A two-day ballistic retrospective

I have the day off until 2pm today. I decided to catch up on news, so I went to my usual sources:
http://www.nytimes.com-->my national news source
http://www.elpasotimes.com-->where I keep up on El Paso news in English
http://www.lapolaka.com-->a Spanish language news-blog
http://www.diario.com.mx/secciones/El_Paso.html-->Spanish language newspaper in El Paso

I happened across an article at the El Paso Times that caught my attention. The headline read, "Gunfire from Juárez usually heard, not seen"

I clicked on the article. The first line read, The gunfire from Juárez that struck El Paso City Hall on Tuesday was unusual.


My first thought, "Gunfire? City Hall? What day did I go to City Hall?"


I thought about my schedule so far this week. I worked at Casa Teresa in the office on Tuesday, which is also when I walked to City Hall to submit the permit application for the Procession portion of the Border Violence Mass, which will be occuring on July 14th.

I hadn't heard a single thing about the gunfire until reading about it today.

I looked for more articles. As I read more, I found out that seven bullets hit the City Hall Building at approximately 4:50 PM on Tuesday.

"About 4:50 p.m., city workers were going about a regular day when a bullet penetrated a ninth-floor west side window of the office of Assistant City Manager Pat Adauto.

Police said the bullet flew through the window, then through an interior wall before hitting a picture frame and stopping.

The building was not evacuated, but several secretaries with windows facing Juárez described the incident as scary. Several police officers were sent to City Hall. A police crime scene investigator could be seen taking photos of the building.

Petry said an inspection by police and city staff found that City Hall was hit by seven gunshots, which appeared to be losing velocity when they struck. Six of the rounds hit stucco walls on the north and south sides of the building. Two bullets were recovered -- the one that went through the window and one that bounced off an exterior wall. The size of the bullets was not disclosed."
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_15405948?source=pkg

I had been on the 6th floor a couple of hours earlier. When one goes to Juarez, he/she accepts the possibility that something could happen. El Paso, on the other hand, is supposed to be one of the safest cities in the entire US. Although the incident is raising awareness of border violence, which is a good thing, I'm also afraid that it will cause El Pasoans to demonize Juarez even more and lead to more militarization along the border itself. Neither of these help to address the dire and complex situation in Juarez, and if anything, have more potential to worsen the situation.

"As a result of the shooting on City Hall, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a letter to President Barack Obama demanding that he make border security his top priority.

Abbott said it was "mere luck" that the bullets that pierced the walls of City Hall in El Paso did not hit anyone.

"Luck and good fortune are not effective border enforcement policies. The shocking reality of cross-border gunfire proves the cold reality: American lives are at risk," he said.

Vince Perez, press secretary for Reyes, said Abbot was politicizing a critical and pertinent issue.

"Texas Republicans will politicize anything to say the federal government isn't doing enough," he said.

Perez said no amount of troops would be able to control a stray bullet.

"We could have had 10,000 National Guard troops on the border, but that wouldn't have prevented a stray bullet from hitting the ninth floor of City Hall any more than adding more police would prevent a stray bullet from going awry in a gun crime in the U.S.," Perez said."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_15415261