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Anonymous Finally Wises Up

What a lovely, humanitarian idea – use the power of the internet to help bring down the drug cartels in Mexico. A lovely idea, until one of Anonymous’ members was captured by the Zeta cartel. In order to secure his release, Anonymous canceled their plans for a data dump about the Zetas to take place today. Anonymous has announced the release of their kidnapped member and said ”We can say that, while bruised, he is alive and well.”

The Latin America branch of Anonymous had threatened to release the names of “loyal servants” of the Zeta cartel – taxi drivers, journalists, police officers, others - who work for the cartel or protect them. They hoped to prompt arrests, saying they were “fed up” with the cartel’s activities. But the kidnapping of their member reminded them that with the cartels they were not attacking a bank or releasing the home phone numbers of state troopers, nice law-abiding people all. They were dealing with people who would track them down and kill them and anyone near them, and would do it slowly, painfully and sadistically.

A Texas hacker posted on Twitter that “I will be continuing the fight against the cartels,” and posted on Pastebin that, while avoiding naming names, he would send information to the German newspaper Der Spiegel. “In the meantime, I will be going after other cartels with the assistance of those who have come forward with new information and offers of assistance.” It appears that the Texas hacker, whose name we are choosing to withhold, doesn’t grasp the fact that these cartels have employees in the United States. He is assuming that the cartels don’t have the sophistication to track him, and is equally incapable of understanding that he may have placed others with his fairly common name at risk.  And if he is using a pseudonym, he has placed totally innocent people at risk.

I have been criticized for criticizing Anonymous and LulzSec, for saying that they are irresponsible and childish. So, get your nasty e-mails ready…..I’m about to do it again.

It is times like this when the age of Anonymous participants becomes their vulnerability. They know very little, if anything, about organized crime. The Mexican drug cartels are far more violent than the old organized criminal gangs of America, what’s commonly called the Mafia, just as the Columbian drug cartels were. But the basics remain the same. It’s not very different from the competition between WalMart, KMart and Target. It’s commercial competition taken to a very bloody level. It is still competition. Barring the day when Americans miraculously stop using drugs or legalize, regulate and tax drugs, the competition will continue. The old gangs were just as competitive. They just didn’t tend to behead each other, and they tried to reduce the collateral damage where possible. My mother used to say she grew up in the safest neighborhood in New York because half her neighbors were Mafioso.

Look it up, guys, do some research. Find out how gang members died, how gangs interacted. Find out how ineffective the government was at controlling organized crime. Find out what did work. Frankly, it takes a level of callous disregard for human life to do what is most effective, and I’m not sure you guys are up to that. If you don’t have the guts, don’t go for the glory. Walk away from this fight and leave it to a Mexican government who is as woefully ignorant of history as you are.

Youth and idealism are wonderful things. I had them once. They don’t take down criminal organizations. Only pragmatism and a willingness to get dirty does that.

 

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