Arizona – the kidnap capital of the US
Arizona is a dangerous place to visit these days. It’s become the kidnap capital of the United States as a wave of violence associated with the raging drug wars in Mexico has swept across the border and into America.
More than one abduction a day is reported to the police, and they know that represents a small percentage of the real total. These can be extremely brutal crimes. Victims are usually badly beaten and their kidnappers threaten to cut of fingers, hands or feet whilst they are calling relatives to demand ransoms.
But still most of these crimes go completely unreported because both the victims and the perpetrators tend to be drug dealers linked to the Mexican cartels or members of rival people smuggling gangs.
On Channel 4 News tomorrow you can hear an interview with a kidnap victim who was targeted because he was selling used cars to human traffickers. And listen to the distressing call from a drug dealer who was abducted by a rival dealer and almost had his hand chopped off before police rescued him.
Kidnappers always tell relatives not to call the police, but the cops insist that no victim has been killed after they got involved. Yet.
All the police officers I spoke to in both Tucson and Phoenix were at pains to stress that these kidnappings don’t represent a real threat to law abiding citizens of Arizona. And they should not put people off travelling to Arizona, which I think may be my favourite state in the union and well worth a visit.
“As long as you are not coming to deal drugs or smuggle immigrants then you’ll have a grand time in Arizona” said Sgt Tommy Thompson of the Phoenix Police Dept.
But you may not have such a great time if you are or look Hispanic. Not if you stray into Maricopa County anyway, where “America’s Toughest Sheriff” rules the roost.
He thinks that the greatest law enforcement problem in Arizona is not the Mexican drug cartels but illegal immigrants. And he is determined to send as many of them back to Mexico as he can. So anyone who is stopped by the police for even the most minor of offenses (don’t drive with a broken brake light) has their immigration status checked.
Even the assistant chief of police in nearby Tucson told me that he feels nervous when he drives through Maricopa County because although Roberto A. Villasenor is a third generation American his Hispanic looks mean he could be mistaken for an illegal.
Now civil rights leaders in Washington have decided Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s polices constitute racial profiling and are trying to force him to change.
That would be a relief to the other law enforcement official in the state who think his obsession with immigration is distracting from the serious fight against the drug cartels. And a relief to all the perfectly legal Mexican immigrants who live in Maricopa County.
But they can’t shut down his very unique prison where he makes the American prisoners sleep outdoors in tents and wear pink underwear.
You can hear an interview with Sheriff Joe and see inside his remarkable prison as well as watching clips from his very own reality TV show “Smile – You’re Under Arrest” on Channel 4 News over the Easter weekend.
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