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Stephanie Jackter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 566
Registered: 11-3-2002
Location: Arizona
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Gato, Stating that this could have been good police work is denying reality.
It started off with them passing a pedestrian female in a truck and whistling at her and escalated to searching her at the side of the road with no
provocation from her to be stopped in the first place. Her big crime was being an American female walking alone.
The fact that they stole her money afterward is just another good indicator that they were corrupt to begin with.
Imagine if this law were enforced widely in Mexico. It would shut down half the pharmacies in the country would shut down in a week.
This enforcement was a total red herring and this woman just had one unlucky day from Hell that could ruin the whole rest of her life, victimized by
those who should have been protecting her.
If you see any sign even of potentially good police work here, you must have those rosey colored glasses up real close to your eyes. - Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4342
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
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Steph
I am still awaiting a 'smily' that shows toungue planted FIRMLY in cheek.
This ain't my first row-d--o.
I am nothing if not a realist.
What happened to Ms. Wilson is a damn shame. The worst case of bad timing imaginable.
The campo in Baja Norte where my family's house has been for the last 43 years has had a continuing problem with break-ins the last 3-4 years by the
local druggies. Perps have been caught red-handed with property from the gringos casa and the cops do NOTHING.
I love Mexico and it's people and I will continue to travel all over Baja and the mainland. I hope that my actions never put me at odds with the
authorities because I too would probably come out on the short end of the stick.
I have been pulled over by the police 6 times in the last 8 years driving in Baja (in the prior 22 years,never).Once in Rosarito for running a red
light that was actually not operating and the desk sargeant let me go, all very professional. Once in La Paz for going the wrong way down a one way
street. The officer could have written me up for two violations, dis obeying the signage and wrong way driving. He chose to write me up for one only
and I paid the fine $11.60 US at the station downtown and then got my driver's license back. The other four times I have been pulled over I challenged
the voracity of the (false) claims of violations and each time I was sent on my way and told to 'drive safely'.
It is a shame that the news does not print the stories involving the good cops and only the corrupt ones.
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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Stephanie Jackter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 566
Registered: 11-3-2002
Location: Arizona
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Sorry. Good news is simply not news. That's life.
Thanks for clarifying your stance that the Dawn Wilson case stinks.
If you've read my past posts, you know that I adore all things BCS. But I do admit, I'm very suspicious of what can happen to me as a gringa in BC.
I've heard too many rotten stories of tourists getting beat with pipes or raped or God knows what to feel safe as an American female without
connections running around northern Baja.
I know that even with the possibilities of negative things happening, the odds are good that nothing so bad will, but I'm quite happy to improve my
odds by staying one state south where, there are much fewer Americans and not coincidentally, much less animosity and violence toward the ones that
are there.
I used to go to Mexico City regularly in my youth. When my father was alive, he was an overseas executive there and had a ton of connections. Those
connections were so important that I felt I could get out of most scrapes with the help of him and his friends, and actually did get out of couple
that way.
Since his death, though, I haven't gone to Mexico City once. It is now a crap shoot for me to go there. I would be just another tourist who could be
easily victimized with no recourse against a system that might railroad me for extortion or out of anger toward Americans.
I feel that one has to consider those same potential outcomes in northern Baja more and more. -
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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Herb
Nomad
Posts: 202
Registered: 11-6-2003
Location: Torrance, CA
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Stephanie Jackter
Thanks for clarifying your stance that the Dawn Wilson case stinks.
If you've read my past posts, you know that I adore all things BCS. But I do admit, I'm very suspicious of what can happen to me as a gringa in BC.
I've heard too many rotten stories of tourists getting beat with pipes or raped or God knows what to feel safe as an American female without
connections running around northern Baja.
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I think we tend to get so caught up in the sensationalism of individual stories that we really don't see the issue objectively. The fact is that you
are far more likely to be beaten with pipes or raped (or even shot) as a Gringa walking the streets in most places in the US than nearly any place in
BC.
There are so many serial rapists running around LA county right now that they are not even considered front page news until they are actually caught.
One just struck again within 2 blocks of my home and this is a "nice" neighborhood.
To me a perp is a perp whether he is wearing a uniform or not and there's a lot more of them in my neck of the woods than norhtern Baja...
Just my 2 cents...
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Stephanie Jackter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 566
Registered: 11-3-2002
Location: Arizona
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It is all very much in what you're used to.
I remember that after having lived in La Paz for a year and a half, I was actually a little fearful of returning to Tucson. The only contact I had at
that point with Tucson was reading about a murder or so every couple of days on the internet news. At the time I lived in La Paz, there were only a
couple of murders in a year or so.
Having said that, I still believe strongly that my travelling to Tijuana or Mexico City as a white, blue eyed, female tourist- and god forbid, if I
were young and cute again - carries more danger of running into problems than any trip I might make to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles the pool of
targets for that rapist is way larger than the pool of American looking targets in Tijuana and Mexico City.
I agree that on the whole, there is a general perception in America that there is much more corruption in Mexico in general than there is. And, of
course, I wouldn't walk the streets at night in Newark either. But there are certain places in Mexico that I don't care to tempt fate, because I know
I would fall into a target victimization population. Why go some place as a tourist where you are not likely to have your security relatively assured?
It just doesn't make sense. Simple as that. - Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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Herb
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Posts: 202
Registered: 11-6-2003
Location: Torrance, CA
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You are right, it is very much what you are used to.
It is also a matter of how much risk you are willing to assume and what the payoff is. I myself avoid Tijuana like the plague. Just not enough that is
uniquely pleasing to me there to be worth any potential hassles. However, having lived in both the DF (Mexico City) and Los Angeles, I much prefer
the former and believe it to be safer. I think most gringos, feel more comfortable about being able to spot where a potential threat may come from
here in LA, though.
Of course real hard statistical analysis suggests that, as individuals, we are unlikely to become victims of crime in any area. It's just that some
areas are riskier than others, but the odds are in your favor overall in most places. (I'm not aware of too many places where more than 50% of
visitors are attacked)
My job requires me to visit Compton once or twice a week and I've never had a problem. I just recently narrowly missed being caught in the crossfire
of a shooting in Redondo Beach, though. So, I just go anywhere I believe there is something of interest to me and let whatever happens, happen. One
way or another, life is short and I intend to enjoy it to the fullest!
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Stephanie Jackter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 566
Registered: 11-3-2002
Location: Arizona
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I do understand your point, Herb.
But I too, have lived in Mexico City. It was for a period, all told, of about a year and a half during a number of visits in my teens. I, as a
young, attractive American woman, definitely stood out. During the time I was there, I was violently grabbed, but manage to get away from, a man in
Chapultepec park. I had my backback shredded with a razor blade on the bus by a man trying to steal my wallet, I had my passport and money stolen on
another occasion on a bus, and I was molested on a metro car that was packed so tight with people that there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.
I've also got an old college buddy from Bakersfield. She still has friends in Puebla from when we went to the Universidad de Las Americas. She used
to go the quickest way, through Mexico City, to get there each summer. A couple of years ago she started going all the way across to Texas and down
the east coast of Mexico just to avoid Mexico City, as every time she got on the periferico, she would get pulled over and have to lay $50 to $100 on
a cop to get out of some trumped up infraction.
Tourists, and especially female tourists, know where they feel welcomed and where they do not. I liked the cosmopolitan feel of Mexico City, but what
I, as a woman, would have had to go through to keep living there was not worth the trade.
I think being a man gives you a certain immunity wherever you go that you might well take for granted. Females are much more at risk for
victimization- as Dawn Wilson definitely was- and we probably are more likely to want to be in the safest place because of all the possibilities of
what can befall us.
I didn't just fall of the turnip truck either. I lived for 12 years in the worst neighborhood in Tucson. But all the more reason to recognize the
HUGE difference between levels of tourist safety in La Paz and those in Tijuana.
By the way......... I just heard an Amnesty International report that states that one in three women worldwide are physically assaulted in their
lifetimes, and as we were discussing earlier, usually at the hands of a loved one. They did not make a distinction between the so called "developed"
countries and those that are not.
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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Herb
Nomad
Posts: 202
Registered: 11-6-2003
Location: Torrance, CA
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Alright Stephanie, I concede that I cannot begin to truly know what the experience is like for a female in spite of my photographed experience of
getting in touch with my feminine side in another thread. 
The sad part, though, is how much of what you and your friend have experienced is the result of international cultural ignorance which is prevalent on
both sides of the border. It has been my experience that many men in Mexico?s urban areas tend to be more restrained about doing "forward" things with
strange women except when it comes to "gringas" whom TV and movies (and college students on spring break) have convinced them are wild women who are
willing to do "almost anything."
I experienced this many times while living in the DF as a college student. My Mexican friends would date American students and expect them to be
"freaks" behind closed doors. Heck, I even dated a Mexican woman who became frustrated because I was being a "gentleman". It was not what she expected
from a gringo man, and her desires were not what I expected from a Mexicana and I was REALLY terrified of what her brother (a friend of mine) might do
to me if I acted any differently.
(He later explained to me one night when we had both had too much tequila that, "Ella coje como coneja, y tu no la hiciste? Que te pasa, buey?")
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Stephanie Jackter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 566
Registered: 11-3-2002
Location: Arizona
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Yep, those persnikity stereotypes that screw us all up..
Forgot to tell you, that photo brings out the secret inner lesbian in me. I bet you're a fun guy at parties! - Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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