Free Republic

Few rituals are more futile than the "housecleaning" of Mexico's police forces. So deep, broad and brazen is cop corruption south of the border that removing it makes eradicating rats from landfills look easy. Mexico stages quasi-annual purges of officers high and low — last year it was 284 federal police commanders — and yet every year it seems to find itself with an even more criminal constabulary. This year's scandals, however, are especially appalling. Over the summer, President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug czar, Noe Ramirez, resigned abruptly. This week, the likely reason became apparent after Ramirez was detained and accused...

Surfer's Baja tale is warning to others Camping trip ended in robbery, assault By Terry Rodgers UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER November 19, 2007 Pat Weber didn't plan on being part of a crime trend that has generated worldwide buzz this past week, but he didn't have much choice. The Encinitas resident and surfing instructor got lost on a dirt road in Baja California last month while looking for a surfing spot called Cuatro Casas. He and his girlfriend decided to park for the night on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Just after sundown, two men wearing ski masks approached Weber's motor...

In Mexico, the war against crime is also a war against law enforcement. If that seems like a head-scratcher, it is. But the paradox is real, and it is disturbing. Corruption has blurred the line between the good guys and the bad guys. advertisement Mexican President Felipe Calderón has launched a campaign against crime. Others have done the same, but Calderón is different. He recognizes something that eluded too many of his predecessors: You cannot fight crime without fighting the criminal element within law enforcement. In what observers called the biggest crackdown on organized crime in years, government officials recently...

MEXICO CITY - Six federal police officers involved in President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug operation were being investigated for extortion on Friday after they were videotaped taking money from a driver in the border city of Tijuana, officials said. The men, part of a force of more than 3,300 police and soldiers sent to Tijuana to clamp down on drug gangs and corruption, will be punished if found guilty, the Public Safety Department said in a statement. A videotape recorded by the Tijuana city police department shows the officers at a checkpoint stopping a motorist and searching his vehicle. After a...

19 convicted as Mexican style of corruption moves north of the border BROWNSVILLE — The bribe has long been a shortcut to wealth and power along the Texas-Mexico border. But these days, it's not just politicians lining their pockets or crooked lawmen taking bags of cash to overlook drug loads. The culture of bribery is quietly seeping into new realms of government, from school districts to municipal court, experts say. Proximity to Mexico is at least partly to blame, said Anthony Knopp, a professor who teaches border history at the University of Texas at Brownsville. "What we're dealing with is...

BRADENTON -- For years, the Bradenton Police Department has quietly, without judicial review, confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property from people they arrested for drug possession and other crimes. The police bypass the courts and confiscate money and property on the spot through a department-created form called the "Contraband Forfeiture Agreement." By signing it, a person agrees to relinquish their property to the police and waive any rights they have to try to get it back through the courts. In some cases -- including one last year where police seized more than $43,000 from a man...