Target-Rich

 

This is a target-rich environment for writers  like me. I wish it wasn’t.

 

It has finally dawned on me. If you already knew, why didn’t you slap me awake?

 

Wiki’s non-sports definition of flooding the zone: “To provide a very large quantity (of something)”

 

Mexican cartels recruit a few million (a "very large quantity") desperate people by guaranteeing that they can get them into the US, the land of jobs and safety. They will charge a reasonable amount for the service, say $2,000, more if you want to ride in the in the “No Rape” car. They flood the zone with desperate people. Most of them survive the trip. 

 

We, you and me, are the zone. Most people make it to the safety of the zone but not to safety from the cartels. Women who couldn’t pay the whole fee are immediately taken into the human trafficking industry, where they slave on their backs until they pay what they owe, plus interest, plus their room and board for the time they’ve been there. 

 

They had little education when they arrived. Compound interest plus fees plus room and board aren’t part of their world. They owe what their madam says they owe. She has ruthless enforcers to deter and punish escapees. 

No one escapes a second time. They are left in a shallow desert grave or, sometimes, their bodies are brought back to show the girls what escape means. It is, simply, sex slavery. Few survive. No one cares. There’s a waiting line of camps, where new meat waits.

 

The men are lost, too. They didn’t pay full freight, either, and they owe the cartel that brought them here. The cartels know where they live because they stashed them there. 

They are drafted against their will into another kind of slavery, the street sale of cartel drugs. It’s easy money, really. A boss brings the drugs around, eliminating the need for the kids to leave the street to go get them. Time is money.

 

They have an abundance of clients. They are mostly local addicts that the cartels have created but some are people from the city. They seek them out and make a connection. 

They become the retail sales people in the schools and neighborhoods and factories. Most only want enough buyers to support their own habit, but others discover it is a profitable way of life. Eventually, some graduate to dealing directly with the distributors.

 

There is violence in street sales. There are competing sellers who want their clientele, whether it’s a corner or a factory, they will use violence and intimidation to get what they want. If you resist, you die. 

 

The Four Steps

Provide crowds of needy people

Force some into sex trafficking

Provide massive amounts of drugs

Force some into the drug business

 

They become the refuse of the business, expendable because there are so many fresh faces waiting in the wings. If they are raped to death in three weeks or murdered on a street corner when they try to grab a dealer spot, well, they were good while they lasted. Who cares?

It's a good sales pitch: "A corner has just become available. It'll only cost you a thousand bucks and you can pay in installments. You'll have it paid off in two months."

 

No one cares. 

Do you? Really? If you dare answer yes, what have you done about it?

Me, personally? All I’ve done is scribble screeds like this one. I tell myself I’ll donate to good causes but life costs too much already. I seldom do.

 

That’s it for today. I’m done. I’m going to retire to my easy chair and read.

I don’t owe my dealer or pimp. I’m the person all those people want to be, and who can blame them? I’m warm and comfortable and well fed.

My children are safe and free to pursue their own lives. 

I don’t want those people living next to me. Isn’t that why I pay taxes?

 

 read for a while.