It's sad, remembering old days along the border. Living a day's drive from El Paso, which was a beeg town compared to ours in New Mexico, my family went there to shop and find entertainment and cheap liquor in Juarez. Sports teams who went to El Paso to play always seemed to get across the border and get drunk. The police head there was a sometime drinking buddy of my father. The kids would be picked up and dumped in the old jail, full of rats and the plumbing long out of action. One night there and they would swear never to get drunk again. Not far away was the new jail, modern and comfortable, where the thieves, etc. were put. The old jail was for gringos who got out of line, and for a while it was a pretty good deterrent.

I got lost a couple of times (I was a little brat), but someone returned me to the border crossing, where my parents would pick me up. My favorite candy was a soft caramel that came in a little wooden box with a tiny wooden spoon, I think it was the cause of my running away when my parents wouldn't find a vendor fast enough.
I remember one morning when a truck unloaded a bag of money outside a bank near where we were staying. It was there for a couple of hours, unattended, until a bank employee dislodged the drunk who was using it for a pillow and dragged it in. I also remember my father had his wallet lifted in a saloon. He told a policeman, and the cop came into the bar, spotted a likely culprit, and demanded the wallet. It was quickly restored to my father and the thief told to get out. Now, the poorly paid police and the (now) probably drug-crazed crook are part of the problem.
I also remember that El Paso was the dirty side of the border; a Juarez square I remember because a shop there had good ice cream was spotless and trashless. Now things have deteriorated, because citizens are careful about going out except at midday and leave the streets to trash and the unwary.

No better people than the average Mexican, regardless of class. Buskers? Unless the busker sang a good corrido, he might end up in the old jail.

How much of the problem in Mexico had developed because of stupid, drug-demanding Americans?