Not sure its fair to equate a gang fueled by drug smuggling to a self-defense militia.

Without oversight, a self-defense militia may expand beyond its original scope in unfortunate ways. The history of the Italian Mafia can be instructive here.

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cwnyth an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Apparently, words can just mean whatever people want, so long as it aligns with one's feelings or helps them feel superior to others.

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tejohnso an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah, I guess "self-defense militia" aligns more closely with some people's feelings than "violent gang" does. To each his own.

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eth0up an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

In case you need one, you have made a friend. Excellent comment, which fits the scene as might a custom tailored glove.

	▲	14 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		The reminded me of Johnnie Cochran "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit" slogan he used during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

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an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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eth0up 31 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[flagged]

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inigyou 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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	▲	monkaiju an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Oh yeah, you wont catch me defending the US government one bit. What I'm saying is a group of people in a community taking up arms to defend themselves is not inherently the same as a drug cartel.

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tejohnso an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The only equating I did was to point out that either way you're stuck having to align with a group of people willing and ready to commit lethal violence with lethal weapons.

Use whatever words you want but I think that's clearly violent and it's clearly a gang, which by definition is "a group of persons working together" or even more specifically, "a group of persons working to unlawful or antisocial ends". In this case the newly formed gang is certainly unlawful.

	▲	unclad5968 37 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not sure that it's certainly unlawful to defend yourself against gang violence, but I'm not a Mexican lawyer. It's such an odd thing to say that people defending their homes are now a gang because they fight back against the cartel.