Funny? or Horrifying?

This might be a rape tree. Or it might not.

I saw these panties in this bush back on public BLM land outside Las Cruces, N.M., where I was camping. Took a photo of it for Instagram. Made me chuckle thinkin' it got left behind after a little party.

But then a friend told me it was a rape tree.

If ya don't know, Las Cruces is real close to El Paso, Texas, and the U.S.-Mexico border. Lots a migrants come through here.

Anyways, my friend said that coyotes (people smugglers) sometimes rape the women and girls they're smuggling across the border. Then they make them put their underwear up in a tree or bush to humiliate them and as a sign to other migrants that they better not get outta line.

Googling "rape tree," I think my buddy might be right. But then again, I notice that almost the only websites talkin' about rape trees are hard-right political sites run by folks who want a border wall. There doesn't seem to be any other kinda info out there about this.

Makes me suspect it might be an urban legend. Here's an article along them lines: "Rape trees and idiots, useful and otherwise."

That said, it is a fact that a ton a women and girls crossin' the border are raped. Beaten and murdered, too. It's a nasty business.

The possibilities kinda take the fun outta that panties photo ...