WTF????Entire Mexico city police force held for investigation

[malaise]

The entire police force of the northern Mexico city of Linares is being held for investigation of possible corruption and ties to organised crime. Mexican soldiers and Nuevo Leon state police are patrolling instead.

The detention of more than 100 officers comes after a rise in kidnapping and extortion in the area. A series of investigations in other towns already has put hundreds of officers in custody.

Linares Mayor Francisco Medina Quintanilla told Milenio Television on Sunday that his city's police officers were put on buses and driven to another town. They will held there by state investigators while they are investigated.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Entire-Mexico-city-police-force-held-for-investigation#ixzz1aPOWxyLR

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. That is not mexico city

when I opened the story I went... which one of the alphabet soup?

Linares is near the border with the US

[malaise]

3. I agree - the Observer headline is inaccurate

Still the investigation of the entire force of a town is serious business

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Oh they have been happening like clockwork

every so often over the last five years.

[malaise]

19. The new Peru President has purged the police force

Humala purges Peru police in anti-corruption drive
<snip>
Leftist President Ollanta Humala has fired two-thirds of all generals in Peru's police force in an unprecedented purge to stamp out systemic corruption, the government said on Monday.

Thirty of all 45 generals in the force -- including its commander and the chief of the anti-drug police in one of the world's top cocaine producers -- were pushed into retirement in a decree signed by Humala.

Humala, a former military officer who took office in July, has a high approval rating of 65 percent and campaigned on promises to fight corruption.

Though the move could further please voters who have given Humala high marks for trying to introduce new social programs while attracting foreign investment, critics accused him of acting hastily without letting people defend themselves from corruption allegations.

At least one general said he was fired even though he had not been linked to graft.

[RB TexLa]

7. If you read it you will see that the word Mexico begins with a capital letter and you will see

that the word city does not begin with a capital letter. It does not say Mexico City. It says Mexico city police force. A city in Mexico. There is nothing misleading.

[RaleighNCDUer]

18. The proper wording would be Mexican city.

That's like saying New York is an America city.

[ThomThom]

13. capitalizing words is very help full to understanding

A Mexican city not Mexico City

[Posteritatis]

15. (Mexico) (city), not (Mexico City), I assumed. (nt)

[LiberalFighter]

20. s

[Javaman]

2. No surprise here.

I live in Austin, my question is: what took them so long?

[customerserviceguy]

5. You're surprised?

I'm not. We effected regime change on the wrong country. The corruption and poverty in Mexico is far more threatening to the US than anyone in Afghanistan or Iraq ever was.

But then, 99% of Mexican cops give the rest a bad name, don't they?

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. More like 20%

but having grown up in Mexico what clue should I have? It is higher than in most US cities, but some of the practices in Mexican Police Forces are not that dismilar than places like oh Chicago.

As I said, what would I know? And partly these cleanups in pretty rural areas are for the same reason we saw same in pretty rural areas in the US as well.

[customerserviceguy]

11. I will admit

I've never been to Mexico, but then, I've got that 99% figure stuck in my mind.

Oh, and there's definitely corruption in the US, but I have a snowball's chance in hell of some reporter giving a crap about that here. I don't think I have that going for me in Mexico.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. And that is a major difference

in mexico people are aware of it. It happens at lower levels, due to pay and a few other issues. The reason why in the US you have trouble in rural areas is the same you do in Mexico. These are not professional forces nor are they well paid. Add to that the you do not belong here phenomena and you got a perfect recipee.

Yes, you can expect to be asked for a kind donation if you are stopped even in Mexico City... but places like oh Chicago have corners that are more, ahem, lucrative than others and officers pay for those as well, as it were.

But as you said, covering this in the us will never happen. In mexico an electoral slogan for a presidential race was We are all part of the corruption... that is how deeply people are aware of this. One of the things they are doing is trying to profesionalize cops, and get rid of the many alphabet soup police agencies... it gets down right arcane... I mean mexico city has what 15 different police agencies?

The US really needs to get away of that exceptionalism if we are to actually solve a lot of what ails us... and yes we have a lot in common these days with yes... Mexico.

[Angry Dragon]

12. +1000

[RB TexLa]

8. This could be done in every city in America, but then who'd work traffic accidents?

[LiberalFighter]

21. Boy Scouts?

Whoops I thought you meant directing traffic. Accidents would be too much for them.

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Milseading headline, should be "Mexican city"

[lpbk2713]

10. The way I understand it ...

The drug cartel leaders tell the local law enforcement types 'either you do things our way and make good money in the process or you and your family die a horrible death'. I don't think it takes most of them long to arrive at a decision. The drug problem (as well as illegal firearms problem) simply cannot be handled at the local level.

[AngryAmish]

16. plata o plomo

[lpbk2713]

17. Asi es la vida.

Verdad.

[malaise]

22. One of my criminologist friends told me that there was a

standard joke that a narco- state was one where the drug dealers owned the police and chose the government but it was still democracy when the government told them which drug dealers could operate with impunity from certain police. :eivlgrin: