It’s the time of the year when we all start thinking about the beaches in Las Conchas, down Rocky Point way. I won’t be going this fall; got a trip to Metropolis instead.
You may recall that the TW Blog reported last spring that former TW staff writer Saxon Burns got popped for “driving angrily” on his way out of Puerto Penasco last year. It sounded like a cheap shakedown to us.
It appears that may be ongoing problem in Rocky Point, according to De Frente, a great resource for English translations of the Penasco news.
Such a shame to see paradise lost, little by little.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2007.
Interesting article. But the focus on educating tourists about their rights seems totally off base. This is from the article: “He also said, “with this campaign of flyers we aim to help the tourist to be aware of his rights, and not pay bribes to transit offices, this will stop the proliferation of extortion against the tourist and the common citizen.” Okay, so I’m now aware of my rights. Then I get stopped and shaken down by one of Penasco’s finest. What happens when I begin to inform the nice officer of my rights? Will he go quietly in the night or will I be spending the night at the local jail? If they’re serious about cracking down on their corrupt cops, then start with them-not tourists.
It is a problem that cuts both ways.
American tourists show up, figure there are no laws in Mexico, disobeys laws and get busted. Cops often don’t want the inconvenience of going to the station and filling out a form for the fine, so just ask for a bribe and pocket the money. So the cops get a little greedy and start working to make money even when only a warning should have been presented (or there is no crime at all). So the effort is to keep as many Americans as possible from paying police so that the cops will realize that they should just issue a warning (since they aren’t getting paid and don’t want to go all the way to the station) and also to educate Americans to obey laws in the first place. Americans should not pay and should request to go to the police station (and ask for English speaking officer if one isn’t present). This cuts off the supply. I don’t know what the flyers are going to say, but hopefully it is along these lines.
On the other side, police need to be educated on interacting with tourists. This is a relatively new area for them and they need to understand that tourism will be the lifeblood of Penasco for many years to come. So protect the baby. I wrote a bit more about this same issue on my blog yesterday at http://www.puertopenascopost.com.
The best way to deal with potential harassment in Mexico is to take your gun down there with you.
Just kidding.