Mexican Police Have Guns Taken Away, Replaced with Slingshots

Mexican police officers have been given slingshots for them to use in controlling crime in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico. Tijuana’s police force, which consists of about 2,000 officers, had all of their guns taken away by soldiers on January 5 as part of an investigation into police corruption. Allegations that the city’s police have been in collusion with drug traffickers to smuggle drugs into the U.S. resulted in federal officials demanding to test the guns of the local police to see if they are linked to any drug cartel killings.

Fernando Bojorquez, a spokesman for the municipal police, told reporters that the slingshots were issued along with bags of ball bearings to policemen who are on duty patrolling the parts of the city most frequently visited by tourists. About 60 police officers are carrying slingshots while patrolling the business district of Zona Rio and the Avenida Revolucion. NBC San Diego reported that some of the officers are using marbles as ammunition in their slingshots.

At the beginning of January, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon sent over 3,000 soldiers and federal police officers to Tijuana, where they swept through police stations confiscating guns for inspection. Since the guns were taken away, some of the unarmed officers have been forced to patrol alongside armed federal police and soldiers as part of a harsh crackdown on crime and drug violence, which regularly includes gun wars, gangster-style executions, and beheadings.

Calderon’s plans to enforce his crackdown on drug violence is an uphill battle because of untrained or corrupt local police, prisons that are out of control, and the public’s general distrust of police officers. Although he has relied heavily on soldiers and federal police officers when conducting massive anti-crime sweeps in several areas of the country, he has said that local police will be called upon for help in future crackdowns.

At a national gathering of high-ranking public safety officials and state governors Monday, Calderon renewed his vow to wage a permanent war against organized crime by giving all law enforcement officials better equipment, more reliable information about criminals, and better training. He emphasized that his efforts would require closer collaboration with local police forces. "The federal forces and the state police will collaborate to put violence under the control of the law around the country. We have decided to restore safety to regions threatened by organized crime," Calderon told the assembly. Just three days before his comments, Calderon’s administration had extradited four alleged drug lords to the United States along with 11 other suspects.

As Calderon was speaking inside the Tijuana town hall, about 100 police officers were demonstrating outside, demanding that their guns be returned to them so they could protect themselves. Last year, more than 300 people were killed in Tijuana, including 13 police officers. "The arms are our tools for work," officer Juan Manuel Nieves told reporters. "Do they want more police to be killed?"