Zero tolerance meets total tolerance: Giuliani and Mexico City

News Radio 88 ^ | 11/9/02

[areafiftyone]

MEXICO CITY (AP) When Rudy Giuliani comes to Mexico City this month, he'll find a law enforcement system with an Alice in Wonderland quality where cops sometimes are not cops, and it's often better to avoid them than ask for protection.

The former New York mayor, who championed a ``zero-tolerance'' policy credited with drastically reducing crime, was hired in October as an anti-crime consultant for North America's largest city. His first visit, set for Nov. 18, will probably include a tour of some of Mexico City's rougher areas.

But in this megalopolis of 18 million, Giuliani's idea of zero tolerance may clash with a practice of total tolerance, in which the current mayor once ordered police to overlook violations like parking on crosswalks in an effort to reduce corruption.

``Rudy is entering the Twilight Zone of crime,'' wrote newspaper columnist Carlos Toledo.

Police officers have been arrested for holding up other cops, using their patrol cars to kidnap people and taking bribes to let offenders walk. They have fled from armed suspects, yet killed unarmed detainees.

In Mexico City's system of antiquated laws and spotty enforcement, it's all ``by the book'' literally. Cops carry bound versions of traffic laws because the small books are a good place to stash bribes.

Sometimes, what looks like a police officer actually is not: Cops occasionally make extra money by renting out their uniforms, badges and patrol cars to shakedown artists known as ``madrinas'' or ``godmothers.'' City residents have learned to spot the telltale signs of a ``godmother,'' such as ill-fitting uniforms and badge numbers hidden by vests or electrical tape.

``It's good that Giuliani is coming,'' said flower market vendor Ricardo Hernandez, 51, ``but he should bring his own cops. How is he going to get anything done with ours, the way they are, all fat, lazy and crooked?''

The city's latest anti-crime idea only fuels this kind of public scorn. Mexico City officials want mounted police to dress in Mexican cowboy outfits complete with mariachi hats and braid-trimmed pants.

``They can't possibly expect Mexicans to take this seriously,'' said detective novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo II.

Corruption is so rampant that for several months in 1999, only female officers were allowed to issue citations, on the theory that they were less likely to seek bribes.

But why even bother with tickets? Officials estimate that 93 percent are never paid.

In December, Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador tried an approach nearly opposite to that of Giuliani. He slashed traffic fines by 50 percent and ordered police not to tow cars that were double-parked or blocking crosswalks, hoping to make fines less painful and bribes therefore less attractive.

Many criminals seem to have little fear of officers, perhaps because police often back off from armed assailants, discouraged by a legal system in which police are routinely detained as suspects after shooting incidents.

A humiliating video broadcast on television in 2000 showed a dozen Mexico City police officers armed with pistols and shotguns being chased around a line of cars by two men with kitchen knives.

Which is not to say police never get tough. When protesters throw bricks or chunks of concrete at riot police, the police often lob them back.

Police also are confounded by their own obsolete technology. In a city of nearly 3 million cars, there is no reliable registry of license plate numbers. In 1999, a motorist left his license plate embedded in the body of a young woman he ran over. The motorist was never prosecuted.

Mexico City residents have developed survival strategies. Pedestrians hesitate to cross the street to accommodate the stream of motorists who routinely run red lights. At night, many drivers don't stop at lights because they fear carjackers.

On a reconnaissance trip, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said there were a lot of things Giuliani's team couldn't change. ``We are going to take the tolerance that goes on in this society into consideration,'' he said.

But some Mexicans even a veteran crime writer like Taibo are hoping the former New York mayor can tame the city's wild side.

``I was talking to a Czech writer once at a conference, and he said, `You're so lucky. You can just open the newspaper and get a novel,''' Taibo said.

Taibo said he responded: ``I'd change places with you any day of the week.''

[bvw]

"The Castle" -- haven't read it but just read over some reviews. Yes -- if K. had been an "independent agent" he would have either surveyed per common practise, left his bill, it would have been paid and forwarded to him or K would have almost immediately left in the absense of adequate understanding of what was to be done.

K. however has fallen into something like idolatry -- if one avoids idols one gets a better direct connection. This causes confusions and leads to less self-respect for the automony of operation that K. as an agent in the field should expect to enjoy.

An agent has the status of bailor with regards to the property bailed, that is entrusted, to him by the person or incorporate group of persons he is acting as agent for. The agent must keep the property so entrusted to him in better regard than the agent would his own property, and with more care than the common expectation for his own property. But having met that expectation of more care and responsibility for the entrusted property the agent is quite free in his operation on behalf of his Trustee.

Idolatry can also give rise to the confusions of the process of law as well as underregard for agency and other property rights that results in over legislation, over-regulation, and then general scoffing at the law.