Crime, Safety, and the Police

[ChiMan II]

Team,

What has happened to TJ? I wish there was something we could do besides just wait for this police problem to go away. Very soon TJ is going to be dead and they will have to get these police in line. If noone is complaining, the people in power in TJ will not know what is going on and it will take something big to happen before it goes away. I don't know about you guys but I am not into sneeking in the shadows in another country hiding from the police. I would rather spend $150 in the USA and be safe. Fuck being throw into a TJ jail. What happens if we spend all our money on the girls then we get nabbed? No pay off money. I don't even want to think about it.

Peace

[Turbolover]

thanks for the heads-up.
police were pretty fucking scrutinizing of me lately, though i am not a likely criminal profile, no booze, corn fed and clean cut, maybe i seem a better mark for a similar scam. the degree of scrutiny (even for tj cops) seemed really friggin' strange so i left the immediate area.
i don't think all tj police are bad, but with an attitude of "i've been coming down here for years and nothing ever..." i would have been ganked on several occasions. i would have been pooped by the scam you encountered too though.
just curious, did you get any different response from the special "tourist" police when you went through your grievance procedures?

[Minimus]

Holy shit! That's a hell of a story and it hits home since I was in TJ 3 weeks ago and about one block south of Bar Taurino or whatever it's called (still not quite in Zona Norte), I decided to walk out in the street since there was a bunch of police action on the sidewalk. There just happened to be a guy walking in the street as well. One of the cops stopped us both and asked us if we were together. I said no, but was still stopped momentarily while the other guy was searched. They didn't do anything to me but it was disconcerting.

Look out fellas.

[Hizark21]

The cops like to shake down people at night for some reason. Not sure, but I think it's because there is less people around. We all need to complain about the crooked cops.

[Double]

TJ Trip Report,

Crooked Cops

Well guys, I have been going to TJ for many years. Until now I have always believed that if you were careful you could stay away from the bull. I don't drink or drug and I am descreet , but my number came up.

I arrived in TJ at about 12 midnight on tuesday. I had a taxi drop me off at the corner near the entrance of the alley behind Adelitas. As soon as I got out of the taxi a young Mexican guy came up and asked me about the massage parlors. I declined and walked away. No more than 20 seconds later a patrol van pulled up and the police got out. They motioned me and massage parlor guy over saying the needed to talk to us. He followed me down the street after I got out of the taxi.

The police put us against the van and searched our pockets. They found nothing in my pockets and gave me all of my belongings and money back. Just as I was getting ready to walk away, one of the officers say what is this. It was a napkin that suddenly appeared on the street between me and the massge parlor hustler. They pick it up and open it. Yes, it is some kind of drug. The Mexican guy immediatly says don't worry about it, I will take the blame. Just give me $70 dollars.

To make a long story somewhat short they throw me in the van with this guy, that I believe is working with them. He then asks for $300. I say that I don't have it. He suggest that my freedom is worth that and wants to go to the atm. I tell him that I have exceeded my limit and all I have is what is in my pocket. I give him $100 and he asks for $20 more. The massage guy drops the money out of the slot in the door and the police return. They drive me down the street and let me out saying that I was in a very bad area and I should be more carefull. They say they are doing me a favor and letting me go. They say that they are going to keep the other guy in custody.

I know they were all together. It happended way fast. I did not spend 1 full minute on the street b4 they had me.

Take care guys. This could have been much worse. BE CAREFULL. Have the cab drop you off in front of Adelitas. At least you will get in to see some pun before any trouble comes you way. My feeling is they know if we are just arriving we have our ho money in our pockets. In my case they were right. This really left a bad taste in my mouth for TJ and the people in general.

BTW the customs does not get involved, they don't take a report nothing and the Mexican counsel asked for a written report and blew it off.

Happy Trails,

Double

[irishman]

Lee,

The minimum wage in Mexico is only between $4.00-5.00 a day--yes, a day. So there are a lot of Mexicans working full time and making even less than your acquaintance's $60 a week. Of course, even allowing for lower rents and other living costs in Mexico, one cannot really live on these wages. Mexicans making these wages tend to live in sub-standard housing that would not even be allowed to exist in the United States and tend to share that housing with many others.

The difference is that if you are a cop, you have the ready opportunity to supplement your income by abusing your power. Human nature being what it is, it is utterly predictable that paying someone a non-livable wage while placing them in a position of power would result in corruption. This is true of any society anywhere in the world. Add in the Tijuana police's constant interactions with economically more fortunate Americans, who not only tend to have more money but some of whom also generate resentment by behaving arrogantly, and you have the perfect recipe for a police culture of corruption. It's just inevitable.

There is corruption among our police in the US, but nothing like Mexico in terms of shaking down individuals whom they come across because of minor incidents or crimes. No rational American police officer in any major American city is going to accost a tourist and take him to an ATM to withdraw money. This petty corruption is not worth the risk because such police officers, while not highly paid, at least make enough wages and benefits to live a middle class lifestyle.

Of course, I do not want to create an erroneous impression. I think Tijuana is basically safe, and I go there all the time. I have been there 100+ times and been stopped by the police only once and, while this was a disconcerting experience, they let me go without incident. Nevertheless, law enforcement corruption is an unfortunate reality that one must be aware of.

[irishman]

a cab driver this weekend initiated a conversation about the police. he saw an off-duty cop in a nice car and with no prompting from me began railing against the police, calling them thieves. he recounted the recent story about a policeman [CodeWord125] a female tourist while other officers were taking her husband and 9 year old son around to atms. apparently, this story has gotten a lot of publicity in tijuana as well as the us, and there is a fair amount of outrage in tijuana about it.

the cab driver also said that in the local news media there have been a lot of admonishments or advertisements imploring tijuana citizens something to the effect of "respect the tourists, for is it your money at stake."

he further said that in the past few weeks tourism has been way down in tijuana. he, and i suspect a lot of merchants in tijuana, atrribute this to the problems with the police. i told him he is probably correct, as many americans do not go to tijuana out of fear of the police, especially with the recent publicity over the horrifying [CodeWord123] incident. he agreed.

police corruption in mexico is a deep-rooted problem that will not be solved anytime soon. but i take it as an encouraging sign that there is an awareness in the media and among people there with a stake in tourism that it is effecting them. it is only with sustained societal and political pressure and action that the problem will be lessened. i think the tijuana police will be under more political scrutiny, at least in the short run. maybe this will have some effect, maybe make some of them less brazen. then again, the real problem is the paltry wages that the police receive, averaging about $300 a month.

i bet that the group most upset about the tourist [CodeWord124] is probably the police themselves. this was way beyond the pale and has brought all of them under more scrutiny, thereby making their more common and accepted shakedowns more risky to their careers. i think the tijuana police culture is accepting of the bribery and shakedowns, but [CodeWord123] i do not think so.

[CC Train]

Headache is full of shit.

You guys have to take all these stories about shakedowns with a grain of salt. I'm from Orlando and my knowledge of Zona is still very vague but yet I wander the street pretty much at will.

I was just in TJ this past week and and stayed there overnight for 3 nights, Thur, Fri and Sat. Me and Gekko stayed at the Cascade 2000 (which is right in the alley) Thur and Fri. Those 2 nights, I freely roam from HK to AB to CC over and over without a real concern for any type of shakesdown.

I spent from Sat 6pm to about 2pm Sunday at the Cascade 2000 by myself and there wasn't any fear on my part. The whole time, I must have went back and forth from my room to the clubs numerous times.

I mean I wore all all type of attires from hockey jerseys to dress shirts and the police never gave me a second look.

Now remember I am not a regular in TJ. Gekko showed me around on Thur and Fri and I wander freely on Sat by myself.

I'm not saying all the stories are BS but take them with a grain of salt. don't believe evrything you read. Mind your own business and the streets of TJ are pretty safe.

[Explorer8939]

Don't worry guys, its a troll:

"Friday night, the Tijuana police stopped me in the back street south of the Hong Kong club and Adelitas, tooked my ID and forced me in the back of the police car. There was another police car behind but no non-Mexicans around."

The 'back street' south of HK and Adelitas is the Alley. As we all know, the Alley is closed to automobiles, due to big holes in the road, not even police cars can get in there now. Just forget about it.

[Amis]

Headache,

Interesting report re Tijuana Police! The Monger's first post documents a TJ police robbery. The incident lacks specifics as to why this fela was stopped? how much money was taken in cash? How much money was withdrawn from ATM and at what location? Most ATM usually allow $300 or $500 maximum per day. That would mean TJ police took at least $500-$700 from monger's pockets in addition to the ATM withdraws? Nor, any description of how many officer's were involved or their Patrol car information. Stopped South of Hong Kong and Adelaita Bar? That is rather vague...AD & Hong Kong are not located together! While these incidents do happen, until I hear it from regular poster's, I am a bit skepitical. I have been going to TJ for over 1.5 years at all kinds of different times and I have never been stopped. I always take taxi from and to the border. Only walk between AD & CC and to the Alley and that is it. The board recommends to take less money and always hide it on your person. May be credit/ATM cards are not a good idea to take to TJ!

[SDcruiser]

Headache, sorry for your lost.

Amigos. This is easily avoided. Carry your license, cash and what ever vitamin 'v' you plan to use. Being an old man of 40yo, I can pretty much preidict whether I'm going to pop 1,2, or 3 times in an eveing. I multiply each pop by $100 and that's all I carry. It gives me enough cash to get a room, beer, food, tips for the dancers and of course getting laid. I can do an AB girl, SG or none at all. So when if I ever get jacked by one of pinche federales, policia or wanna be's they can get what I have on me but no more. If I ever needed 30 pesos to get back to the border I know a few people that would help me out or I'd just walk.

There's no need to carry ATM cards into TJ.

Cruiser

[Pokey]

Headache, did you file a complaint with anyone? Under the street walkers forum I posted a link to TJ"S internal affairs division where you can post your complaint, along with some phone numbers.

[Lee Bog]

The shakedowns seem to happen a lot at night, like Headache's post of 1-24-04.

Headache,

Can you clarify what time of night that happened to you?

What were you wearing? Maybe you looked like someone who'd have money, so they targeted you. How many times have you gone before?

Do a Forum Search for "cops" etc & read some previous posts on what things you could have done to avoid those situations. Hearing about these shakedowns is really discouraging.

Also, you may want to activate your Private Message feature in the User Control Panel to allow people to contact you thru the board without cluttering up the forum.

[Headache]

Friday night, the Tijuana police stopped me in the back street south of the Hong Kong club and Adelitas, tooked my ID and forced me in the back of the police car. There was another police car behind but no non-Mexicans around. They took all my cash and took me to an ATM and ordered me to take all my cash out. They looked at the receipt and told me to repeat the transactions until every last dollar was gone (the payout was in Pesos). Then they took me to the border (in the front seat of the police car) and gave me $10 of what used to be my money to pay for parking. Total loss about $1000.

[Donkey Punch]

fellow *****beeists,

i have finally moved into my new home and now have consistant internet access. i wish i would have had this three weeks ago. it would have saved me $150.

today i have sat around reading all your post for the past months. believe what you read about shakedowns! the heat is on. is there anything that we can do?

first off, sorry for this long post. take from it what you will. it's all real and scary no matter how i try to make it sound.

last sunday (jan 10) i went down to tj to take care of business and have some fun. i ended up staying until tue. on monday i did not leave my hotel until 11pm (only because i partied until 9am on mon., damn 3 ways!) and walked over to revolution to deliver some cologne to a bartender / friend of mine and decide to stroll back to our alley. wrong. this was about 2 am. from now on i will always take a cab. again, taxi libre. as i was walking down 1st (arch, to the left) my spidey senses went off. i ignored them. 5-0 rolled up and waved me to their car. i feel like an a-hole. i spoke in my parent's native tongue and only proceeded to sound like an idiot to them. never again. better to sound condesending, i think. sure enough they searched me and found evidence. great, guilty. in the us if they had even attempted to rifle through my pockets without pc i would have reminded them of the law. i highly doubt that it would have even gotten this far. i'm actually glad this happend. was i worried for the next hour and half while they drove me around? sure. it's true, they have guns and for all i know, why not trade a $.50 bullet for some dough? why am i glad? never in my life could i ever, ever, ever come up with the comedy occured. i now have some great material for my tj script. it is simply laughable and i now know what it will cost me to get out of almost anything if i can somehow manage to play it cool and remain semi-serious.

things to know about my experience:

i somehow felt that i would never see "the judge".

how many cops do you know that will drive you around on their beat because both "the judge" and "the doctor" that is able to administer a [CodeWord140] test is busy?

because of my honorable line of work (actor) they were nice enough to not cuff me but rather let me dangle my hands into their plexiglass window while i was driven around and itimidated. us cops are never that nice.

one officer, the one in the passanger seat that waved me over originally, had what can i only describe as nasal drip. for about the first 45 min. of our tour of the outskirts of tj (the cemetary is very nice) all i could hear from his was sniffle, sniffle, drip, drip. i will buy him some cold medicine next time i go back.

if you listen hard enough and understand my language you can hear the officers talking back and forth to each other. i know the passanger cop told the other one, in a low voice, that i had $200 on me. boy, was he off, i only had $194. dummy.

i tried to keep a straight face and look wide eyed and scared while they explained to me how brutal a "mexican federal prison" is. i'm sure it is horrible, but i somehow felt that reform for me was not their true motive.

be prepared for the tj inquisition, where they get info out of you

-where do work?
-do you have to be at work tommorow?
-boy, won't your family, friends, fans, be ashamed of you when they read about you in your newpapers. i had no idea that tj and the us had reciprocale (who gives a crap how it is spelled) newspapers. if you do read about me, please don't judge me, ok?
-did you drive across?
-where is your car?
-you realize your crime will end up costing you 10k in the long run?
-do you have a lawyer?
-how much do you have on you?
-do you have access to an atm? (idiots, read my "credit card", all i have is an atm card on me, learn the differance!)
-try not to bust out laughing when the officer that is both driving and doing the questioning turns down a one way street, the wrong way, and goes against traffic. at least he pulled by a closed store and asked his partner if this was the place. officer sniffles plays along and quitely replies: "no, i thinks it's closed." please guys, it's 3am, everything is closed on this block.

i offered $100 for their "higher ups". i was informed that this was as offensive as offering my lawyer, that wanted a $2,000 retainer fee, a "chicle". i happen to know that chicles are only worth about 5 cents. i was also informed that even the offense of "[CodeWord134]-[CodeWord134]" in the streets warrented a $200 fine. i didn't think i heard right so i had to say "mande?" once again i was told that to offer $100 is nothing because going "[CodeWord134]-[CodeWord134]" alone would get me a $200 fine. i think "[CodeWord134]-[CodeWord134]" must be a medical term.

once i told them that there was no way i could come up with the $1,000 that it would take to wipe my record clean ("it's not for them but for their higher ups who must delete your horrible crime off of their computers") they then took me to the slammer. i figured that that was it, once there, no turning back. hahahaha / jajajajaja (spanish).

even if you do end up in the slammer, there is no padlock on it. hello mayberry. there is, however, a drain where you can take a, and here is a quote, a "[CodeWord134]-[CodeWord134]". pretendending i couldn't undertand what he said, i actually made the officer repeat it twice to me. [CodeWord134]-[CodeWord134]. (same officer, not another one)

ok, again sorry for the long report. in the end it ended up costing me $150 which i had in "efectivo". the great thing is that they were nice enough to give me a ride back and drop me off a block away from mermaids (across from ab). the jerk in me almost wanted them to drop me right in front of either place.

please stay safe and feel free to contact me for any more details.

love,

donkey punch