Jack of Harts

When San Diego, Tijuana, and the other major cities fell into chaos during the Second Great Depression, their surviving leaders declared martial law in hopes of restoring order. The local police were simply not enough, though. Their ranks had been too harried, and they lacked the firepower to deal with the Drug Lords. So the cities looked to the Old Border Patrol agents hunkered down in San Ysidro. It had been the largest port of entry in America before the depression hit, with sufficient infrastructure to support the small army it took to man the Old Border. They became the San Ysidro Peacekeepers, and sent heavily armed squads through all the neighboring cities to deal with the Drug Lords. Local judges accompanied them in person or via digital presence to pronounce sentences on the spot. No trial. No jury. Just the judge. It wasn’t pretty, but they were living under martial law. They managed to restore law and order in time, and martial law was ended, but not before the San Ysidro Judges became a permanent part of the local culture.