[TimTheTinker]

An equivalent question is: why does human evil exist?

Your answer will depend on your worldview -- your beliefs on matters like origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.

If you're not sure, I'd suggest evaluating candidate worldviews with an eye toward comparing the extent to which their propositions correspond to reality and are internally consistent.

[edgyquant]

It’s not evil. These people don’t go to bed at night thinking they are the villain. The real answer is more depressing: people have to eat. These police are part of a system that is threatening the livelihood of cartels and with the exception of a few people at the top this livelihood is what feeds theirs families.

[iammisc]

What? You can definitely find jobs to eat in Mexico. This is the silliest take. It's not like the villages suddenly don't have land to grow food on

[edgyquant]

I mean, I didn’t say you couldn’t. But that doesn’t change the fact that cartels are businesses and the reason for these terrible things aren’t because the people are evil but because it’s their livelihood. I’d also wager that working for a cartel pays a lot better than working on a farm in Mexico. It also isn’t a “take.” When you start throwing around words like evil you are demonizing the enemy which you should never do.

[TimTheTinker]

It's not so much demonizing someone as calling a spade a spade.

These cartels are built on an explicit disregard of ethics and human rights. People in these organizations are encouraged to commit bloodshed against innocent people.

To say that's not evil is a grave ethical miscategorization -- and those who fail to label evil accurately can't help stop its progression.