Beheaded!

Beheading is the new crime of choice, we have become so inured to violence it takes something horrific to get our attention. The violence of our North American crimes start to make the Somalia pirate and their code begin to look like the good guys.

Here in Baja, Mexico, we've been in the middle of drug cartels duking it out for the last year, headless bodies dumped by roadsides, in school yards, empty lots. They're a symbol of the contempt in which the crime lords hold the government and the public. What's another life or two? Just kill them and dump them like garbage, what a way to instill fear! Talk about terrorism! It's alive and well here on our own continent, we don't have to cross an ocean or a globe to find it.

And the Americans look across the border and think about how dangerous Mexico is. Yes, it's dangerous, but is it really more dangerous than the states? I'm not so sure. It's just more ghastly barbaric, we don't have too many beheadings in the states, just home grown serial killers by the score.

In San Diego, a few weeks ago, a woman in her 60's was kidnapped by a group of kids, a girl included, beaten and stuffed in the trunk of her car as they drove around with her for a day or so. How about the spate of multiple murders - upstate New York a double digit toll in one rampage, Midwestern father annihilated families of five in the blink of an eye, mother's offed their kids, a female Sunday school teacher killed a little girl and is labeled a sexual predator for what she did to the child before she killed her – I don't want to know what she did to the child, too much information that I don't need haunting my dreams, there are enough terrible images already, thank you very much. And the list goes on, hateful crimes, the dead stacked like so many logs waiting winter burning.

But one has come close to me and it took my usual fearlessness away. I live in a Mexican neighborhood, nice, in the center of town. The community pays the salaries of guards who stand at the gate in front and patrol the area at night.

Last week one of the guards tried to stop a kidnapping in front of the guard shack, for his efforts he was snatched along with the boy. The next day, our guard, Juan, a lovely man with a ready smile and earnest manner, was found naked, beheaded, wrapped in plastic and dumped in a stolen car in front of the Municipal Building in our town. His head was in the back seat.

The boy was kidnapped. Juan had a night stick and no chance against cars full of heavily armed kidnappers. In Mexico the bad guys do their dirty work in such large numbers they need two cars – big SUVs. No guard is a match for them. Nothing has been heard about the boy, but in the last several kidnappings, even when payment was made, the victims have been killed and tortured. Mexican kidnappers don't understand the business aspect – in order to get paid the victim is supposed to be returned in one piece, otherwise, why would anyone pay in the future? But there is such a strong cultural tie to the family, loved ones will do anything possible to get them back in one piece, even though they have the sinking feeling their efforts are in vain.

Somehow, violence has become all right. Gangs feel no compunction about beheading and torture. There is less than zero regard for human life and there seems to be enjoyment of acts more and more vicious. Is it a sign of the times?

The other night on the news, I heard the Pirates from Somalia have a code. Those they kidnap are not ever to be killed but returned alive and well. Now, they are threatening to kill all the US sailors they capture. It's in retribution for several pirates killed in the rescue of the American captain held for ransom. In an odd way, I understand. They view piracy as a "gentleman's business transaction" just a slight detention for money and no one gets hurt. The USA violated their code by killing them to affect a rescue. We are now obviously a country who doesn't know how to play the game correctly and we must be taught a lesson. It's the rules of engagement, Somalia style.

It would be great if there were rules of engagement in Mexico, but it's simply kill or be killed, and the more violent the better. Now, chills run down my spine when I go through the gate, remembering the brave man who tried to save the boy, and how he was repaid for his efforts. It's a dismal reminder that I live in another country filled with violence.

Then, back at home in California, the television is filled with more mayhem and murder, sexual predators, serial killers, home invasions, family murders, just another day in the life… not really much of a change from Mexico, except it's somehow a little more antiseptic. Bodies are neatly disposed of or hidden in many cases, the reportage is more matter of fact and less angst filled. Ho hummmm. Nothing much to report, just another rampage at a school or office or public building. Not anything to worry about, same old, same old, multiple murders, family killings, child abductions, sexual predators blah, blah, blah!

Maybe we are all desensitized. Too much "No Country for Old Men," "In Bruges" or like another slasher movie, a serial killer like in "Criminal Minds" and don't worry, the FBI, NCIS, BAU, Bones or a local CSI will find the bad guy and put him away. No big deal.

There is a disconnect between reality and fantasy. Sort of like, is 'Survivor' real and does the Bachelor actually marry his lady of choice? Is the news real or is it just another scripted show we're seeing? Are they really 'Lost' on that island or is it just a long reality show?

I think the problem is, life has become so frightening, so complicated; we don't want to distinguish between truth and fiction. The Manson murders were in 1969 and shocked the country. Two years later, Stanley Kubrick's brilliant "Clockwork Orange" was released with it's eerie fantasies, redolent of Manson home invasions. It was terrifying because it's failed solution to the crime problem by aversion therapy only pointed out the unsolvable problem of endemic violence inherent in our society.

It appears we have evolved to the point where the only way someone can get our attention is to make their crimes more and more horrific. Just a plain vanilla murder means nothing. We only pay attention when they are unbelievably violent or in staggering numbers.

Maybe the Somali pirates have it right after all. It might be a gentleman's trade to be a pirate, take something captive, a tanker, cruise ship, cargo ship, hold it for ransom and when you get paid, let the crew go without a scratch on them. Strange as it seems, they might be looking like the good guys these days.