Mexican PoliceThe Police, the man, the po-po, the 5-0, or in Mexico
simply la policia. Acapulco's got a case of them, for sure. I put this page
between the All Things Annoying and Spelling Trouble sections because I think in
most people's book, that's about where the police should go.
Before
going into details, I think the best way to start the discussion is with a few
of the many personal experiences I've had with the Mexican police which I've
made into three brief stories which I think well captures the essence of things.
All the stories are true.
Story #1: The Bridge
Story #2:
Guadalajara with Benoit
Story #3: The Watch
To be sure, the
Mexican police are plenty different than their northern counterparts and in my
opinion are generally laid back and friendly or at least not anywhere near as
meddlesome and authoritarian as the police back home.
Of course, that's
not to say there aren't a few bad apples. I have heard of police shake down
schemes once in a blue moon. There was one in the newspaper this week (Jan. 26,
2005 in Novedades "Asaltan policias a turista extranjero" submitted by Jose Luis
Rodriguez Alcaraz) in which three policeman are alleged to have stopped a
tourist walking alone on La Costera (Acapulco's main drag) and relieved him of
$300 dollars. I can say that I've been in searched by the police on a few
occasions with big wads of money in my pocket and nothing has gone missing yet
but I don't doubt that this happened either.
I mention all this not to
scare anyone, but because there are two bright spots to the story:
#1 The
story itself. It made the FRONT PAGE of Acapulco's biggest newspaper
#2
It looks like the tourist filed a suit and the police that were involved are
going to be in a heap of trouble.. as they should be.
I call that
progress. Tourism is big business in Acapulco and none of the city bigwigs want
this sort of thing in their city. That much is certain. Really, things like this
don't happen too often, most of the bad police stories that you hear about in
the U.S. media take place in Mexico City which is a whole world apart from
Acapulco.
In Acapulco, as in the rest of Mexico, police don't always
command respect and their word is not taken as truth as it is in the U.S. This
is because Mexican police are widely associated with corruption. In fact, one
can't begin to talk about the police without first mentioning the term most
widely associated with them - the mordida or literally “the bite.”
A
mordida is a small bribe you pay the police to let you off the hook for
something, typically a minor offense that you committed. Sure, perhaps by US
standards this is corruption, but I think the system works just fine. I’ve been
pulled over or stopped in one form or another about a dozen times and have only
paid three mordidas, and only one in Acapulco (which was my fault for double
parking right on the corner of a major intersection). Grand total for the four
years I've spent in Mexico: $47 USD. Compare that to a single speeding ticket in
the US and you’ll see that all is not too bad.
What do I do if I get
stopped by the police?
By and large, Mexican cops really want a hassle
less than you do and he is most likely looking for a small bribe to go away
(unless you really have done something serious. See Spelling Trouble). Oh, he’ll
threaten you with a major hassle… like impounding your car, or taking your
drivers license to some location you’ve never heard of for a seemly endless
amount of time etc.. and all this can seem pretty intimidating, but always
remember to be super nice and friendly. This is the part where you're getting
softend up. The wrong thing to do is to get pissy, and the really wrong way is
get indignant and to accuse them of corruption. And the super duper wrong thing
to do is to start in with "I'm an American and I come from the most powerful
country on earth blah, blah..."
It’s always best to play along and be
all smiles and sunshine without acting scared (otherwise your mordida goes up in
price). If you have a little cash in your pocket, the easiest thing to do is
just pay the mordida and instead of getting upset, just add it to your
collection of colorful stories. If you speak Spanish, you can usually bargain
quite a bit. If you’re not dealing with the dreaded federales, a mordida should
be somewhere between 20 and 100 pesos. Compare that to a speeding ticket in the
US and you’ll see that it’s not too bad a deal if you can overcome your unease
as the cop goes through the motions to soften you up for the bite.
The
key to entering the negotiation phase are three words... "Echeme la mano" which
means litterally "throw out the hand" but is more akin to our "help me out" - a
term universally understood to mean you know the score and are ready to bring
the excitement to a close.
Either that or pretend like you don’t speak
Spanish and sort of smile say gracias a lot and slowly walk away. It's worked
for me before.
Really, in Acapulco the likelyhood of coming face to face
with a situation as a tourist is almost nill. When you're a resident, sooneror
later it'll happen.
I just noticed that I've made an entire section on
police without actually once mentioning what to do if you need their help.
As you've probably divined by this point, I would not recommend messing
with the police if it's something small, I'd let it slide. If you need a police
report for your insurance company in the event something is stolen, you can go
down to the station and get one with no hassles. The tourist police can help you
as well.
If you do need the police for something serious, believe me
they'd drop everything to help you. Acapulco is a pretty safe place, most likely
safer than many neighborhoods within a bike ride from your home in your city, so
you shouldn't expect any trouble.
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