Drug-torn Mexico favors scrapping municipal police

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico’s president is urging approval of a plan to replace local police departments with state forces so the government can better fight unrelenting drug violence that has claimed nearly 23,000 lives.

Part of the goal is to root out corruption by replacing generally low-paid, poorly educated local police, who are seen as more susceptible to bribery and intimidation by the powerful cartels.

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Drug-torn Mexico favors scrapping municipal police

If the goal is to root out corruption, forget about it. Mexico is the definition of corruption.

It also aims to streamline operations and improve communication between police, President Felipe Calderon told a public safety commission Thursday before it approved the plan at the end of a three-hour session.

And it will expedite the movement of money through the hierarchy of Mexican government.

“We want a safe Mexico in which there is no room for the fear, violence and impunity that we suffer today,” Calderon said.

Sounds great Mr. Calderon, a safe Mexico, something that has NEVER before existed. Ever!

Mexico’s Public Safety secretary first floated the idea last year, but it received a lukewarm response because some officials worried that it would be hard to police many of Mexico’s 2,439 municipalities if local departments were eliminated. Only 12 of Mexico’s 31 states even have their own police forces.

Mexico’s idea of State Police is an infusion of Federales. Mexican army troops. Supposedly ones not yet fallen into the clutches of the cartels. Supposedly.

What I see in the making is a federalization of the Mexican police and a military buildup that will, in many cases, be very close to our border.

OUR border! A border that is already terribly undermanned and poorly defended. The inclusion of 1,200 National Guard troops along our border, unarmed troops I might add, as proposed by Barack Hussein Obama, will do NOTHING to alleviate the dangers we face from Mexico already, never mind the idea of Federales running wild along our borders as well.

There are already stories in the news of Mexican army troops making side trips over the U.S. border SOURCE 1 SOURCE 2 and confronting a U.S. Border Patrol agent. SOURCE 3 SOURCE 4

This is NOT news, it happened in 2004, 2005, 2006 and quite likely is still happening if the media were allowed to make a full and unbiased report.

So far, the military and federal police have led the war against drug cartels launched shortly after Calderon took office in December 2006.

Hot damn, they have led the charge and waged the war. Can anyone tell me what progress has been made? Does Mexico have any less drug traffic or cartel violence today than it had prior to Calderon taking office? It seems that the cartels are going outside the normal channels and are getting themselves some hired help, some type of mercenary help perhaps? SOURCE

And to give further citation to my belief that there isn’t an honest cop or soldier in Mexico, many troops have already made the change over to the other side. Money, food, luxury, those are some serious motivation for a Mexican army trooper, even Officers are moving over to the side of the cartels, the incentives are just too good to pass for them! SOURCE

A recent high-profile campaign to fight extortion and kidnapping by compiling a registry of cell phone users around the country ended up going awry, however, after the users’ personal data turned up for sale on two websites.

Prosecutors are investigating, Interior Department spokesman Luis Estrada said Thursday.

Prosecutors are investigating? That’s funny, I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there!

Mexican prosecutors can’t find a tortilla in Juarez. The list from the registry was probably sold, by someone already working for the Mexican government in conjunction with the cartels, if not actually working FOR the cartels and doing the old Double Agent thing too.

The mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s deadliest city with 2,601 drug-related killings reported last year, backed Calderon’s proposal and said municipal police are often easy prey in small, close-knit towns.

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