Posted on 10/27/2010 5:09:09 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Marisol Valles Garcia, a 20-year-old college student studying criminology, beat 20 other contenders to become police chief of Praxedis, a rural community across the border from Fort Hancock, Texas, that has been rocked by drug-gang violence in recent months...
"Of course I'm afraid, as anyone would be," Valles Garcia told AOL News. "But I really had the desire to do something for my community."
Her approach has raised eyebrows and some hopes even outside her town, one of a string of farming and manufacturing centers in the Juarez Valley, about 35 miles southeast of Mexico's murder capital, Ciudad Juarez...
Valles Garcia got the Praxedis job because she offered a radically new police strategy: emphasize crime prevention and community development and let state and federal forces take on the cartels. Until now, city cops were seen as backup for the federal police and frequently got sucked into the violent tit-for-tat killings that have made the region so dangerous. Under Valles Garcia, the force will have a more proactive role, building social development programs, rather than just simply doing patrols and responding to shots fired.
She intends to send out all-female patrols -- because women "tend to be more sensitive and less intimidating," she said -- backed up by two male officers at the station, along with one patrol vehicle, a rifle and a shotgun. The chief herself freely acknowledges that she doesn't know how to shoot a gun.
"We're not going to walk around armed because we don't want people to be afraid," Valles Garcia said.
(Excerpt) Read more at aolnews.com ...
Sounds like the introduction of the Hooter’s brigade.
Brave or stupid?
She needs our prayers either way.
beat 20 other contenders... "We're not going to walk around armed because we don't want people to be afraid," Valles Garcia said.
When I first heard about her, I was impressed, but I also felt sorry for her because she will be killed. After reading this I just feel sorry for her because she’ll be killed.
Police chief or community organizer?
That’s certainly going to impress the drug cartels.
Maybe they’ll leave her head on her shoulders simply because it’s to their advantage to have someone who is utterly ineffective in that position. Much better for them than some hard-charging, serious, competent reformer.
That’s certainly going to impress the drug cartels.
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Well, they wouldn’t attack unarmed women now would they? /s/
She will either be so rich (from bribes etc) that she will either retire before she turns 25 or more than likely meet a quick demise if she starts getting ‘uppity’ and/or ‘non-cooperative’.
She’s decided to do local, preventative policing - aka social work and community building. Is going to leave drug enforcement to staties and federales. We’ll see how that works out for her.
Sort of a stupid idea but I will give her profs for having the guts to put herself in the line of fire. Of course she will either be co-opted or killed by the drug dealers. Things are getting ugly fast down in old Mexico.
Maybe they’ll leave her alone then.
If she'd use her community organizing skills to put together a posse, then we'd be talking.
A little small town vigilance committee justice might be what the doctor ordered.
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