DESPERATE MOVES: VIGILANTES, DRUG LEGALIZATION GIVEN LIGHT

Two unthinkables have happened since drug lords took control of Juarez
last year: There's serious talk of a vigilante uprising, and there's
an actual debate about legalizing drugs in the U.S.

It's not the Old West anymore. But there's talk of taking the law into
one's hands in Juarez. And this is not Denmark, which has lenient drug
laws we never even considered.

These topics would never arise if there were not such a violent
atmosphere right across our border.

Somebody, somewhere ... somehow, has to stop the rampant
violence.

Shocking numbers have brought these two taboo topics to open air:
1,600-plus killed gangland-style in Juarez last year -- and the count
is some three dozen more through the first three weeks of 2009.

Now, there may or may not be an actual Juarez Citizens Command
vigilante group that is threatening to kill a criminal day if there's
no order in Juarez by July 5.

The group claims it is funded by Juarez businessmen who will no longer
put up with the kidnappings, extortions, theft and murders going on
daily.

Meanwhile, El Paso was all worked up this month when South-West city
Rep. Beto O'Rourke added these 12 words to a City Council resolution
to help the citizens of Juarez however we can. O'Rourke's amendment
said, "supporting an honest, open, national debate on ending the
prohibition on narcotics."

At the time, all eight members of City Council voted aye on the
resolution, including the amendment. Mayor John Cook quickly vetoed
it. And in a second vote a week later, Council decided to let the veto
stand. It raised that much of a two-way debate.

Being a vigilante is wrong, and won't work. There must be order in the
law.

We don't support drug legalization, either, but we agree that there's
nothing wrong with asking our federal government to address our
situation, as did City Council on its first vote.

We are at the point where we have to do something. Frustration in El
Paso and Juarez has reached such levels that taboo subjects are
actually being given consideration by people who would not have
thought of discussing them before.