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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Baja Cops
City Cops/Country Cops and OONAPAFA
Had to take a quick run to San Lucas yesterday and when I turned on to Mex. 1 (about 6 miles from my village) I came upon a cop needing a ride.
After he got in the car he told me he lived just down the road at Campamento but he worked in Miraflores, a few kilometers south.
We talked a little about what a drag it was not to have a car but I seemed more bummed for him than he was. There are several reasons I usually stop
for cops. A lot of them don’t have cars or trucks and have to hitch to get to and from work. A lot of country people in this part of Mexico show
little respect for police – they lump them with “the authorities” so there’s a fair amount of fear in just that part. Then, of course there will be
locals who stay clear of them for fear of having to pay a fee or fine for some failure to meet automobile and/or traffic standards.
It’s hot out there and while that little factoid might put a smile on the face of the motorists whizzing by, the cops must feel like they’re caught in
some strange warped system where they are often called to serve and protect while they are underpaid and really underloved.
I can’t help but wonder how the scheduling works. If this young cop’s shift in Miraflores starts at 8 AM, for example, and he doesn’t get a ride until
10, do they mark him down as “late for work”? If he catches the very first ride at 6:30, do they let him take a nap in the back room for an hour or
so? What if he doesn’t get a ride? He can’t stand out there in the heat all day!
What else is going on in my car while he’s riding cool and early in the back seat? What he doesn’t know is that I have no insurance. Also the car is
not registered – it has been in the process of registration for many years with a civil union known as OONAPAFA. My wife and I have Mexican driver’s
licenses and we are not wearing our seatbelts.
So I’m driving along wondering what he would do if I got on the pedal and pushed the speed up to way over the limit. Also, he saw my OONAPAFA sticker
when he got in so he’s on his own about my lack of registration if we got stopped by a highway cop. Would the highway cop just give me a pass because
I was giving a cop a ride to work? The cops around here are shifted around to different offices so in the last 14 years I’ve probably given a whole
lot of them rides and they remember my cars, my beard, my name maybe. I feel good about that whole scenario.
I really can’t speak about big city or highway cops except to say that country cops seem pretty laid back while I suppose any cop in TJ has to have
his wits about him every moment on the job because the position, the uniform puts him in a lot of danger.
We’ve all learned a lot from Cabo Ron and Gnukid about police but a lot of those posts just added salt to open wounds about all the bad things
happening in Baja California. Until we can all feel a little better about the general tenor of the Nomad board I’ll try to recount some of the good
things that happen around my little place down south.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6742
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Thanks Osprey! Always enjoy a GOOD story.
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Well, I guess that didn't work. How about I report something local and nice about, say, kids or ponys or flowers?
Maybe I'll try just one more time. Our local cops found my dog, took my 100 pesos reward with a smile. They found my bike and brought it back,
wouldn't take a reward. They chased a burglar through my yard (in the middle of the day) shooting the only pistol in town. I really didn't see them
aiming the thing at him -- they might have just fired it to get him to stop but it didn't work. When they come around for collections if they have a
sheet with the amount and the names I put down my name, then fill in $2,500 pesos. Whan I hand them my $100 pesos I tell them the story about the
bartender and the tip glass. I'm not sure they get it. I dig country cops.
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BajaGeoff
Super Nomad
Posts: 1727
Registered: 1-11-2006
Location: San Diego and Campo Lopez
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Mood: Heading To Baja!!!
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Woooosh,
It sounds like your nephew had just bought the truck from someone else. Did he have paperwork on hand to prove the truck was in fact his and not the
previous owner?
Just trying to figure out why the cops thought the truck might be stolen....
(edited because i misspelled Woooosh)
[Edited on 6-14-2009 by BajaGeoff]
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Alan
Super Nomad
Posts: 1628
Registered: 4-6-2005
Location: Yucaipa, CA/La Paz
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Keep on posting Osprey. I'm realizing it is pretty much the same naysayers that find something negative in every posting. I've just taken to
shutting them out.
Great post on the cops. I'm still reminded of my encounter with a Rosarito cop who was moonlighting as a security guard at the dairy there. The
bolts holding the axle on my boat trailer had come off on my way home from BoLA. This cop spent at least 4 hours with me and running back and forth
getting tools and another jack from the dairy and helping me reinstall the axle. We got the axle back on but had to wait for morning for a tire shop
to open. When he got off work in the morning he led me to the tire shop and would only take gas money since the tire shop was out of his way. The
owner's of the dairy invited me and my kids to spend the rest of the night at their house. I thanked them but explained I would feel better sleeping
in my camper and staying with my boat.
In Memory of E-57
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longlegsinlapaz
Super Nomad
Posts: 1685
Registered: 11-18-2005
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Well, I guess that didn't work. |
Well, it STARTED OUT really good Osprey! You get an A for effort in my
book! 
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DianaT
Select Nomad
Posts: 10020
Registered: 12-17-2004
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
City Cops/Country Cops and OONAPAFA
I really can’t speak about big city or highway cops except to say that country cops seem pretty laid back while I suppose any cop in TJ has to have
his wits about him every moment on the job because the position, the uniform puts him in a lot of danger.
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Great Story Osprey---really liked it --as always, well thought out and well written.
---just a couple of our country cops---
Our Chief enjoying the last bike race in town
Enjoying one of the fishing tournaments
And Lere busy with official police business
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
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Mood: undecided
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Osprey, Enjoy your stories and take back half of the bad stuff I spouted out about you.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Diane's photos made me want to highjack my own thread. Here's a little something about the pictures we didn't take.
The pictures you didn’t take.
When I talk to my Mexican friends about taking pictures I have to smile each time I say saco. When you think about it, on all the old cameras one
would have to “take out the film” or “take out the snapshot” so the verb sacar fits perfectly.
Some people are very sentimental – they safeguard, store and protect mountains of memorabilia. When they see or touch these treasures, memories come
flooding back in vivid detail for them to savor and cherish again and again. I envy those folks. About the best I can do is take pictures. I used to
keep them in a big plastic storage bin; now they’re split between that bin, some small snapshot albums and my computer.
I must be a little sentimental too because I don’t remember throwing any of them away – that says something because I have hundreds and not all of
them are photographic winners. I suppose part of the reason is they are easy to store, miniscule compared to memorabilia. I seem to remember all the
people in the shots so there must have been some forethought about the setting when I took them. Maybe that just says that when I got drunk, I didn’t
go looking for the camera.
Many of them are vacation-travel shots or fishing trips. The labels on the big manila envelopes tell the tall tale: People, Parties, Utah, Baja, All
Fish, Animals. One might suppose a biographer could make something of the labels; say they are the sum and substance of my life. I don’t think so.
Even the computer folder names like Mountains, Fishing, Flowers, Beaches, Family don’t tell the whole story even though you can easily find the mark
where I retired. What I’m looking for when I walk back down memory lane are all the shots I didn’t take and why.
It’s almost as though I cherry picked my snapshot life to preserve, for some saddest of days, just the good, the grand, the days without worry or
strife or guilt. Nobody could do it better – did I always have a camera at hand when I knew there were going to be snippets of balloons and ice cream
and cartwheels and sleigh rides and made damn sure there were no cameras around near my jail cell, my hospital room or funerals.
Now, looking through stacks or folders I see lots of romping puppies and lively dogs – not one shot of Chipper bleeding all over the back seat of the
car. Here’s Pinky and Delia, mugging for us, splashing the camera in the Lazy River at the water park; none at Delia’s interment. I wonder if these
are the kinds of wafer-thin time machines the police find at the homes of those who lose it all, lose all control that fatal last time. Forensic
investigators would say “These are just innocent candy for the mind. They are the guy’s Tinker Bell alter ego. He can’t show us what happened when
there was no time for a camera or tell us now about all the times he would have broken any camera pointed his way.”
Maybe we are way more clever than we think. Maybe we all intuit things that happen that we don’t want to get into one of those envelopes. It wouldn’t
matter much because if we did record something revealing or incriminating we would get that funny feeling about others seeing it – we would pull it
out of the little pile, be done with it because we all know it never happened that way.
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Woooosh
Banned
Posts: 5240
Registered: 1-28-2007
Location: Rosarito Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Luminescent Waves at Rosarito Beach
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There I deleted my post.
Cencorship by peer is no better than censorship by moderator or by gov't. Keep your heads in the sand. Support the police. Trust the police. Love
the Police. They will love you right back- until they don't.
You posted a thread about the wonderful, kind, poor Mexican policeman hitch hiking you picked up while driving your illegal vehicle. How ghetto.
And you mention "city cops" might be different- ya think?
[Edited on 6-14-2009 by Woooosh]
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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How Ghetto? Now I think mayber city boys are not the same as us country cousins. Seems like just a few seconds ago there wasn't much difference that I
could feel thru the cyberwaves. How Ghetto? Wanna expand that little dicho?
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LB
Junior Nomad
Posts: 74
Registered: 10-1-2008
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A perfect Example of a beautiful story by Osprey (who I enjoy reading)
turned negative!!
The "Country Cops" make under $500.00 a month. I am familiar with the
Miraflores cop, often walking and hoping for a ride. His stories of his small
town might be interesting....who did he help and what has he seen.
Keep telling your stories Osprey...some of us love them!
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Woooosh
Banned
Posts: 5240
Registered: 1-28-2007
Location: Rosarito Beach
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Mood: Luminescent Waves at Rosarito Beach
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BajaGeoff
Woooosh,
It sounds like your nephew had just bought the truck from someone else. Did he have paperwork on hand to prove the truck was in fact his and not the
previous owner?
Just trying to figure out why the cops thought the truck might be stolen....
(edited because i misspelled Woooosh)
[Edited on 6-14-2009 by BajaGeoff] |
My Nephews truck was all in order. I insist on it. He had the current registration that matched his name, insurance and the truck plates.
The masked no-name tage idiots at the checkpoint said they had a "tip" about his truck from a "witness", but two of the plate numbers were different
from his and the truck model was different. Even still, they arrested him and impounded the truck. With his laptop and nice clothes they thought
they had caught someone else and they were celebrating. (There aren't many men in college in Mexico and they figure the smart kids work for the
narcos).
He was interrogated at the station. Their "tip"went back to well before he bought the truck- so he wrote a statement. They had a newspaper reporter
photograph him against that TJ police banner we see on the news.
He used his one call from Jail to call the previous owner of the truck so he could come to TJ to clear it up (next time I told him to call our lawyer
and tell the lawyer who to call). The man was nice enough to drive from Mexicali the next morning. When he arrived they photographed him too and both
were released with comment or apology. They didn't have the right truck to begin with.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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Woooosh
Banned
Posts: 5240
Registered: 1-28-2007
Location: Rosarito Beach
Member Is Offline
Mood: Luminescent Waves at Rosarito Beach
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
How Ghetto? Now I think mayber city boys are not the same as us country cousins. Seems like just a few seconds ago there wasn't much difference that I
could feel thru the cyberwaves. How Ghetto? Wanna expand that little dicho? |
I'm so sorry. I meant "baja ghetto".
Driving an illegal vehicle while giving a cop a ride (all along hoping the cop won't find out its illegal) is ghettto. Or do you folks down there pay
the mordidas and think that is cute and cultural too? You do it- you own it.
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Your hipspeak is almost as bad as some of the pilotspeak. My car is legal. Always has been. Ju know nothing about OONAPAFA? I don't pay very much
mordida because I don't get between that situation and my pocket and because I live on the thin money edge like most people in this village. I help
the police when I can because they help me. You, my man, need a vacation in the country or a ticket out of your own personal real or mental Dodge.
Chill (is that still innercity? Just saying...)
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Pescador
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3587
Registered: 10-17-2002
Location: Baja California Sur
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Well Osprey, again we think along similar lines. In our small village I make it a point to get to know the local police and after talking to them and
finding out they make 3000 to 4000 pesos a month I know why their lifestyle is the way it is. I suppose I was being self serving in the beginning
when I took fish to them and was hoping for a little extra bit of surveilence when I was not around, but later when I got to know the families and
relatives, I found a genuine liking for most of them. I have relatives in the United States who became policemen because of the power that comes with
the position and they wore their badge with what one could only call a "flair of authority". In Mexico, I see much less of that and while I have had
the "little bite" and gamesmanship of "paying a ticket in person", I generally do not see the personalities as their stateside brothers.
So the other day a couple of peope had parked by the boat ramp in a jumble of cars and trailers, and three of these were in areas that were deemed
incorrect. When I noticed them writing tickets to put on the windshield, I asked why I had not received one (not that I really wanted one, I was just
trying to clarify), I was told, with a shy smile, that the others needed to learn how to park their trucks and trailers as well as I had.
Another time one of the policemen whom I had given a really big yellowtail to, came by and said that his wife had sent him over for a second one. I
laughed and said then he really needed to buy a panga so that he could send his wife out and she could get her own. This particular guy was always
very good at asking for lots of things but after that he took whatever was given in good spirit and never personally asked me for anything else.
The Federales, however, are much closer in stature and social position to their northern brothers, so perhaps it is buy another glimpse into a
lifestyle and culture that we are able to occasioally peer into.
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larryC
Super Nomad
Posts: 1499
Registered: 8-11-2008
Location: BoLA
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We have a sinilar situation here in BoLA, the cops are not liked by the locals but are expected to do the dangerous work for little pay and no
respect. So a group of us gringos had a meeting with the comandante and asked how we could help them combat the growing problem of breakins that occur
around here. They suggested being more watchful of your neighbors house, call them if we saw any suspicious activity, etc etc, the normal stuff. After
the meeting, I was talking to one of the officers and and I asked where they live during their 4 day shift here in Bahia, ( most are from either San
Quintine, or Ensenada) so he showed me where they live and sleep during their off hours. It was depressing to say the least. 3 people sleep in an 8x10
room with no windows. Their refer had died a month or so ago so no refrigeration, one small 2 burner stove in the hallway to cook their meals on. No
A/C at all so in the summer months it must really be miserable. The bathroom facilities were equally lacking, The shower consists of a pvc pipe
sticking out of the wall with no hot water, not too big a deal in the summer months but in the winter must really be tough.
To make a long story short a group of us got together and started rounding up some stuff to make their living conditions better. To date we have
acquired a small travel trailer with 3 beds, 2 A/C units to install in their office and in the trailer, an electric water heater, an apartment sized
refer some spot lights for their vehicles, plus some cash donations so we can hire a local to install and hook up the plumbing and electical stuff.
The benefits of this showing of respect has been positive, and we hope it will continue. The police lost the respect of the people for a reason, but
maybe that can be won back through kindness and caring. We'll see.
Larry
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rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Was good.
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Osprey....thanks for this thread...I also have generally had good experiences with local police...I support the Mulegé police 100%...
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
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Martyman
Super Nomad
Posts: 1904
Registered: 9-10-2004
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I gave a ride to a young soldier who needed to get to a drug/gun checkpoint. He was a nice young man from Chihuahua who wanted to tell me about the
ranchero music he loved. When we got to the military stop and the back door opened and he got out, all the hard burro looks went to smiles and they
waved us through with a pasa adelante.
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shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13050
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
Member Is Offline
Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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Larry, that is BRILLiANT... good for you. Lack of understanding is generally the problem and I love how you got in there and learned first hand about
their living conditions which obviously will reflect in their work. We are always willing to help out with teams, under priveledged kids, schools
etc. but often overlook others who may need our help.
It's a shame your cops arent local like ours. Sometimes we get a commandante from another village, but the cops are usually young folks from here who
cant find work...dont want to be fishermen or waitresses. We know them, know their families and they know who is who in the town and what the problems
are, who the hotheads are, who gets too drunk etc., which vehicles arent from here, who the ratas are etc. We love and respect them and help them do
their job as well as treat them to something nice every once in awhile....fish, cookies, soda...whatever.
They give the visitors a break and know that they dont know where all the little stop signs are etc. so just give them a warning and usually escort
them to our place. They sing to the lady visitors and love getting their pictures taken! We have their home numbers in case of emergency and they are
always willing to listen to concerns and respond.
here is the smiley comandante with Shipwreck Sarah.
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