A Juarez Police SWAT Team prepares to hit the streets. These officers have been vetted and deemed honest. The Juarez Police admit many of their officers are corrupt and paid off by the cartels.
More than 400 members of the Juárez police department will be dismissed after failing confidence exams done by the Mexico federal Public Safety secretary’s office, Juárez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said.
About 2,000 soldiers arrived in Juárez over the weekend and are expected to begin anti-crime patrols as part of Operation Juárez, the new name of Joint Operation Chihuahua, the local federal offensive against organized crime.
“It’s important that citizens know the Mexican army will be doing patrols throughout the city to stop the collateral crimes generated as a result of Joint Operation Chihuahua,” Reyes Ferriz said.
The city police department has offered the military 65 vehicles for the patrols.
The city has recruited about 900 new officers in recent months as authorities have been unable to stop a crime wave this year, including more than 900 homicides, more than 50 bank robberies, a jump in auto thefts and other crimes.
Officials said the confidence exams by federal authorities found that some Juárez officers had criminal histories in other states. Some had been fired from other agencies.
Other officers were found to have been bribed or had ties to organized crime.
Reyes Ferriz said that federal public safety officials made a registry of fingerprints, DNA samples, voice and iris scans of the officers tested to allow federal authorities to track their future activities.
How can this be? In a country, according to Dale “The Trucking Bozo” Sommers and his son Steve and of course Eric “Bubba Bo” Boulanger, that has no DATA BASES to track Mexican Truck Drivers and others? They are compiling a DATABASE of DNA Samples, Voice prints and iris scans, biometrics in other words? Kudos to the Mayor and Federal Officials for their ongoing efforts
-
-
Juarez Police confiscate weapons smuggled in from US in a recent raid.
-
-
Juarez Officers on patrol in utra modern well equipped vehicles
-
-
Municipal police officers look at a knife seized while patrolling in Ciudad Juarez, Mexic
-
-
n Ciudad Juarez’s attempt to clean up the city, a troop of mounted Mexican police patrols its tourist and bar area February 20, 2000. On weekends, six mounted police officers comb the street of Avenida Juarez and the surrounding Red District area in search of drug addicts, intoxicated people and other offenders who, they say, give the city a bad name. The offenders are loaded into a paddy wagon and transported to the municipal jail.
-
-
A bus passes a recruiting billboard for the municipal police that reads in Spanish “Juarez Needs You! Join up and become part of the city police” in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Thursday. After police recruitment fell in the wake of drug cartel’s attacks which killed seven police commanders, government officials erected enormous recruitment billboards.
-
-
Officer Down – Another Juarez Police Officer victim of the drug wars in Cd Juarez
-
-
Juarez Police man checkpoint looking for arms, illegal drugs and DUI offenders
-
-
Mexican army soldiers take away several police agents for further questioning after army personnel arrived at a police station to check for weapons serial numbers and interviews with police officers in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
-
-
A municipal police officer, right, watches detainees brought in on drug possession charges enter the police station in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Local police have been given assault rifles and instructed not to patrol the streets alone, after receiving death threats from drug cartels over their own radio frequencies.
-
-
Cd Juarez Police cracking down on delinquency in Centro
-
-
Cd Juarez Transito or Traffic Officers on Patrol
-
-
A Juarez Police SWAT Team prepares to hit the streets. These officers have been vetted and deemed honest. The Juarez Police admit many of their officers are corrupt and paid off by the cartels.
MEXICO CITY (MTN) — Mexico City’s police chief and its top prosecutor were forced out of office on Tuesday following a [cref 12-people-trampled-to-death-in-mexico-nightclub-raid botched nightclub raid that resulted in the deaths of 12 people], including a 13-year-old girl.
Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the resignation of Police Chief Joel Ortega was the first step in a plan to reconstruct the police force. Ortega had held the post since 2004, when he replaced Ebrard – who was fired in a different police scandal.
The mayor made the announcement shortly after Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission presented a report alleging rampant misconduct by officials in the June 20 raid on the News Divine nightclub that it said “created a death trap.”
City prosecutor Rodolfo Felix Cardenas offered to step down and later Tuesday he told a news conference that Ebrard had accepted his resignation. His replacement has not been announced.
A criminal investigation did not find evidence that Ortega had committed any crime, but he has been the target of harsh criticism.
Read more
MEXICO CITY (MTN) — A police raid on a crammed Mexico City nightclub turned into a deadly stampede that killed 12 people, including nine youths and three police, officials said.
Police entered the New Divine nightclub, where around 1,000 people had gathered to fete the end of the school year, on Friday to break up the illegal sale of alcohol to minors and a stampede ensued, said Joel Ortega, a local security official.
“Unfortunately, the person in charge of the nightclub took the microphone and announced a police operation was underway,” Ortega said, adding that his words “sparked a panic.”
People rushed to get out, causing a stampede. Cases of beer were blocking the emergency exit, officials said.
Bodies at entrance to Disco
[/Bodies in the street]Seven youths — three of them young women — and three police died at the scene. An 18-year-old and a 15-year-old succumbed to injuries in the hospital, where around 20 others were rushed for treatment.
“The deaths were attributed to asphyxiation by suffocation,” said public prosecutor Rodolfo Felix.
The raid took place around 6:30 pm (2330 GMT), about an hour and a half after the gathering kicked off.
A ticket to enter the party cost 30 pesos (three dollars), and the two-story, 20 square meter (215 square feet) space quickly filled beyond capacity.
The capital’s main nightly newscast broadcast a brief video that was taken by police at the moment when officers entered the premises.
In the video, a cloud of smoke appears on the dark premises, youths can be heard shouting and a disc jockey says in a calm voice over a loudspeaker: “We are going to evacuate the place, there is a police raid.”
People were continuing to line up outside the club in the hopes of entering as the raid was announced.
Police arrested three nightclub employees, including the DJ, and 39 other people on charges of disturbing the peace. Authorities said there was no exchange of gunfire and denied using tear gas on the crowd.
Abandoned shoes lay scattered outside the entrance to the discotheque, and a group of youths briefly returned to the scene to throw stones at a hundred or so police officers who remained outside.
Asked if police took adequate precautions to avoid the tragedy, Ortega answered: “Many plans are made ahead of time, but a lot depends on the attitude of the people inside and how the group behaves.”
Mexico City Police raid on Club Devine
UPDATED
17 Mexico City Cops fired for participation in raid that killed 12
MEXICO CITY — Police officials on Tuesday fired 17 officers here in connection with a botched raid on a bar last week that triggered a stampede, leaving a dozen people dead.
The firings came as newly released video footage showed police officers blocking exits as hundreds of young patrons tried to flee. The bar’s owners were suspected of serving alcohol to minors.
The incident, at a bar called News Divine in a gritty section of northern Mexico City, has been the talk of the capital for days and spurred a flurry of finger-pointing.
Family members of the deceased have gathered in front of the bar to demand punishment for police and borough officials involved in the raid.
Some politicians have called upon Police Chief Joel Ortega to resign. But he has remained, promising to punish any officers found to have acted improperly.
The city’s popular left-wing mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, denounced the raid in harsh language, vowing a thorough investigation and swift corrective measures. The incident represents the first serious political crisis for Ebrard since he was elected mayor in 2006.
The dead included nine patrons and three of the officers who took part in the operation. Police arrested the owner, Alfonso Maya Ortiz.
The legal drinking age in Mexico is 18.
Hundreds of young revelers, many of them celebrating the end of the school year, were packed inside the 1,100-square-foot bar by the time police arrived late Friday afternoon.
The owner announced the raid over a loudspeaker and asked everyone to leave, promising free entrance the following week. But witnesses said they quickly found themselves trapped amid stifling heat.
“The police told us they were not going to let us leave and closed the doors,” 16-year-old Rebeca Mohzo, told the Televisa network. “Everyone was desperate because there was no air.”
Police videotape of the scene showed pandemonium as patrons were pressed against the exits, many screeching in fear. They were shown fanning themselves in the heat and could be heard pounding on the locked doors.
The footage, broadcast repeatedly Tuesday on television, also showed a tumultuous scene outside the bar as police attempted to revive those who had collapsed, including a police officer.
Separate footage, apparently shot by an onlooker and posted on YouTube, showed helmeted police using their shields to strike some of the escaping patrons.
Mexico media reported that prosecutors were considering charges against the operation commander, Guillermo Zayas. He was fired immediately after the raid.
Among the 17 officers fired Tuesday was one who had been honored previously as officer of the year.
MEXICO CITY – Drunk driving has long been seen in Mexico as little worse than dropping litter, but the capital’s motorists are now sobering up as police jail them on the spot for getting behind the wheel after a few tequilas.Until recently, drivers were rarely stopped while under the influence and they could usually bribe the city’s notoriously corrupt traffic cops with a few pesos to get out of trouble.
But Mexico City police were last month armed with new powers to ban drivers for up to three years under a points system that increases punishments for drunkenness or speeding.
Read more
Loading ...
Readers Reponses