The Beheading Craze

It seems that al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists are having an impact on ruthless thugs the world over.

Mexico's drug lords have taken a cue from the Islamic terrorists and are opting to kill their enemies in a flashier way -- beheading.

VILLA MADERO, Mexico -- The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display.

In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive."

Many in Michoacan's mountains and colonial cities are doing just that: They are tightlipped, their newspapers are censoring themselves and in one town, 18 out of 32 police officers quit saying they had received death threats from drug smugglers.

In the most gruesome case, gunmen burst into a nightclub and rolled five heads onto the dance floor. In another, a pair of heads were planted in front of a car dealership in Zitacuaro, a town best known until now as a nesting ground for monarch butterflies.

By a highway outside Tepalcatepec, suspected drug smuggler Hector Eduardo Bautista's tortured body was dumped on July 10. Near a black metal cross put up by his family at the spot, killers apparently avenging his death have been leaving severed heads — five so far — each with a threatening message.

Of course, the vast majority of Mexican citizens do not engage in this sort of savagery.

Still, when I read about this sort of horrific violence, I can't help but think of our porous borders and the illegals that make their way into the U.S. every day.

Beheadings and accompanying notes in sometimes cryptic and misspelled Spanish are becoming a ghoulish vogue among the gangs that grow marijuana, cook methamphetamine and run cocaine in Michoacan.

..."They don't need to leave written messages. The mere fact that they are using such high levels of violence is sending messages of intimidation, causing fear," [Juan Antonio Magana, the state's attorney general,] said. "But doing it shows other gangs they can act in even more gruesome and violent ways than their rivals."

Are illegal immigrants going to bring this beheading craze to the U.S.?

When people slip across our borders illegally, we have no idea who they are. There's no documentation.

How are we to keep the beheaders out?

Jim Doyle and Kathleen Falk want to make Wisconsin a magnet for illegal immigrants. They want to make Wisconsin a welcoming place, give them in-state tuition for the UW system, that sort of thing.

I'm not comfortable with Doyle and Falk putting out the welcome mat for illegals. I would feel safer knowing that the immigrants coming to Wisconsin are documented and law-abiding.

The thought of beheaders settling in Wisconsin is extremely unsettling.

Maybe it's just me.
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Apparently, beheading statues is also in vogue.

Read about the beheading of George Washington.

NEW YORK (Nov. 10) - Vandals beheaded a statue of George Washington at one of the world's largest cathedrals and left a dollar bill on what was left of the neck, police said Friday.

...The damage was discovered Sunday at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, near Columbia University, Officer Kathleen Price said.