Gunfire Hits El Paso City Hall--So This Is A Safe Border Town?

From The El Paso Times and FAIR:

Gunfire hitting City Hall prompts Texas AG to ask for more troops on border


Times staff reports

Posted: 06/30/2010 01:59:31 PM MDT





A bullet fired from a gun battle in Juarez struck and penetrated the wall of El Paso Assistant City Manager Pat Adauto's office, left between two shelves on her wall. Juarez and the area where the gun fight took place can be seen out the window of Adauto's office. (Mark Lambie/El Paso Times)

Gunshots strike El Paso City Hall

Mexican authorities: Federal agents could have fired bullets that struck City HallBallistics tests run: Workers at City Hall unfazed by shots that hit buildingGunfire from Juárez usually heard, not seenRaw video: City Manager Joyce Wilson comments on bullets that hit City HallRaw video: City Hall hit by bulletsCity reps distressed over shots striking City Hall apparently from JuárezShots apparently fired from Juárez pelt City Hall, enter officeUpdated: Several shots, apparently from Juárez, struck City Hall›› Photos: Shots strike City Hall



EL PASO - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today demanded that President Obama send more troops to the Texas-Mexico border and used the shots that hit El Paso City Hall as an example of increased violence on the border.



Abbott said in a letter that the seven shots that hit City Hall in El Paso were an example of the violence that is plaguing the border area and that sending 1,200 National Guard soldiers to the entire U.S.-Mexico border is not enough.



He also cited the violence in Juarez and said that Americans lives are at risk.



"More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juárez this year as a war continues relentlessly between the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels," he told Obama.



He also said the "time for talk has passed."



Here is the letter by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott:



The White House



1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW



Washington, DC 20500



Dear Mr. President,



Deadly violence from drug cartels and transnational gangs in Mexico is knocking on the United States' door with ever increasing frequency.



Yesterday, gunfire from the cartels pierced that threshold and struck City Hall in El Paso. Fortunately no one was injured or killed. But that good fortune was not the result of effective border control - it was mere luck that the bullets struck buildings rather than bodies.



Luck and good fortune are not effective border enforcement policies. The shocking reality of cross border gunfire proves the cold reality: American lives are at risk. As the attached news article notes: "More than 1,300 people have been murdered in Juárez this year as a war continues relentlessly between the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels." Americans must be protected as this deadly war bulges at our border.



Law enforcement officials



Members of the New Mexico National Guard, Spc. Rolinda Apodaca, foreground, and Sgt. Janilee Whiterock, look out toward the border just west of Columbus, N.M. (Times file photo)with the Texas Department of Public Safety and your own U.S. Customs and Border Protection will reveal the hard truth. Our state is under constant assault from illegal activity threatening a porous border.

The time for talk has passed. The time for action is now. The need is urgent. Each day that passes increases the likelihood that an American life will be lost because of the federal government's failure to secure the border.



This threat demands immediate and effective action by your Administration to secure our border. As the Attorney General of Texas, I urge you to make border security your top priority so that no more innocent lives are lost to border violence.