Yet again, Pinal Country sheriff Paul Babeu sticks his jack-boot in his
mouth.  After giving an elaborate speculative statement to media yesterday
that the 5 bodies found burned beyond recognition in an SUV in the desert
near Casa Grande last weekend were victims of spillover drug cartel
violence, it turns out that it is a family tragedy: all 5 people are
members of the Butwin family of Tempe, Arizona.
To the best of my knowledge, in all or nearly all, of the violent incidents
and the monotonous drumbeat of “violence spilling across the border” have
been shown to be homegrown incidents and most not related to Mexico or to
the particular border geography at all.
Also below is an AP story from yesterday repeating Babeu’s claims with no
questions asked and a press release from Babeu, who, according to the
Republic article, is no longer taking calls on the subject.

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It is very refreshing to see the reporting on this by the Arizona Republic.
And it makes us realize how so much misinformation gets out there.  I would
bet that even with this excellent and detailed debunking of the bogus and
exaggerated claims by Babeu and others in Arizona about spillover violence,
most people will continue to think that the five people found dead in that
SUV in the desert had something to do with drug cartels… Sometimes
Facebook and Twitter can create a gigantic reflecting pool on the web and
an initial erroneous account gets repeated so many times, no one notices
the correction…  just my opinion…  molly