I Shot the Sheriff

I am a huge fan of the Texas/Mexico border town. In fact, as of earlier this year, I have visited every single border town possible after crossing over from Presidio into Oinajua in February. It's a pointless exercise, but sort of fun because of the adventure. Texas border towns are, by reputation and fact, places where people go to drink, bed hookers, buy cheap crap and get robbed and shot, not all necessarily in that order. But all of my experiences in Texas border towns have been overwhelmingly positive. For example, Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, has the reputation as being one the most murderous of all the border towns. One year, about 400 people got killed, mostly in drug gang disputes. But when I was there, I found nothing but extremely nice people --- including a very cool guy named Juan who I drank Carta Blancas with in a little restaurant while we talked about life and our respective jobs. Boquillas, just across from Big Bend National Park, is the smallest and the most beautiful of the border towns. It's surrounded by mountains. And to get there you have to cross over the Rio Grande in boat buy paying a guy a buck. You can ride a burro or a horse into town for a few dollars more. But you can't go there anymore. The crossing there was always unofficial with no customs or border patrol presence. So the Department of Homeland Security shut down the crossing after Sept. 1.

So I was sad to see that Nuevo Laredo --- the first border town I visited in 1988 --- is now the leading contender for the most lawless of all the border towns. If you're into Mexican art, tile, and pottery, NL is the place to go get some. And it's also now a really good place to get shot as drug gangs have taken over there, much like in Juarez. It's so bad there now that nobody wanted to be the police chief. The guy who signed up got shot his first day on the job. Read about it: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/061005dnintpolicechief.2f9639f9d.html