account posted on Facebook Tuesday morning, a relative of an American family massacred by a Mexican drug cartel in Sonora, Mexico on Monday provided more details about the cartel&#8217;s senseless acts of violence and the families&#8217; selfless acts of heroism in the ambush.
The attack, which may have resulted from the cartel members mistaking the family&#8217;s vehicles for others, left nine people dead — three women and six of their children — but due to the actions of family members, several people caught up in the attack survived, including Faith Marie Johnson, the 7-month-old child of victim Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 29.
As reported by <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/11/05/least-women-children/">The Salt Lake Tribune</a> Monday, a total of nine members of the LeBarón and Langford families — U.S. citizens who are a part of the decades-old La Mora community based in Sonora, Mexico — were killed when a cartel ambushed their three-car caravan. &#8220;Maria Rhonita Miller and four of her children died on a road in northern Mexico, according to [Lafe Langford Jr.] and social media posts,” the outlet reported. “The bodies of Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and Christina Marie Langford, 31, were found later Monday, Lafe Langford Jr. said. The bodies of two of Dawna Ray Langford’s children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, also were recovered Monday.&#8221; Rhonita’s twin 6-month-old babies and two children aged 10 and 12 were killed in the attack. Lafe Langford Jr., who spoke with the media about the attack, says three other children suffered bullet wounds.
The Tribune noted in its report Sunday that earlier reports that baby Faith had died &#8220;turned out to be incorrect.&#8221; As highlighted by <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/11/05/7-month-old-baby-miraculously-survives-mexico-cartel-massacre/">The New York Post</a> Tuesday, a family member&#8217;s detailed account of the attack reveals how the infant survived.
&#8220;A 7-month-old baby survived a volley of gunfire unleashed by drug cartels in Mexico — thanks to one final, selfless act from her mother before the woman was killed,&#8221; the outlet reports. &#8220;Hours after Christina Marie Langford Johnson, 29, was gunned down, relatives discovered her infant daughter Faith — unscathed and still strapped to her car seat inside the bullet-filled car.&#8221;
Kendra Lee Miller, a relative of the victims, writes in an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kendraleemiller92/posts/10162303510900316">account</a> on Facebook about the discovery of Faith hours after the attack, her mother&#8217;s quick-thinking actions apparently having saved the child&#8217;s life. Family members &#8220;found Christina&#8217;s baby Faith with the vehicle around her riddled with bullet holes,&#8221; Miller writes. &#8220;Somehow she had remained untouched, and alive. She was in her car seat, which looked to have been hurriedly placed on the floor of the vehicle by her mother for protection.&#8221;
After apparently moving Faith&#8217;s car seat to a safer position, Christina, Miller explains, &#8220;jumped out waving her arms to let the attackers know that it was women and children in the vehicles. She gave her life to try and save the rest.&#8221;
&#8220;On the morning of November 4th, 2019, three mothers in three vehicles, with fourteen children between them, set out from LaMora, a small family community in the mountains of northeastern Sonora,&#8221; Miller&#8217;s account begins. &#8220;Two of them to see family in Chihuahua, and one of them to pick up her husband from the airport in Phoenix, AZ. They never made it. They were ambushed by the Mexican cartels; shot, burned, and murdered in cold blood. These were innocent civilians, American citizens simply trying to live peaceful lives.&#8221;
&#8220;For 11 hours, their families all over Sonora, Chihuahua, and the Midwestern US waited in fear and horror for any news of possible survivors,&#8221; the account continues. &#8220;The first vehicle was found full of bullet holes and completely ablaze. Nita and the four of her seven children she had taken on the trip were burned to mostly ashes and only a few charred bones left to identify that all five had been inside. It appeared that one tried to escape as the front passenger door was open and the remains were partially in and out of the vehicle.&#8221;
Along with Christina&#8217;s quick-thinking and selfless acts, Devin, the son of another one of the women murdered in the ambush by the cartel, &#8220;hid his 6 other siblings in the bushes and covered them with branches to keep them safe while he went for help.&#8221; Devin managed to escape and gave &#8220;the first news anyone had heard of his and Christina&#8217;s families.&#8221;
&#8220;Devin&#8217;s uncles armed themselves with guns and returned to try and find the hidden children, knowing many of them were injured,&#8221; Miller explains. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t get far before realizing they would be risking death, since there had been continual shooting for hours, all over the mountains near LaMora. The group of men waited a while for reinforcements, and around 7:30, found the hidden children. They found Christina&#8217;s baby Faith with the vehicle around her riddled with bullet holes. Somehow she had remained untouched, and alive. She was in her car seat, which looked to have been hurriedly placed on the floor of the vehicle by her mother for protection.&#8221;
&#8220;The search didn&#8217;t end there. Mckenzie, the 9 year old who&#8217;d gone for help, was missing,&#8221; Miller continues. &#8220;Soldiers who&#8217;d by then arrived, and the men of LaMora and nearby towns searched for two hours in the dark until they found her around 9:30. The five of Dawna&#8217;s children who were injured were picked up by a waiting ambulance and treated at the local hospital until a helicopter sent by Mexican military came to pick them up. Their father David who had by then arrived from Tucson, Arizona, accompanied them to be life flighted to another helicopter waiting at the US border, from there to be transported to Phoenix. Devin, his brother Jake, and Christina&#8217;s baby Faith, all uninjured, are now in the care of their aunts and grandmas in LaMora.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-women-6-children-from-u-s-mormon-family-massacred-by-mexican-drug-cartel-trump-responds">Trump Declares ‘WAR’ On Mexican Drug Cartels After 3 Women, 6 Children From U.S. Family Massacred</a>
Below is the full text of Kendra Lee Miller&#8217;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kendraleemiller92/posts/10162303510900316">Facebook post</a>:
<blockquote>On the morning of November 4th, 2019, three mothers in three vehicles, with fourteen children between them, set out from LaMora, a small family community in the mountains of northeastern Sonora. Two of them to see family in Chihuahua, and one of them to pick up her husband from the airport in Phoenix, AZ. They never made it. They were ambushed by the Mexican cartels; shot, burned, and murdered in cold blood. These were innocent civilians, American citizens simply trying to live peaceful lives.
For 11 hours, their families all over Sonora, Chihuahua, and the Midwestern US waited in fear and horror for any news of possible survivors. The first vehicle was found full of bullet holes and completely ablaze. Nita and the four of her seven children she had taken on the trip were burned to mostly ashes and only a few charred bones left to identify that all five had been inside. It appeared that one tried to escape as the front passenger door was open and the remains were partially in and out of the vehicle.
On another part of the road, about 10 miles ahead, were Christina, with her baby Faith in her vehicle, and Dawna with nine children in hers. They both were fired upon from ahead and Christina jumped out waving her arms to let the attackers know that it was women and children in the vehicles. She gave her life to try and save the rest. Dawna and two of her boys were also killed in the gunfire.
After witnessing his mother and brothers being shot dead, Dawna&#8217;s son Devin hid his 6 other siblings in the bushes and covered them with branches to keep them safe while he went for help. When he took too long to return, his 9 year old sister left the remaining five to try again. Devin arrived in LaMora at 5:30 pm, 6 hours after the ambush, giving the first news anyone had heard of his and Christina&#8217;s families.
Devin&#8217;s uncles armed themselves with guns and returned to try and find the hidden children, knowing many of them were injured. They didn&#8217;t get far before realizing they would be risking death, since there had been continual shooting for hours, all over the mountains near LaMora. The group of men waited a while for reinforcements, and around 7:30, found the hidden children. They found Christina&#8217;s baby Faith with the vehicle around her riddled with bullet holes. Somehow she had remained untouched, and alive. She was in her car seat, which looked to have been hurriedly placed on the floor of the vehicle by her mother for protection.
The search didn&#8217;t end there. Mckenzie, the 9 year old who&#8217;d gone for help, was missing. Soldiers who&#8217;d by then arrived, and the men of LaMora and nearby towns searched for two hours in the dark until they found her around 9:30.
The five of Dawna&#8217;s children who were injured were picked up by a waiting ambulance and treated at the local hospital until a helicopter sent by Mexican military came to pick them up. Their father David who had by then arrived from Tucson, Arizona, accompanied them to be life flighted to another helicopter waiting at the US border, from there to be transported to Phoenix.
Devin, his brother Jake, and Christina&#8217;s baby Faith, all uninjured, are now in the care of their aunts and grandmas in LaMora.
We lost 9 today. Right now we are waiting, for the morning, for answers, for justice.
Dead:
Rhonita Maria Miller September 15, 1989, 30 yrs 
Howard Jacob Miller, Jr. July 12, 2007, 12 yrs 
Krystal Bellaine Miller, September 25, 2009 10 yrs 
Titus Alvin Miller, March 13, 2019 &#8211; 8 months 
Tiana Gricel Miller, March 13, 2019 &#8211; 8 months 
(twins) 
All shot and burned in their vehicle. Only ashes and a few bones remain.
Father/husband is Howard Sr, who was in North Dakota at the time of attack. The three siblings left behind in LaMora being babysat at the Miller grandparents: Tristan, Amaryllis, and Zack.
Dead:
Christina Marie Langford Johnson &#8211; November 23, 1987, shot dead, 19 days away from 32 years
Survived:
Faith Marie Johnson April 9, 2019, 7 months old &#8211; was found in her car seat that seemed to be put on the floor, by her mother to try and protect her, uninjured,
Dead:
Dawna Ray Langford, June 19, 1976, 43 years 
Trevor Harvey Langford April 4, 2008 11 years old, 
Rogan Jay Langford, February 17, 2017 2.5 years old 
All shot to death
Survived 
Kylie Evelyn Langford, March 8 2005, 14 years &#8211; shot in the foot
Devin Blake Langford, July 6 2006, 13 years &#8211; uninjured, walked approximately 14 miles to LaMora to get help, after hiding his bleeding but living siblings in the bushes, and covering them with branches
Mckenzie Rayne Langford, January 12 2010, &#8211; 9 years &#8211; grazed on her arm- sent by her sister Kylie for help when Devin didn&#8217;t return soon enough, got lost, and walked approximately 10 miles, for about 4 hours in the dark before she was found by the search parties
Cody Greyson Langford, October 1 2011, 8 years- shot in the jaw, and the leg, his condition was worrying, but at last word, not critical
Jake Ryder Langford, May 22 2013, 6 &#8211; uninjured
Xander Boe Langford, June 4 2015, 4 &#8211; shot in the back
Brixon Oliver Langford, February 15th 2019, almost 9 months &#8211; shot in the chest, open flesh wound, bullet graze on wrist</blockquote>

Mexican Federal Police, Sonora

Mom’s Selfless Act Saves Young Child’s Life In Mexican Cartel Attack On U.S. Family

Police in North Carolina have arrested four people in connection with a drug trafficking scheme that resulted in the seizure of thousands of pounds of marijuana.
The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office stated that the investigation lasted for six months and included the collaboration of multiple agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and the police departments of numerous North Carolina counties and cities (a full list below).
WBTV reported that the investigation resulted in the seizure of 6,800 pounds of marijuana intercepted at the United States-Mexico border. It also nabbed 18 kilograms (more than 39 pounds) of cocaine and $200,000.
“Jose Garcia, 31, Juan Olmos, 46 and Michael Proffitt, 36, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and trafficking in cocaine,” the outlet reported. “Garica [sic], Olmos and Proffitt are incarcerated in the Catawba County Detention Center.”
Officials determined Garcia was in the United States illegally and is being investigated by Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
In addition, Crispin Fair, 50, was charged with trafficking in heroin.
The full list of agencies involved in the list were, according to WBTV:
<blockquote>Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Catawba County Sheriff’s Office, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Alexander County Sheriff’s Office, Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Newton Police Department, Longview Police Department, Hickory Police Department, Greensboro Police Department</blockquote>
This multi-county drug bust came just days after another major bust in the state involving additional counties.
WLOS <a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/update-more-than-2-dozen-arrested-in-4-county-drug-bust-involving-sbi">reported</a> that more than a dozen people were arrested in connection with another drug ring. Three of the more than 12 arrested, Fabian Carrillo Blas, Abel Carbajal, and Mark Leman Tobe, were alleged to have “conspired to distribute large quantities of cocaine,” the outlet reported.
“As a result of the investigation, approximately nine pounds of methamphetamine, three pounds of cocaine, smaller amounts of heroin pills and marijuana were seized, as well as several firearms and more than $90,000,” WLOS reported.
This operation also included the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as “the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), Asheville Police Department, Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, [and] Haywood County Sheriff’s Office,” the outlet reported.
This year has seen numerous large-scale drug busts across the country. In September, police in Virginia <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35-people-arrested-virginia-having-enough-fentanyl-ashe-schow">arrested 35 people</a> and seized “enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people,” CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fentanyl-drug-bust-investigators-seize-enough-fentanyl-to-kill-14-million-people-in-massive-bust/">reported</a>. That bust also nabbed more than 30 kilograms of heroine, five kilograms of cocaine, more than $700,000, and 24 firearms.
In June, federal law enforcement officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/record-bust-feds-seize-33000-pounds-cocaine-worth-ryan-saavedra">completed the largest drug bust</a> in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The officials seized more than 33,000 pounds of cocaine &#8212; an amount that could have killed millions of people. Just two people were arrested in connection with the massive drug bust.
Most of the drugs are coming from south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Man Holding Cocaine

6,800 Pounds Of Marijuana, 39 Pounds Of Cocaine, $200,000 Seized As Part Of Drug-Trafficking Scheme

North Carolina

Chaos and violence have broken out in Mexico, even more than usual. The <a href="https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1185013332769759232">footage</a> looks like something out of a war zone. This latest bit of anarchy began when Mexican law enforcement officers managed to arrest Ovidio Guzmán, one of the top drug lords in the country and son of the notorious kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
Unfortunately, Guzmán’s cartel was not willing to let the son end up in a U.S. maximum security prison like the father. Dozens of gunmen, armed with everything from machine guns to grenade launchers to sniper rifles, invaded the city where Guzmán was captured and started murdering police officers. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-el-chapos-son-arrested-in-mexico-cartel-violence-erupts">reports</a> that the cartel militants also went searching for the family members of Mexican military personnel.
Finally, the Mexican government capitulated, raised the metaphorical white flag, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/17/el-chapo-violence-breaks-out-in-mexican-city-amid-rumours-of-sons-arrest">released the younger Guzmán</a>. The president of Mexico assured the public that his administration is &#8220;doing really well&#8221; in its crime fighting strategy, explaining that they &#8220;don&#8217;t want war.&#8221; But war is exactly what he has on his hands, whether he wants it or not, and releasing a notorious drug lord back into the clutches of his cartel is, one might argue, the exact opposite of doing really well. It is, in fact, a disgrace, a travesty, an embarrassment, and a signal that Mexico is a failed state. The drug cartels run the show, and after having so much success with the &#8220;take over the city and start shooting people&#8221; strategy, they will surely resort to it again.
I don&#8217;t know what Mexico&#8217;s next step should be (though refraining from releasing any more drug lords might be a good start), but I do know what the United States’ next step should be: build the wall, finally. Really build it. Most of the wall building that has happened so far under Trump&#8217;s watch &#8212; despite how Trump himself sometimes presents it — has consisted of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-border-wall-three-new-contracts-rio-grande-valley-sector-1462252">replacing</a> existing fences with slightly better fences. There has not been much in the way of actually new wall — or fence, or barrier, or whatever we&#8217;re calling it now &#8212; and certainly we haven&#8217;t seen the grand, 2,000 mile-long wall across the entire southern border like we were promised.
Of course, every thinking person always knew that the Great Wall of America wasn’t going to happen, but there are still plenty of places along the border where a wall can be, should be, and so far hasn&#8217;t been built. It would seem that now, with the Mexican government all but officially surrendering to the cartels, is as good a time as any to get started.
There has never been any rational objection to building the wall. There are some practical reasons why a wall across all 2,000 miles probably isn&#8217;t feasible (or necessary, given the natural barriers that exist along some portions of the border), but there is no valid argument in principle against erecting physical barriers wherever they are possible and needed. Those arguments always come down to vague emotional appeals and clichéd sloganeering about &#8220;building bridges, not walls.&#8221; But this is not the time for clichés. Mexico is collapsing, and we have to shield ourselves from the debris.

Border wall prototypes.

WALSH: Mexico Is A Failed State Run By Drug Cartels. It’s Time To Finally Build The Wall.

Illegal Immigration

Southern Border

Serious gun fire erupted on the streets of Culiacan, Sinaloa, after Mexican law enforcement officials reportedly captured Ovidio Guzman, the son of convicted Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquín &#8220;El Chapo&#8221; Guzmán.
Journalist Robert Arce was the first to report the unredacted mugshot of Ovidio Guzman who &#8220;sought to take control of the Sinaloa cartel along with his older brother, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, after their father was captured and extradited to the United States in 2017,&#8221; according to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-10-17/chaos-in-mexico-as-el-chapos-son-a-leader-of-the-sinaloa-cartel-is-reportedly-captured">Los Angeles Times</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SCOOP: Here is the unredacted mugshot of Ovidio Guzman, the son of convicted Sinaloa Cartel drug lord El Chapo, who was just arrested in Culiacán, Sinaloa <a href="https://t.co/ILD5XICR48">pic.twitter.com/ILD5XICR48</a>
— Robert Arce (@robertrarce) <a href="https://twitter.com/robertrarce/status/1184987109947363328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
In his report at Breitbart, Arce <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/10/17/el-chapos-son-captured-sinaloa-cartel-assaults-police-hq-for-rescue-attempt/">wrote</a> that sources confirmed that the arrest is what &#8220;sparked an intense deployment of Sinaloa Cartel gunmen to the scene of the incident and later the offices of the Federal Prosecutor’s office in [an] attempted rescue effort.&#8221;
A source told The Daily Wire that family members of military personnel were being warned that truckloads of cartel gunmen were searching for the relatives of Mexican army personnel in retaliation for the capture of El Chapo&#8217;s son.
On social media, numerous posts showed intense gun fire erupting around the city as innocent bystanders rushed to find cover.
Cartels appear to have set fire to numerous vehicles in a road block that they set up in an effort to prevent backup from Mexican authorities from arriving on scene.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Continúan las agresiones en <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. <a href="https://t.co/3sHdy8d750">pic.twitter.com/3sHdy8d750</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1185005020355293184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nuevo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nuevo</a>: Fuentes de la SEIDO señalan que el detenido es Ovidio Guzmán López.
Se espera su arribo a la Ciudad de México.
En un intento por detener su traslado, quemaron autos para usarlos como barricadas. <a href="https://t.co/zonxKKU3ZH">pic.twitter.com/zonxKKU3ZH</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184975977975300099?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other footage showed what appeared to be automatic fire:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Así las cosas al norte de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. Momentos exactos de la balacera captados por el compañero reportero Policiaco, Ernesto Martínez. <a href="https://t.co/o53uBLqCWr">pic.twitter.com/o53uBLqCWr</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1184946085468332032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other photos showed vehicles that were apparently destroyed by the cartels:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a> zona de guerra. Enrique Cabrera y Enrique Félix Castro. <a href="https://t.co/OUzFLtk08X">pic.twitter.com/OUzFLtk08X</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1184967639640076288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Bystanders trying to flee the area after intense gun fire breaks out:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
Reportan enfrentamientos entre militares y hombres armados en <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>.
No se sabe el origen del enfrentamiento. <a href="https://t.co/s4iFLTl4Nm">pic.twitter.com/s4iFLTl4Nm</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184954604657827841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
A man opens fire using what appears to be a .50 caliber sniper rifle:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: El enfrentamiento inició en el Sector Tres Ríos, pero se ha extendido a otros puntos de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>.
Vean el tipo de armas que se están usando. <a href="https://t.co/sLXtMeUTHk">pic.twitter.com/sLXtMeUTHk</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184955221161730054?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Other video showed cartel gunmen armed with .50 caliber machine guns mounted on top of trucks driving around the area:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: Otro video de los hombres armados que participan en las balaceras en <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. <a href="https://t.co/UNDnnYR0yX">pic.twitter.com/UNDnnYR0yX</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184958364993933313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
More intense gun fire:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nuevo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nuevo</a>: Versiones a través de whatsapp y radio, señalan que autoridades federales detuvieron a Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, hijo de “Él Chapo” Guzmán.
Los enfrentamientos siguen. <a href="https://t.co/vsEiNhFFz5">pic.twitter.com/vsEiNhFFz5</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184960633202192387?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Mexican military arrives on scene:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: Sigue el despliegue de militares por <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Eoyna6wZXZ">pic.twitter.com/Eoyna6wZXZ</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184963628564434945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
Innocent bystanders hide in a supermarket as gunfire erupts:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/M%C3%A1s?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Más</a>: En medio del miedo y el caos, habitantes de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a> intentan resgardarse de las balaceras en un centro comercial. <a href="https://t.co/l6rrNgf9nU">pic.twitter.com/l6rrNgf9nU</a>
— Carlos Zúñiga Pérez (@Carloszup) <a href="https://twitter.com/Carloszup/status/1184967879478972416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
The fighting continued into the night:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Al norte de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Culiac%C3%A1n?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Culiacán</a> sector Humaya siguen las balaceras. <a href="https://t.co/zJw1K8CJFo">pic.twitter.com/zJw1K8CJFo</a>
— Juan Pablo Pérez Díaz (@PerezDiazMX) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerezDiazMX/status/1185006815651565568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
The Los Angeles Times added that the Sinaloa Cartel – which has long been the most prolific drug trafficking organization in the world – has faced increasing challenges to its dominance from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The CJNG is suspected to be behind a massacre on Monday in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.
&#8220;The federal public security ministry said 14 police were killed, though its Michoacan state counterpart reported that 13 officers were confirmed dead and three injured,&#8221; <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence/more-than-a-dozen-police-killed-in-ambush-in-violent-mexican-state-idUSKBN1WT23A">Reuters</a> reported.
Reuters added that photographs of the crime scene &#8220;showed large placards signed by &#8216;CJNG&#8217; left on police vehicles.&#8221;
CJNG reportedly warned law enforcement in the area to not support rival criminal organizations.

Mexico Drug Cartel Violence

WATCH: El Chapo&#8217;s Son Arrested In Mexico, Cartel Violence Erupts

Violent crime in America, despite experiencing an overall <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/tables/1tabledatadecoverviewpdf/table_1_crime_in_the_united_states_by_volume_and_rate_per_100000_inhabitants_1993-2012.xls">dramatic decline</a> since the 1990s, has started to <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/25-years-crime-wave-back-republicans-refuse-talk/">surge back</a> over the past few years. Amidst this distressing social trend, alas, America&#8217;s <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/rnc-blasts-kamala-harris-not-pro-criminal-enough/">erstwhile</a> &#8220;law-and-order&#8221;/tough-on-crime political party has been ideologically and financially captured by pro-criminal libertarians who ally with the Left to spout hackneyed, outmoded orthodoxies like the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-dont-let-kim-kardashian-fool-you-america-josh-hammer">alleged (non-)issue</a> of &#8220;mass incarceration.&#8221; The most tangible result of this unholy alliance was the bipartisan 2018 passage of the harrowing First Step Act jailbreak law — a law enactment which President Donald Trump, viewing the <a href="https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191004/he-was-released-early-from-prison-in-february-now-hes-wanted-for-murder-on-federal-hill">murderous early results</a>, apparently already <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">regrets</a>.
Alas, the leftist/libertarian alliance on &#8220;criminal justice&#8221; issues, just highlighted during last night&#8217;s Democratic Party presidential primary debate when Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) touted her work with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on the crime-abetting issue of &#8220;<a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/jailbreak-epidemic-gang-member-released-6k-bail-now-accused-raping-12-year-old-girl/">bail reform</a>,&#8221;continues unabated. Which brings us to prominent libertarian lawyer/legal commentator <a href="https://www.cato.org/people/clark-neily">Clark Neily</a>, who has been on a roll, of late. Neily, who spent years with the rabidly <a href="https://ij.org/center-for-judicial-engagement/">pro-judicial power</a> libertarian legal group <a href="https://ij.org">Institute for Justice,</a> now works for the equally <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/proper-judging-means-principled-engagement-not-judicial-deference">pro-judicial power</a> libertarian Cato Institute. Neily&#8217;s title at Cato is &#8220;Vice President for Criminal Justice&#8221; and, based on his recent musings, he appears to embody the zealous leftist/libertarian jailbreak alliance.
The precise target of Neily&#8217;s recent ire is the prosecutor. More specifically, Neily is convinced that far too many prosecutors become federal judges — and that not nearly enough criminal defense attorneys become federal judges. In a highly revealing but nonetheless sober-minded recognition of his core readership for such anti-prosecutorial musings, Neily has published on the subject at both <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/studies/are-disproportionate-number-federal-judges-former-government-advocates">Cato</a> and, just this week, at left-wing <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/too-many-prosecutors-federal-judiciary.html">Slate</a>. The latter piece goes so far as to call for an outright &#8220;moratorium&#8221; on the nomination of former prosecutors to the federal bench.
I am not a former prosecutor. But I do have the benefit of education at a top law school and the experience of serving as a law clerk for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. And I believe Neily is severely misguided in his anti-prosecutor crusade.
Crucially, Neily&#8217;s Cato <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/studies/are-disproportionate-number-federal-judges-former-government-advocates#summary-previous-studies">study</a> makes no attempt whatsoever to control for education, intellect, or legal credentials. To many lay observers, this may seem anodyne — after all, can&#8217;t former prosecutors and defense attorneys/public defenders, as classes of attorneys, be presumed to have roughly equivalent legal acumens and credentials? Well, no. For generations, gifted law students of all political stripes have seen the prosecutorial career path — be it via the Department of Justice (DOJ), local U.S. attorney&#8217;s offices, state attorneys general offices, or even local district attorneys — as a prominent avenue for vocational success. The DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/legal-careers/entry-level-attorneys">Honors Program</a> has long been viewed as one of the most prestigious entry-level attorney tracks in the nation, and scores of lawyers hoping to one day be considered for a federal judgeship have routinely sought U.S. attorney&#8217;s office experience as a means of padding their resumes and evincing a demonstrable commitment to public service. Again, this holds true for lawyers and judges of all political persuasions and partisan affiliations: As but two prominent examples for those on the Left, 2016 failed Barack Obama U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is a former federal prosecutor and current presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is a former California attorney general.
This is simply not nearly as broadly true for those who pursue careers in the criminal defense bar — be they in private practice or working as public defenders. Leftists and libertarians can gnash their teeth and wail all they&#8217;d like, but the reality, as I <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1176324820771819520">tweeted</a> last month, is that in no sane world is the median defense lawyer of the same acumen and credentials as the median prosecutor. Representing drug traffickers, gangbangers, and felons in possession of firearms is not a dream job. Again, my claim is that this holds true for prosecutors and the defense bar, viewed as a class — obviously, there will be innumerable individual dispensations to such a broad rule, when comparing class sizes of this magnitude. But anecdotally, based on (1) my own personal experience knowing many individuals who have become prosecutors and defense lawyers, (2) my own law clerk experience and thinking back to a comparison of the median prosecutor&#8217;s brief and oral argument versus the median defense attorney&#8217;s brief and oral argument, and (3) discussing the issue with other former federal appellate law clerk friends, I feel eminently comfortable making such a claim. We should feel comfortable establishing a rebuttable presumption that prosecutors, considered as a class, have superior legal credentials to defense attorneys. Based purely on my own experience, I cannot even begin to count the volume of public defender&#8217;s office legal briefs I read that were of an immensely shoddy quality.
At a bare minimum, libertarians and leftists who would seek to place a moratorium on nominating prosecutors to federal judgeships ought to be asked how they can be so sure that they are not sacrificing legal acumen or credentials. I understand that such logic is arguably circular — anti-prosecutor libertarians and leftists could respond that such a moratorium may prophylactically disincentivize smart law school graduates who may aspire for judgeships from pursuing prosecutorial careers. But the salient point is that the general prestige of many prosecutorial career paths is so deeply ingrained in our legal culture. That is not something that can be easily reversed, and I highly suspect the criminal defense bar and its apologists have no particularly compelling argument to offer for how they might be able to do so.
Prosecutors do not write our nation&#8217;s criminal statutes — they merely enforce them. To the extent leftists and libertarians — hooked as they are on the anachronistic talking points of &#8220;mass incarceration&#8221; and &#8220;low-level non-violent offenders&#8221; — have substantive issues with our criminal statutes, they ought to lobby policymakers. By all accounts, considering both <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/needs-leftists-gop-texas-gov-greg-abbott-endorses-radical-ban-box-pro-criminal-mandate-employers/">state-level initiatives</a> and the aforementioned First Step Act, the pro-jailbreak cabal is quite successful in its lobbying efforts. Pro-jailbreak forces are wrong, on the policy merits, but that is an issue that can be debated in the political space. But it would be dangerous for justice and the rule of law, absent pro-jailbreak forces&#8217; ability to overcome the rebuttable presumption about the credentials of disparate vocational classes, for such forces to also take out their frustrations as part of the judicial nominations process.

Judge gavel with Justice lawyers, Businesswoman in suit or lawyer, Advice and Legal services Concept.

HAMMER: In Defense Of Prosecutors

Constitution

Department of Justice

Federal Government

Guns

Homicide

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Kamala Harris

During Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate, Amy Klobuchar (D-WI) told debate moderator Marc Lacey that opioid manufacturers should be held responsible for the opioid epidemic. 
“The people that should pay for this, that should pay for the treatment, are the very people that got people hooked and killed them in the first place, and that is the people that are manufacturing these opioids,” said Klobuchar. 
Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) agreed with Klobuchar, stating that the opioid crisis would continue “until we hold those responsible accountable.”
But when Lacey asked Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) about what she would do about the opioid crisis, Harris declared that drug company executives should be sent to jail, calling it a “matter of justice.”
<blockquote>LACEY: Senator Harris, you want to hold the drug manufacturers that fueled the crisis accountable. Are you in favor of sending those drug company executives to jail?
HARRIS: I am. And I will tell you, as a former prosecutor, I do think of it as being a matter of justice and accountability because they are nothing more than some high-level dope dealers. They have been engaged &#8212; 
*Applause.*
HARRIS: And I’ve seen it happen before. I’ve taken on the pharmaceutical companies when I was attorney general of California and led the second largest department of justice. I’ve seen what they do. The biggest pharmaceutical companies, the eight biggest companies and insurance companies last year profited $72 billion on the backs of people like the families that we are talking about, that have been overwhelmed by this crisis, which is a public health epidemic. 
And they knew what they were doing, they were marketing false advertising, they knew what they were pushing in communities in states like Ohio, without any concern about the repercussions because they were profiting and making big bucks. And yes, they should be held accountable, this is a matter of justice. 
And so as president of the United States, I would ensure that the United States Department of Justice understands that you want to deal with who is really a criminal? Let’s end mass incarceration and end that failed war on drugs, and let’s go after these pharmaceutical companies for what they’ve been doing to destroy our country in states like Ohio. </blockquote>
Harris has previously been criticized for her failure to promote &#8220;justice&#8221; as Attorney General of California. 
On Monday, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-14/kamala-harris-offices-fought-payments-to-wrongly-convicted">Bloomberg</a> published a report showing that Kamala Harris’s office refused to pay a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape, and even tried to force him into joining the sex offender registry list. Gerald Schwartzbach, the man’s lawyer, told Bloomberg that Harris’ office “penalized an innocent man with technical arguments,” which he calls “contradictory to the whole purpose of the criminal justice system.”
Last August, as the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tulsi-gabbard-most-searched-name-google-once-again-paul-bois">Daily Wire</a> reported, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) became the most-searched Democratic presidential candidate on Google after she brought attention to Harris’ problematic record as a prosecutor. 
<blockquote>GABBARD: I want to bring the conversation back to the broken criminal justice system that is disproportionately negatively impacting black and brown people all across this country today. Now Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president.
But I’m deeply concerned about this record. There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.
She blocked evidence — she blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to do so. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California.</blockquote>

Kamala Harris: Jailing Drug Company Executives ‘A Matter Of Justice’

Amy Klobuchar

Beto O'Rourke

The forgotten American is the blue-collar taxpayer who attends church on Sundays. He toils diligently so that he can put bread on the table for his family and children, but he lives paycheck-to-paycheck on a tight budget. He is frustrated that neither major political party seems attuned to the quotidian trials and tribulations that necessarily come, in today&#8217;s society, with raising numerous children while fiscally constrained. Who will stand not with the cronyist interests of Silicon Valley or the corporatist interests of Wall Street, but for the economic interests of the forgotten American family man?
The forgotten American is the law-abiding patriot who has never had a skirmish with law enforcement more dire than a speeding ticket. He proudly exercises his Second Amendment right and owns firearms to protect home and hearth. But he also believes it is a core function of government to ensure law and order by locking up murderers, rapists, sex offenders, drug traffickers, burglars, and other appalling criminals. He is frustrated that neither major political party seems attuned to the fact that deterring crime and removing the worst of the worst from the streets is an indispensable tenet of the American social contract. Who will stand against the leftist/libertarian <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/trump-reportedly-regrets-passage-jailbreak-first-step-act-gullible-conservatives-supported/">jailbreak alliance</a>, and will stand athwart the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-dont-let-kim-kardashian-fool-you-america-josh-hammer">under-incarceration epidemic</a> that wreaks havoc on the safety of the forgotten, law-abiding American?
The forgotten American believes in sovereignty and the integrity of the nation-state. He accepts the truism that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-federal-government-has-no-more-important-josh-hammer">to lack borders is to lack a nation</a> itself and, as such, he opposes illegal immigration. He believes that the federal government&#8217;s response has been woefully inadequate to the phenomenon of augmented transnational criminal cartels trafficking economically motivated faux-asylee human migrants <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-smugglers-and-cartels-profited-23-billion-josh-hammer">for profit</a>. He is frustrated that neither major political party seems committed to deploying the resources necessary to protect the republic&#8217;s territorial and <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/media-willfully-ignores-connection-killer-drugs-illegal-immigration/">narcotics-related</a> integrity against the siege of military-style, Hezbollah-intertwined cartels. He is distressed that neither major political party seems attuned to those who oppose the social transformation without representation that is imposed via the diktats of judicial amnesty. Who will stand not with the open-borders lobby, but with the forgotten American who values the nation-state and wants to see criminal aliens deported en masse?
The forgotten American keeps his copy of the U.S. Constitution in his bedside nightstand. He has read this simple, straightforward document and he cherishes the unbounded political wisdom embedded therein. He is a big proponent of the Tenth Amendment and believes that politicians and lawless judges alike have been complicit in fundamentally distorting the original relationship between the states and federal government that James Madison once described in <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed45.asp">The Federalist No. 45</a>. But he has also read the Supremacy Clause of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi">Article VI</a> of the Constitution, and he therefore understands that sanctuary state and sanctuary city jurisdictions across the nation operate today in <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1179456465179942913">subversive, neo-Confederate</a> fashion. Who will stand against the modern-day analogue of John C. Calhoun-style thought and will instead stand for the uncountable forgotten American victims of sanctuary jurisdiction-abetted violent <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/washington-couple-sue-seattle-releasing-career-violent-criminal-savagely-beat/">crime</a>?
The forgotten American is both pro-science and pro-common sense. He knows from rudimentary biology, the <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8165/jewish/Chapter-1.htm#v27">Book of Genesis</a>, and observable human nature alike that there are two distinct genders: Male and female. He has immense compassion and sympathy for those suffering from gender dysphoria, but he believes in neither bestowing social affirmation upon mental illnesses nor in incentivizing doctors to violate the Hippocratic Oath via genital mutilation &#8220;surgery.&#8221; Furthermore, he worries greatly about the fact that biological males may well soon be permitted to enter his daughter&#8217;s high school girls&#8217; locker room with impunity. Who will stand not with the de-civilization agenda of those would seek to redefine and ultimately eviscerate God&#8217;s man/female biological complementarity, but with the forgotten American who believes in biological and biblical truth?

Border Wall

HAMMER: Who Will Stand For The Forgotten American?

Conservatism

LGBT

Transgender

On Tuesday, Southern California&#8217;s West Hollywood will be celebrating the grand opening of America&#8217;s first-ever cannabis cafe, similar to those found in Amsterdam.
Opening on Tuesday at 12 p.m on West Hollywood&#8217;s North La Brea Avenue, the Miley Cyrus-backed Lowell Cafe will be offering up a variety of eats and cannabis products for marijuana enthusiasts looking to transform their private recreation into nightlife.
“For over a century we’ve been forced to hide cannabis consumption out of public view, but that time is now over,” says the Lowell Farms’ website. “We’re proud to announce Lowell Café — America’s first cannabis cafe serving farm <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/category/food-and-beverage">fresh food</a>, coffee, juice and cannabis daily. Sit on our patio, order a meal, have a conversation and experience cannabis together.”
According to a <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/miley-cyrus-backed-cannabis-cafe-brings-amsterdam-to-hollywood-1.1323335">Bloomberg Report</a>, customers will be offered a variety of ways to enjoy their cannabis, including pre-rolled joints.
&#8220;The pot can be smoked in pre-rolled joints or vaped — even as the industry is grappling with a spike in lung damage and deaths linked to vaping,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;The cafe’s opening also offers an extension to the cannabis market, where sales are largely confined to dispensaries and online orders, and tests the appetite for a more open and public consumption of a product that’s still illegal in many jurisdictions.&#8221;
David Elias, co-founder of Lowell Herb Co., the cafe’s owner, told Bloomberg that Lowell Cafe will hopefully allow marijuana users the chance to enjoy cannabis outside the corners to which they have been formerly relegated.
“Cannabis consumers have always been relegated to getting their cannabis in a plastic bag while you can go to a dinner party with a beautiful bottle of wine,” said Elias. “People want to smoke a joint with their friends in a cafe like they can over a beer — not in the alley or in their car.”
However, Elias noted that the business will have to adapt in the given political climate. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed an executive order vowing to spend more than $20 million on a vaping awareness campaign (the cafe offers cannabis-laced vaping products).
&#8220;It’s a tricky situation,” Elias said. “It’s something we’re learning about everyday, and helping to form our decisions based off the information that’s available to us, which is very limited.”
Below are some photos of the establishment:
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</a> 
 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1EswaqhQOX/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">#LowellCafe is a welcoming space for those who are #cannabis connoisseurs and those who are canna-curious and looking to experience cannabis in a welcoming atmosphere. We will be opened to the public September 2019. Which aspect of the Lowell Cafe are you most excited for?</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lowellcafe/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Lowell Cafe</a> (@lowellcafe) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-08-12T18:08:11+00:00">Aug 12, 2019 at 11:08am PDT</time>
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 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B2222FABE8g/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">The first cafe in the the U.S. where cannabis can be legally purchased and consumed! Hope you’ll join us soon 🙏🏾❤️💪🏾. #lowellcafe #cannabiscafe #cannabiscommunity #womenincannabis</a>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/canna_queen71/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Chef Andrea Drummer</a> (@canna_queen71) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-09-26T02:09:46+00:00">Sep 25, 2019 at 7:09pm PDT</time>
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Since California legalized marijuana, parts of the state have seen a push for marijuana-themed lifestyle and retail options. Similar pot lounge proposals have popped up in San Francisco and Oakland. Since much of the state prohibits pot smoking in public places, the lounges would be an alternative social space.
The marijuana industry <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">beg</a><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/26066/marijuana-industry-stop-using-word-pot-because-it-paul-bois">an a campaign of political correctness</a> as well, advising people to stop using the word “pot” when referring to the drug because it’s an offensive term. According to <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-marijuana/2018/01/17/marijuana-industry-gets-blunt-stop-using-the-word-pot/">Anchorage Daily News</a>, the marijuana industry has grown very self-conscious of the stereotypical image of “the stoner” and wants to clean up the stigma.
“Marijuana still carries a stigma that surfaces with the use of old slang like pot and weed,” reported ADN in 2018. “For many, the words evoke an image of lazy, not-so-bright people who puff their lives away.”
The industry wishes people would start using the more scientifically-minded name “cannabis” instead.

The Country&#8217;s First Cannabis Cafe To Open In Los Angeles

America’s First Cannabis Cafe Prepares For West Hollywood Grand Opening

Earlier in September, residents living just outside Guadalajara began to complain of a horrid smell. Forensic scientists were brought in to determine the source and made a horrifying discovery.
Buried in a well were 119 black bags containing human remains. So far, scientists have pieced together body parts of 44 different bodies, all cut up. As the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-latin-america-49704720">reported</a>, there are still many body parts that have not been identified.
“A local organisation which searches for missing people has appealed to the government to send more specialists to assist with identification,” the outlet reported. “They say the local forensic department is overwhelmed and does not have the necessary skills to complete the operation.”
The outlet also reported that the Mexican state of Jalisco “is the heartland of one of Mexico&#8217;s most violent drug gangs and this is the second major find of bodies in the state this year.”
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/mexico-well-bodies-black-bags-human-remains">reported</a> that in May, at least 34 bodies were discovered at two different locations in the state. From Fox:
<blockquote>Prosecutors revealed Saturday that most of the remains were found buried at a ranch in Zapopan, a city in central Mexico next to Guadalajara.
Among the dead, 27 had been tied up and two had been identified, the attorney general of Jalisco, Gerardo Octavio Solis, reportedly said at a news conference. Solis added that the number could still rise as the investigation continued.
Solis said the skulls of seven other people and other human remains were discovered on the property of a house located in Guadalajara, Mexico&#8217;s second most densely populated city. Solis added that another body was recovered from the Tlajomulco municipality, in Jalisco in central-western Mexico.</blockquote>
The outlet reported that investigators were unsure how long the bodies had been buried.
Tens of thousands of people have disappeared as Mexico has attempted to crack down on drug cartels in the past 13 years. As Fox reported, families “with missing relatives reportedly rushed to officials in Jalisco asking for details on the bodies found.”
Last December, the BBC published <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46384405">an article</a> about a group of more than two dozen women who have come together to search for the some 40,000 missing people. From the BBC:
<blockquote>Most of the missing are thought to be dead. The women who form part of The Searchers are well aware of the statistics and in many cases what they are searching for is certainty.
Miriam Reyes, wearing a hat to shield her from the relentless sun of Sinaloa, is searching for her ex-husband who has been missing since 2015.
&#8220;My son needs a father, or at least his body to bury him,&#8221; she says.</blockquote>
The women, known as The Searchers, use shovels and pickaxes to dig in areas thought to be mass graves, using tips from locals who discover human remains on their property. Despite the extreme heat, the women search for their missing loved ones and the loved ones of people they don’t even know.
“People who are thought to have money are kidnapped for ransom. Young men are sometimes forcibly recruited to join criminal gangs. Or they are killed for belonging to a rival gang. Young women are abducted to be trafficked,” the BBC reported. “In most cases, the family will never find out what happened to those who disappeared.”

Graveyard

Mexican Officials Find 119 Bags Of Body Parts In Well

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, have received $17 million in private donations to launch the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, a facility dedicated to studying the potential of psychedelic drugs to treat a variety of diseases.
According to a <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/johns-hopkins-launches-center-for-psychedelic-research">press release</a> by Johns Hopkins, the research team hopes to study the efficacy of using psilocybin, aka magic mushrooms, to treat &#8220;opioid addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (formerly known as chronic Lyme disease), anorexia nervosa and alcohol use in people with major depression.&#8221;
Psychedelics are a type of hallucinogenic drug that create &#8220;unique and profound changes of consciousness over the course of several hours,&#8221; the press release notes.
Paul B. Rothman, dean of the medical faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says that Johns Hopkins researchers &#8220;have shown that psychedelics have real potential as medicine, and this new center will help us explore that potential.&#8221;
In 2016, researchers at Johns Hopkins conducted a double-blind study of the effects of magic mushrooms on cancer patients with existential anxiety and depression.
According to <a href="https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/12/01/hallucinogen-treats-cancer-depression-anxiety/">HUB</a>, a research blog managed by Johns Hopkins, the study showed that &#8220;six months after the final session of treatment, about 80% of participants continued to show clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety, with about 60% showing symptom remission into the normal range.&#8221;
In a 2010 study published in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881110378371">Journal of Psychopharmacology</a>, patients given MDMA, a type of psychedelic drug, to use for treatment-resistant PTSD experienced significantly decreased symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
According to the <a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/common_veterans.asp">Department of Veterans Affairs</a>, about 15 percent of veterans who served in the Vietnam War experience PTSD in any given year, and between 11 and 20 percent of veterans who served in the Iraq war experience PTSD in any given year.
A Lancet Psychiatry study, which focused specifically on PTSD in military veterans, police officers and firefighters, found that MDMA &#8220;dramatically reduced&#8221; symptoms of post-traumatic stress, according to <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/05/09/psychedelic-drug-provides-relief-for-veterans-with-ptsd/">Military Times</a>.
Dr. Michael Mithoefer, a lead researcher of the study, believes that such research is important to help military veterans and others who struggle with post-traumatic stress, because nearly &#8220;one in two PTSD patients cannot tolerate or do not respond adequately to existing treatments.&#8221;

magic_mushrooms

Johns Hopkins University Launches Facility To Research Magic Mushrooms

Mental Illness

Police in Virginia just orchestrated the largest drug bust in the state in the past 15 years, arresting more than 30 people suspected of amassing “enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people,” <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fentanyl-drug-bust-investigators-seize-enough-fentanyl-to-kill-14-million-people-in-massive-bust/">according to CBS News</a>.
The outlet reported that the massive bust was called “Operation Cookout” by police working the case and included the seizing of “over 30 kilograms of fentanyl, 30 kilograms of heroin, five kilograms of cocaine and over $700,000.” Police also seized about 24 firearms in the bust.
“This opioid crisis is not an issue that is happening someplace else, or to someone else. It&#8217;s happening right here in Norfolk,&#8221; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, G. Zachary Terwilliger, said during a press conference last Thursday.
“We&#8217;re not talking about $500 and $600 deals, we&#8217;re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars,&#8221; he added. &#8220;You know, $20,000 in the trunk of somebody&#8217;s car in a gym bag, you know, behind a local restaurant.&#8221;
Thirty-five suspects have been arrested, while four more are on the run.
“The last thing we want is for the U.S. Postal Service to become the nation&#8217;s largest drug dealer and there are people way above my pay grade working on that, but absolutely it&#8217;s about putting pressure on the Chinese,&#8221; Terwilliger said at his press conference, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/30/us/virginia-fentanyl-drug-bust/index.html">reported</a> by CNN.
The outlet reported that a “grand jury charged 39 co-conspirators with 106 counts for their involvement in an alleged drug trafficking conspiracy that began in March 2016, according to the indictment.”
“Operation Cookout” spanned three states and involved one person who “ordered fentanyl from Shanghai and had it delivered to Virginia through the mail,” CBS reported.
CNN added that more than “120 law enforcement officers from 30 law enforcement agencies in Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas executed the three-day targeted arrest operation dubbed Operation Cookout.”
The suspects allegedly purchased drugs from Mexico, California, and New York and brought them to Virginia, where they then allegedly “transported the drugs using hidden traps in privately owned vehicles, semi-trailers, trucks, and recreational vehicles,” CNN reported.
The outlet also reported that the suspects used Facebook and encrypted communications apps such as FaceTime and WhatsApp in order to avoid detection. “Some suspects switched phones regularly and used prepaid cell phones that did not need a subscriber&#8217;s name,” the outlet reported.
Hampton Police Chief Terry Sult said at the press conference that other dealers should be aware.
“If you&#8217;re out there, you&#8217;re using firearms, you&#8217;re dealing drugs and you&#8217;re hurting people in our communities, this is the group of people that&#8217;s coming after you,&#8221; he said, according to CBS. &#8220;And we&#8217;re relentless.&#8221;

Alcohol and opioids a deadly combination

35 People Arrested In Virginia For Having ‘Enough Fentanyl To Kill 14 Million People’

Virginia

As I&#8217;ve made clear in recent pieces on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50612/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">addiction epidemic</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50201/khan-setting-record-straight-sharif-khan">deinstitutionalization</a>, I remain fiercely critical of the myopic, misguided progressive policies at play in the current homeless and addiction crisis in California. Still, meaningful faith won&#8217;t allow me to disregard the suffering right in front of me. I&#8217;m reminded of a quote from Dostoevsky in &#8220;Brothers Karamazov&#8221;:
<blockquote>Brothers, have no fear of men&#8217;s sin. Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth.</blockquote>
It echoes a beautiful line from 2 Timothy 1:7:
<blockquote>For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.</blockquote>
It&#8217;s far too easy to pretend to know what may have led one down the treacherous path of addiction. The truth is, we often have no idea what siren songs of suffering and despair guide one to make such a terrible choice.
I’ll give just one anecdote to illustrate my point: One of my dearest friends over the last 20 years was addicted to heroin and alcohol some 10 years ago. What compelled him toward such addictions? His own father shot him up with heroin on a small, rural farm up north when my friend was a mere 15-year-old kid. So, again, we often just don&#8217;t know, and a measured kind of compassion becomes imperative, especially from a religious vantage point.
My Own Street View of the Crisis
I&#8217;ve spent a lot of time walking the wild streets of Los Angeles in my almost two decades here. In my many strolls, I&#8217;ve gotten to know some of the many homeless addicts that stumble through the neighborhoods around me. Here are a few of their stories in brief.
Melinda
I first met Melinda more than a decade ago outside of a Rite Aid. She has a genuinely sweet disposition completely at odds with her circumstances. She&#8217;s almost candid in her defeat. She doesn&#8217;t try any of the typical hustles when she sees me. There is no pitiable glance or mention of money. She just asks how I&#8217;m doing and I do the same. She had once gotten clean enough from heroin addiction to land a job at an animal clinic. She looked great, rejuvenated. A few months later, she was living out of a car more strung-out than ever.
These days, she&#8217;s doused in haggard makeup stumbling through the streets with a noticeable limp. She now openly sells herself for a fix. It&#8217;s absolutely heartbreaking to witness. So it goes.
Raj
Raj used to panhandle outside of a local Trader Joe&#8217;s. I&#8217;d sometimes grab him a sandwich or a soda. He&#8217;s also Punjabi. He says he ended up on the streets after his wife introduced him to meth. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s always difficult to gauge the veracity of the stories an addict tells. These days he takes what he can get – heroin, meth, anything.
Like many other homeless addicts, Raj also subsistence deals – that is, he deals simply to maintain his habit. The other day he jokingly asked me if I was looking for anything in particular. I pretended I didn&#8217;t hear him and wished him well. I also know that the dealers higher up in the sinister food chain use addicts as dealers now because <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50612/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">Prop 47</a> reduced felony possession to a misdemeanor. The dealers know they can spread their contraband into manageable portions among subsistence dealers with little fear of legal reprisal.
As if fate conspires in its own mercurial ways, Raj and Melinda are a kind of couple at the moment. I see them together all the time, pushing their lonely carts down the various boulevards. It&#8217;s inscrutable and tragic to witness.
Danny
Danny harbors all the broken mannerisms of a homeless addict. It&#8217;s as though Atlas stones have broken him down into some wasted state of subservience, his head permanently bent down in some derelict act of penance.
Danny used to live in a van a few blocks down from where I live. Like so many other heroin addicts, he thought he could manage his addiction. Recovering heroin addicts will <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9huWlXFA1s">tell you over and over again</a> that the reason why heroin&#8217;s grip is so insidious is that it begins as a gentle breeze. The first few hits are manageable. The high simply softens the hard world a bit. One is convinced they only need it once or twice a month if at all. Almost always, within a year or less, they&#8217;re in the throes of full-blown addiction, using multiple times a day.
Danny always seems to be on the verge of tears whenever I talk to him. Today is no different. When I ask if he&#8217;s seen his 7-year-old son recently, he simply breaks down and weeps. I mention rehab for the umpteenth time. He finally looks up at me with a profound sense of dejection. It&#8217;s as though I’ve asked him to consider climbing to the moon.
Sometimes objectivity is only available at the bottom of the proverbial pit. Only then do we see the full view of our self-destruction and our suffering. It&#8217;s why my friends who attend AA insist that one often has to hit rock bottom before genuine change can occur. How much farther down Melinda, Raj and Danny must descend is beyond me. For many, there is no bottom. It&#8217;s impossible not to feel for them though, regardless of the terrible choices they&#8217;ve made. The only respite I can find is my firm belief that they remain in Gods hands, as do we all.
More from Sharif Khan: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50612/khan-addiction-fuels-homelessness-crisis-not-lack-sharif-khan">Addiction Fuels The Homelessness Crisis, Not Lack Of Housing Or Jobs</a>

Homeless Skid Row

KHAN: A Brief View From The Streets Of The Addiction Epidemic In California

Homelessness

Los Angeles

Leon Houghton, a resident of Bowie, Maryland, spent nearly three months in jail after airport customs officials mistook his bottles of honey from Jamaica for liquid meth.
&#8220;A man says he was locked up for months after customs officials at a Maryland airport accused him of smuggling meth in his suitcase — but that &#8216;meth&#8217; was actually honey,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Man-Spends-Months-in-Jail-After-Honey-Mistaken-for-Meth-at-BWI-558364211.html">NBC Washington</a>. &#8220;Leon Houghton said he traveled through Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Airport in December after a trip to Jamaica. He came back with jars of honey. Houghton says he was excited to drink the honey in his tea. But he never got that chance.&#8221;
A spokesperson for the Anne Arundel State’s Attorneys Office <a href="https://www.azfamily.com/news/us_world_news/man-spends-days-in-jail-after-honey-mistaken-for-liquid/article_79e7325b-f1f1-560d-88ff-7f6c188b94d7.html">told reporters</a> that the arrest came when a trained drug-sniffing dog alerted police to a &#8220;dangerous substance&#8221; in Houghton&#8217;s luggage, which apparently tested positive for methamphetamine.
&#8220;A specially trained drug-sniffing dog was alerted to the presence of a controlled dangerous substance, and a preliminary test done by the police officers further tested positive for a controlled dangerous substance,&#8221; said the spokesperson. &#8220;The confirmatory laboratory test showed there was no controlled dangerous substance inside the honey.&#8221;
Haughton was then taken into police custody on felony drug charges as he protested his innocence.
&#8220;I&#8217;m a hundred percent sure I don&#8217;t have no drugs. I have honey. So they take me to jail and lock me up. I spent, like, three months in jail,&#8221; Houghton told NBC. &#8220;They cannot give me no bond because it&#8217;s too much drugs and it came through the airport. I&#8217;m trying to tell them I don&#8217;t have no drugs. I have honey.&#8221;
The Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney&#8217;s Office said the bottles had to be shipped to a lab in Georgia since the Maryland crime lab did not have the available equipment to test liquids. For that, Houghton languished in jail for 82 days. Since Houghton is not U.S. citizen, the arrest put him at risk of being deported – not to mention the stress his family endured as they waited for his release.
Eventually, the charges were dropped, though officials have yet to apologize to Houghton for leaving his life in ruins. He has since lost his job as a cleaner and watched his credit score dramatically decrease due to the bills that piled up. Friends have even cut off contact.
&#8220;My kids are stressed out, my mom. Everybody was stressed out over everything. It&#8217;s a lot of stuff I&#8217;m going through,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Nobody contacted me. Nobody tell me sorry, nobody do nothing.&#8221;
Customs and Border Protection officials simply told NBC Washington that they are &#8220;reviewing procedures&#8221; while providing no information. Houghton still has not been issued an apology despite his story prompting massive outrage on social media.
&#8220;I hope his compensation is enough that he doesn&#8217;t have to work again. This ruined his life and his reputation. Three months for an official test is outrageous,&#8221; said one Twitter user.
&#8220;He lost his 2 jobs. There&#8217;s No compensation for losing his jobs, jailed for 82 days &#8230; for NOTHING. The 3 bottles were indeed HONEY never Liquid Meth. The man got his credit messed up. It Never takes 82 freaking days to get Honey tested. The miscarriage of Justice against POC,&#8221; said another user.
&#8220;When this happens the government should be forced to fix everything; his job, his credit and anything they messed up!!! Plus &#8230; compensate him up to 1 million dollars for the days of his freedom lost! And fire all employees involved!&#8221; said another.

Honey fair in Moscow

Maryland Man Spends 82 Days In Jail When Police Mistake Honey For Liquid Meth. Officials Still Have Not Apologized.

What at first glance appeared to be a cooler filled with bags of frozen ice pops was actually a cooler filled with 9.21 pounds of methamphetamine in colorful bags designed to throw off authorities.
Fox 17 Nashville <a href="https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/92-pounds-of-methamphetamine-disguised-as-ice-pops-seized">reported</a> that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confiscated the methamphetamine this past weekend after a canine unit found the drugs during a highway checkpoint in Blythe, California. The agents were from CBP’s Yuma Sector in Yuma, Arizona, but were stationed in California. The agents were conducting an immigration check on Highway 78 when they discovered the drugs.
“Police say inside the car were a lawfully admitted permanent resident of the U.S. and a U.S. citizen,” Fox 17 reported. “The 28-year-old female driver and her 38-year-old male passenger were arrested.”
The two people were arrested for transporting the methamphetamine, CBP said in <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/yuma-sector-agents-find-meth-disguised-ice-pops">a press release</a> regarding the bust.
“Sunday afternoon, a Border Patrol canine assigned to the primary inspection lane alerted to an odor it was trained to detect emitting from a Toyota Corolla. Agents referred the vehicle to the secondary inspection area, where they searched a cooler containing brightly colored bags disguised as frozen ice pops. They were determined to be methamphetamine with an approximate weight of 9.21 pounds,” CBP wrote.
CBP included in its release that the individuals were charged “by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt.” As such, the two arrested are presumed innocent until more evidence determines their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
KTLA5 <a href="https://ktla.com/2019/08/26/arizona-border-agents-arrest-couple-allegedly-transporting-meth-disguised-as-ice-pops/">estimated</a> the street value of the drugs to be around $20,000.
CBP agents and police have discovered drugs hidden in many odd ways. In early August, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50368/woman-arrested-theft-police-find-meth-her-vagina-hank-berrien">reported</a> that a young woman in Louisiana was questioned about stealing $5,000 from a man with whom she was staying. The police reported stated that during “a consensual search of Rolland’s person, a female corrections officer located $6,233 and a clear plastic bag containing approximately 1 gram of methamphetamine inside Rolland’s vagina.”
Last week, CBP officers in Arizona found nearly two pounds of fentanyl in her undergarments. The Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/23/border-patrol-arizona-fentanyl-underwear/">reported</a> that a canine detected an odor on the woman as she attempted to cross the border. Agents found five packages of fentanyl pills in her underwear, estimated to be worth nearly $21,000.
Also in August, CBP agents discovered nearly four tons of marijuana hidden in a tractor-trailer delivering jalapeno peppers. Yet again, a canine alerted officers to an odor that led to the discovery.
In May, police also found meth in the vagina of a South Carolina woman after she was pulled over for a broken taillight. The officer who pulled her over happened to be a K-9 unit and the dog smelled drugs. The woman confessed that she had five grams of methamphetamine hidden in her vagina. Another gram was found elsewhere in her car.
Still, the California man who hid meth <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/man-arrested-theft-prosthetic-leg-hide-meth-article-1.3679146">in his prosthetic leg</a> back in 2017 seems to win the most unusual place to hide drugs.

US Border Patrol Receives Asylum Seekers In Texas&#8217; Rio Grande Valley

Border Patrol Seizes Nearly 10 Pounds Of Methamphetamine Disguised As Ice Pops

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Homelessness has skyrocketed in the state of California. Los Angeles in particular has witnessed a massive increase. Between 2018-2019 the county&#8217;s homeless population grew by 16%. The city of Los Angeles experienced a similar phenomenon as its population grew at a slightly slower rate. The thousands of new people calling the streets their home has far surpassed the city&#8217;s sanitary capabilities. The sheer amount of people now eating and defecating in the California heat has allowed previously rare diseases to proliferate. It has reached the point where there is a real threat of a bubonic plague outbreak occurring in Los Angeles.
All politicians agree that the best way to combat the threat is by solving the homelessness problem. Some politicians have blamed Los Angeles county&#8217;s notoriously high real estate prices as the source of the crisis. While others claim that the homeless population is a direct consequence of California&#8217;s failed policies on managing the mentally ill and drug-addicted. There have been many reports such as the one commissioned by the National Coalition for the Homeless that supports the latter group&#8217;s claim. The <a href="https://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Substance-Abuse-and-Homelessness.pdf">National Coalition for the Homeless </a>study found that 64% of the homeless population is dependent on some inebriating substance. The same report concludes that &#8220;[s]ubstance abuse often leads to homelessness.&#8221;
<a href="https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2015-AHAR-Part-1.pdf">Housing and Urban Development</a> conducted a similar study pertaining to homelessness and found that 45% of the homeless population in America possesses some degree of mental illness.
The increased homeless population has caused an influx of trash and feces on the streets of LA. According to a study by <a href="https://act.reformcalifornia.org/Report_Reform_RAT_03-f3a.pdf">Reform California</a>, this has allowed for the state&#8217;s rat population to flourish, which, in turn, has lead to an increased risk of rodent-borne disease.
Reform California says that there have been 124 confirmed cases of Typhus in Los Angeles County. Typhus has not been the only medieval disease to reappear. The bubonic plague — the same one that wiped out a third of Europe over 600 years ago — could be present in LA today, according to <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/05/22/mountains-of-trash-in-la-could-cause-bubonic-plague-outbreak-expert/">The New York Post.</a> The Bubonic plague has been nearly non-existent in LA with only three cases of it in the past 40 years, but experts believe that there could already be plague victims present in the city.
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has admitted that the state has a problem. &#8220;Our homeless crisis has increasingly become a public health crisis &#8230; And now, typhus [is] in Los Angeles. Typhus. That’s a medieval disease. In California. In 2019,&#8221; he said. He is expected to sign <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB932">AB-932</a> which is a bill to produce more shelters for homeless people. The legislative piece recently passed the state senate, but how much it will help address the complex problem remains to be seen.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50785/update-after-viral-video-violent-attack-san-fran-james-barrett">After Viral Video Of Violent Attack, San Fran Judge Issues New Order On Homeless Suspect</a>

US-SOCIAL-HOMELESS

Medieval Diseases Are Present In Los Angeles

Alcohol

California

Gavin Newsom

On Friday, businessman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang gave a speech in Concord, New Hampshire. During the speech, Yang stated that if elected president, he would &#8220;pardon everyone who is in jail for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/andrew-yang-vows-to-mass-pardon-all-people-in-prison-for-nonviolent-marijuana-offenses">Fox News</a> reports that Yang also said: &#8220;Americans now recognize just how broken our mass incarceration system is and how much progress we need to make.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
On Yang&#8217;s official <a href="https://www.yang2020.com/policies/legalization-of-marijuana/">website</a>, he makes his policy ideas on the legalization of marijuana abundantly clear:
<blockquote>Marijuana is still considered a controlled substance by federal law. Thousands are in jail for marijuana-related offenses, particularly people of color. Yet marijuana is now legal for adult use in 11 states and the District of Columbia, and 33 states have legalized medical marijuana in some form.
We need to resolve the ambiguity and legalize marijuana at the federal level. This would improve safety, social equity, and generate tens of billions of dollars in new revenue based on legal cannabis businesses.</blockquote>
His website further states:
<blockquote>As president, I will &#8230; Support the full legalization of marijuana at the federal level and remove it from the controlled substances list &#8230; Expunge the federal convictions of all marijuana-related use or possession offenses &#8230; Identify non-violent drug offenders for probation and potential early release.</blockquote>
Friday isn&#8217;t the first time Yang has spoken about such a proposal. In April, he stated at the National Action Network (NAN) conference that he plans to legalize marijuana, issue a pardon on April 20, 2021 to those in jail for nonviolent drug-based offenses (4/20 being a reference to weed culture), and give the newly freed individuals a &#8220;high-five &#8230; on the way out of jail.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndrewYang</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NANconv2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NANconv2019</a>: &#8220;I would legalize marijuana and then I would pardon everyone who&#8217;s in jail for a nonviolent drug-related offense. I would pardon them on April 20, 2021 and I would high-five them on the way out of jail.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/wqELzL9TwO">pic.twitter.com/wqELzL9TwO</a>
— The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1113507708093718529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
While Andrew Yang has been struggling to connect with a larger audience, currently sitting at just 1.5% according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClearPolitics</a> average of polls, he has an enthusiastic cult following. He was also the ninth candidate to qualify for the next set of Democratic debates in September by reaching the 130,000 unique donor requirement, as well as reaching &#8220;2% or more [support] in at least four separate polls released between June 28 and August 28 and conducted by approved pollsters,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/andrew-yang-democratic-debate/index.html">CNN</a>.
Since the legalization of sales of recreational marijuana in Colorado, which began in 2014, the <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data">taxes and fees</a> collected by the state have risen each year. As of July 2019, the state has collected approximately $1.069 billion in taxes and fees on the sale and distribution of marijuana.
According to the <a href="https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2019.html">Prison Policy Initiative</a> (PPI), &#8220;451,000 [people] are incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses on any given day,&#8221; approximately 198,000 of whom are in state prisons, 81,000 under the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and 118,000 not convicted in local jails.
The organization notes that in total, there are &#8220;2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 109 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S.&#8221;
The Daily Wire reached out to Yang’s team for further comment regarding his position on drug legalization and low-level drug offenders, but as of publication, we have not received a reply.

Andrew Yang

Dem Candidate Yang: ‘Pardon Everyone Who Is In Jail For Nonviolent Marijuana-Related Offenses’

Democratic Party

Marijuana

The Trump campaign dug up an old video of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on Wednesday that shows him calling his district &#8220;drug infested,&#8221; which comes after the media and Democratic Party repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump for calling Baltimore drug- and rat-infested over the weekend.
During a congressional hearing in 1999, Cummings said: &#8220;This morning I left my community of Baltimore, a drug infested area&#8221; where people were &#8220;walking around like zombies.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings in 1999: &#8220;This morning I left my community of Baltimore, a DRUG INFESTED area&#8221; where people are &#8220;walking around like zombies.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/MGUDfXL7UC">pic.twitter.com/MGUDfXL7UC</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1156611903231352833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The newly uncovered clip comes after Trump repeatedly slammed Cummings over the weekend for the poor conditions in his district.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,&#8221; Trump tweeted. His district is considered the Worst in the USA as proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8230;.As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155073965880172544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155076476930338816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Trump made the remarks after he watched a &#8220;FOX &amp; Friends&#8221; segement on Fox News on Saturday in which journalist Kimberly Klacik toured the Baltimore area and filmed broken down homes and residents complaining about the conditions in the district.
Here are some of the videos Klacik tweeted out:
&#8220;Not only are @RepCummings constituents NOT afraid of Trump, they are on board with his immigration policies. Residents are upset that illegal immigrants are taking the only jobs in the area. City contractors paying the illegals cash, leaving residents with no hope.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Not only are <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> constituents NOT afraid of Trump, they are on board with his immigration policies. Residents are upset that illegal immigrants are taking the only jobs in the area. City contractors paying the illegals cash, leaving residents with no hope. More to come.. <a href="https://t.co/OZRZH9Fvhg">pic.twitter.com/OZRZH9Fvhg</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154107910579990534?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;He claims to care about children &amp; their future, however in West Baltimore you will find abandoned homes on every block. Many filled with trash, rodents &amp; homeless looking for shelter. Children live on these streets seen here. This district belongs to @RepCummings.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">He claims to care about children &amp; their future, however in West Baltimore you will find abandoned homes on every block. Many filled with trash, rodents &amp; homeless looking for shelter. Children live on these streets seen here. This district belongs to <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a>. More to come.. <a href="https://t.co/8z7tfIHU0q">pic.twitter.com/8z7tfIHU0q</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154392199691460615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Let&#8217;s walk through a typical abandoned row house in West Baltimore. You will find at least one of these on every street. According to residents, there is an uptick in homeless thanks to the increase in drug inventory post 2015 riots. This is 
@RepCummings district, more to come&#8230;&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Let&#8217;s walk through a typical abandoned row house in West Baltimore. You will find at least one of these on every street. According to residents, there is an uptick in homeless thanks to the increase in drug inventory post 2015 riots. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> district, more to come&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/KOu87Mqlys">pic.twitter.com/KOu87Mqlys</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154490922110980096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;8 blocks of row houses in West Baltimore are currently using water through a system hooked to the fire hydrants. Please listen to Michelle, a life long resident, discuss the water &amp; her message to city officials. This is @RepCummings 
district.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">8 blocks of row houses in West Baltimore are currently using water through a system hooked to the fire hydrants. Please listen to Michelle, a life long resident, discuss the water &amp; her message to city officials. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> district. More to come&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/jBHBzYxtaA">pic.twitter.com/jBHBzYxtaA</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154744775037374465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Residents constantly call the city to remove trash, no one shows up for months. Rats &amp; roaches are a problem in almost every home. Illegal immigrants at the border live in better conditions than Americans in West Baltimore. This is @RepCummings district.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Residents constantly call the city to remove trash, no one shows up for months. Rats &amp; roaches are a problem in almost every home. Illegal immigrants at the border live in better conditions than Americans in West Baltimore. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> district.
More to come&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/rso3yxWh5f">pic.twitter.com/rso3yxWh5f</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154796324262424580?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
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