Texas Rangers (Police)
The Texas Ranger Division is a US law enforcement agency . It was founded in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin . Its members became known as the Texas Rangers , are nationwide responsible for the state of Texas and are stationed in Austin . The roles of the Texas Rangers have changed a lot over the years. They were just mainly responsible for its establishment in the fight against the Indians, their present responsibilities extend from the criminal investigation on anti-corruption to protect the border against illegal immigrants. The Texas Rangers report to the Governor of Texas.
history
In 1823, two years after the beginning of the Anglo-American colonization, the North American Colonel Stephen F. Austin formed a force of ten experienced border pioneers to start an expedition against the indigenous people. He also received approval from the central government of Mexico to settle 300 families in the state of Texas.
On November 24, 1835, the Texas Rangers became a regular organization by the Texas government, consisting of 56 men, divided into three parts, each led by a captain and two lieutenants , subordinate to the commander in chief of the regular army. In return, they received the same pay as the American Army's dragoons , $ 1.25 a day. However, they had to buy horses, weapons and other equipment at their own expense.
Despite their official status, they were not taken seriously by the regular troops. During the Texas Revolution , the Texas Rangers served as scouts and messengers. When the colonists fled east Texas to escape Mexican forces after the fall of the Alamo on March 5, 1836 , the Texas Rangers were used as escorts for the refugees. They were also only used as escorts at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21. Their situation only changed when Sam Houston gave them other responsibilities two years later. After Mirabeau B. Lamar came to power as the third president of Texas, he committed the Texas Congress to form additional companies of mounted volunteers to support the 56 Texas Rangers. Over the course of the next three years, the rangers fought all wars against the indigenous people and took part victoriously in several battles such as the Cherokee War of 1839 in east Texas, the Battle of the Comanches in March 1840 or the Battle of Plum Creek against 1,000 soldiers in August 1840. With the end of the presidency of Lamar, the resistance of most of the indigenous people was broken.
Sam Houston, who became president again in December 1841, saw the use of the Texas Rangers as the cheapest and most efficient way to protect the borders and so increased the troops. In 1842 they repulsed another Mexican invasion attempt with 150 men under the leadership of John C. Hays and protected Texas from attacks by the indigenous peoples for the next three years.
In 1846, with the outbreak of the Mexican-American War , the Rangers became famous as a fighting force. After the battles of Palo Alto, Texas and Resaca de la Palma on May 8th and 9th, 1846, they had the full attention of General Zachary Taylor and were for the first time equipped with the latest weapons. Further victories earned them the name los diablos Tejanos on the Mexican side .
After the end of the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848, and after the US assumed responsibility for securing the borders, the rangers no longer had an official role and their reputation faded somewhat. In the spring of 1858 they pursued the Indian chief Iron Jacket , and in March 1859 they together with the official troops captured Juan Cortina near Brownsville . With the outbreak of the Civil War , many ranger troops disbanded and fought on the side of their choice. During the reconstruction from 1865 to 1874, most of them served in the US Army or the state police .
In 1874 Mexican gangs and indigenous people attacked West Texas along the Rio Grande , and a new ranger unit was formed under Captain Leander H. McNelly . In the spring of 1875 they fought the worst gangs in the Nueces Strip , an inhospitable strip of land up to 150 miles wide between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, and after eight months law and order were restored. When chasing bandits or recovering stolen cattle, the rangers did not stop at international borders, but also invaded Mexico's territory. In the next few years they also killed more than 3,000 Texan criminals, such as the bank robber Sam Bass and the notorious gunman and serial killer John W. Hardin .
Over the next 20 years, the influence of the rangers diminished and they only fought occasionally against Mexican or Native American looters, mainly in the Big Bend or the Panhandle . In 1910 a revolution against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz upset the people on both sides of the border. The problems in the border region increased with the outbreak of the First World War . The Mexican attack on Columbus , New Mexico , intensified the conflict on both sides. The rangers, who were also quickly appointed, killed around 5,000 Hispanic Americans between 1914 and 1919, which led to a scandal if they became known. In the following years, the ranger units were restructured to prevent any ranger crime. The main tasks now were the patrols along the Rio Grande, the protection of federal inspectors and in front of the Ku Klux Klan .
With the outbreak of the Great Depression in 1929, many ranger troops were disbanded because there was no longer any budget. Many migrated to other states in search of work. It was not until 1935 that Governor James Allred steered the troops into new directions in order to increase public safety. A new breed of Texas Ranger, Highway Patrol, and a forensic science laboratory have been set up. The new rangers had to be perfectly healthy, take a written exam, be between 30 and 45 years old, learn new techniques such as fingerprinting and communication tools, as well as knowledge of ballistics, and submit a weekly report on activities. For the next 30 years, the rangers became plainclothes police. In 1993 there were 99 Texas Rangers, including two women for the first time, and in 1996 their strength increased to 105.
Others
In the Pulitzer Prize- winning novel Path to the Wilderness (Original: Lonesome Dove ), Larry McMurtry describes the path of two former Texas Rangers on the cattle wreck north. The personal story of the main characters in the Rangers forms an important background to the narrative.
In 2010 Chuck Norris was officially named an honorary Texas Ranger. The ranger, who played Norris for almost ten years in the series Walker, Texas Ranger , was "in every way mindful, careful and honorable", so the reasoning.
literature
- George Durham: Taming the Nueces Strip. The Story of McNelly's Rangers. The University of Texas Press, Austin TX 1962, digitized (based on reports by Clyde Wantland).
- Ben H. Procter: Just One Riot. Episodes of Texas Rangers in the 20th Century. Eakin Press, Austin TX 1991, ISBN 0-89015-806-1 .
- Walter Prescott Webb : The Texas Rangers. A Century of Frontier Defense. Houghton Mifflin, Boston MA et al. 1935 (2nd Edition (1965): University of Texas Press, Austin TX 2000, ISBN 0-292-78110-5 ).
Web links
- Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chuck Norris officially named "Texas Ranger". In: The Standard . December 3, 2010, accessed May 10, 2013 .