I'd just as soon take my chances in not getting robbed by bad guys and/or the authorities, shot, killed or kidnapped by savage Mexican citizenry, and stay out of Mexico.
I was robbed, and then held hostage for ransom, and had my kids threatened to be shot in the head unless I co-operated.
That was Roland, OK, USA, 2001.
The local cop. It was
sick in that cop house. Worse than a bad movie.
I signed papers. What can I do now about it?
I went to Mexico in 1993 and again after the Zapatista Uprising [pissed off that American Companies were coming into S. Mexico, kicking people off the land that their ancestors lived on for hundreds of years (before white man), clear-cutting it, and then raising cattle, which got shipped live over to Texas and slaughtered there as USA beef to be sold as Big Macs] in 1995 when there was a much greater "police" presence. The first cop we met in 1993 caught us camping directly under a sign that said "no camping", and he was only concerned that we didn't have guns, and left us alone. Never had another run-in that trip. The cops robbed me twice in 1995. We were prepared, and they didn't get much the first time, driving 100 miles from Mexico City on the west side. We played stupid, and kept him there for 5 or 10 mins looking up words that sound similar to "infraction" in our dictionary. "Oh! We broke the law!?!? Can we pay the fine right now? Here we have these small coins. We are on the way to the ATM." He never turned off his light. He had just finished with someone else when we passed him. When he left us, he pulled over the very next guy he got behind. I'm sure he lost money on us!:wink1: Two others tried, but we told them we were just robbed by the first cop, and he got all our $$$. Then the last time, 5 cops with long guns caught us at camp and got a bit more paper cash that I had in pocket, for "protection", but still not much. Then they asked for the "big bills." My bro was sure we were gonna die and disappear into the ocean. "Give it to them" he said, about to poop his shorts. I told him to show them his ATM card (they were a relatively new concept, then). "OK" the cops said. Then they saw our small boom-box radio, and wanted to take it. My bro suddenly grew balls and said "**** no!" (that was our sanity on the road). They said "OK". And left.
A Canadian couple pulled up the next few days, and we warned them. The cops got to them that night before we could get back to camp, and the old man met them with a machete. They asked him what he would do, since they had guns. He said he was a German Paratrooper in WWII, and had been down behind the lines twice, and had faced death more than they would ever know, and they were not getting a penny. They said "OK" and left.
But all the people I met in Mexico were some of the kindest, nicest open-minded, un-bigoted people I have ever met.
Back in the USA, I've been intimidated by large groups of cops (7 Jersy bois in a circle around me, holding their batons in hand, and I'm a 115lb skinny short peaceful hippie looking guy) and illegally searched because of a cracked windshield; harassed for 45 mins by cops in "American Falls", ID, when I ran outta gas, who told me they were the "good guys"; pulled over in NC for ===wait for it=== driving 65 in a 65 zone while he rode my bumper for 20 miles while traffic wizzed by at 75 in the fast lane (really, he just didn't like my bumper sticker); and my favorite, when I was pulled over for ===singing=== along with the radio while looking at a cop who was passing in the other direction: "don't make faces at cops!" he said angrily, after illegally pulling me over. Then there was the time the Penn State National Guard showed up to a Dead show I went to in Hershey, complete with 3 tanks in their convoy of 30 large vehicles. Presumably because hippies in school buses are a terrorist threat to Merica. EDIT: and at that show, there were thousands of cops, staged just a few hundred feet apart, walking down every parking lot isle, so one was walking by your car every 30-60 seconds. Totally a police-state. I only got 2 BTs in.
By my experience, Gimme a Mexican cop over an American one any day.
And there are WAY too many disgusting bigots here.
