NEWS: Mexican Police Deny Ignorance

Mexico City is one of the most crime-ridden capitals in the world and Mexican police commonly are considered lazy, incompetent and corrupt. One of the city's mayors believes reading will make the policemen "better officers and better people." Under a new literacy program, policemen must read at least one book a month or forfeit the possibility of promotion. They will be tested on the books they've read.





The books recommended include Don Quixote, The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz, and The Little Prince.

This seems like a highly unusual program, but the theory sounds good. It will be interesting to hear how the plan works.


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That is pretty innovative.
When a police force has a bad reputation you have to be creative on how to gain the people trust again.
Although I don't believe the book reading will actually do anything to make them better cops, I do believe that it will help their image.

" Under a new literacy program, policemen must read at least one book a month or forfeit the possibility of promotion.

this must be a joke! no offence but why the hell would these guys care about promotions when the get dirty money all the time? instead of hanging promotions over their heads just put their jobs at stake alltogether

Originally posted by cessna310

this must be a joke! no offence but why the hell would these guys care about promotions when the get dirty money all the time? instead of hanging promotions over their heads just put their jobs at stake alltogether

Well, ya gotta start somewhere. ...Maybe the 'criminal' hierarchy is based on the officers status in the police force? If it is, then this could at least help, and maybe keep some guys out of the worst of it.


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All you people who think your "adults" or "grown-ups" .. lol and think you're in the "real world" after you leave school ... Whoever controls your eyes and ears control your views and opinions... You're all just in a bigger playground, school-yard rules still apply... I mean look at the big bullys, the wimps, and the "best friends" and we're all still fighting for the best place to play...
and right now the bully wants to play in the sandbox....

Mandatory learning, and their tested on it... Good work... maybe next time I'm in mexico getting arrested I can talk about Robert A Heinleins Stranger in a Strange Land with the officers, it should make it a more pleasant experience.

If I'm gonna be up against dirty federales, I'd prefer that they be stupid.

Actually it is a good idea. It's not going to solve all of their problems or anything like that, but if you can find a way to stimulate thought among people it could be at least a little beneficial to their job performance. I also think that taking on intellectual persuits can change the way a person sees himself. This probably won't cure the corruption problem in most cases, but with any luck at all it may at least elevate a few of them above petty thuggery, so that a few less people get beaten or raped after traffic stops. (Yes, a woman can get raped over a traffic stop in parts of Mexico. Whenever I think of Mexico I'm reminded of a quote from "The Untouchables" : "The things you see when you're out without your gun!"

The other issue is choice in the reading program. I think choice is imperative. We would never approve of people being made to sit down and watch a propaganda film full of state-apporved ideas. Books are full of ideas too though. People have to have the freedom to choose. Since it is a professional reading program, I could understand certain limits- nothing says they can't read the other books on their own time. I do think it would be best though if they took a good look at the variety of viewpoints presented in the books they prescribe. You could probably build loyalty for a coup plot if you had the ability to make the police or troops constantly read all of the books that reflected your ideas.

Actually the Don Quijote is a mandatory read in Spanish countries in the high school years, it is a sad but funny story.

I am very happy to know that at least somebody worries about whats going on in that country as to bring some solutions to the problems.

This will make some of the police to perhaps more interested in education.

And I will have to agree, that the police has been given a reputation of laziness and corruption.

Back home in PR we had all the movies to be from Mexico and movies where the police was involve were not very nice they would show them as corrupt, corrupt and bad.

Don Quixote is a master work in any age. If you haven't read it I reccomend it highly. It is no wonder that it is mandatory reading in Spain. It should be mandatory here as well. The great 15th century book contains such masterful prose it's mind blowing.

I really like the idea that the Mexican police are being so strongly directed to read.

When I lived in Miami FL. in the 80's 1/3 of the entire police force was indicted and 1/2 of the homicide detectives (18) were convicted of murder and stealing drugs and money and police lieutenants and commanders were routinely arrested with kilos of coc aine it made me think that the police here in America were just a tad corrupt as well. I don’t think reading would have helped them much but it is a positive and constructive suggestion.

If Mexico really wanted to clean up corruption they could try actually paying the policemen. Just an idea.

Originally posted by Alexodin
If Mexico really wanted to clean up corruption they could try actually paying the policemen. Just an idea.

As Soul Assylum sang, "I tried to get a good job, with honest pay. Might as well join the mob, the benefits are O.K."
You can't hope to out-pay crime. The only way to make integrity more lucrative than crime is to make the wages of crime really awful. An outside force that isn't as plagued by corruption needs to come in and start killing people.
"We'll raise your pay by 2 dollars an hour- see how much better it is to be honest." NO. "You may not be able to recognize him without his head, but this is your former colleague who was caught taking bribes. See how much better it is to be honest?" YES.

senor, we will aprehend the culprit as soon as I finish Da Vinci Code.

gracias.

I like the idea of a policeman that can read. I would expect that to be a requirement for the job. Go figure.

Sounds pretty interesting. But I guess that reading helps over all inteligence and thats never a bad thing for a cop. Still what happens when you can't find a good book? When your forced to read a horrid book, then it becomes torture.

Anyhow wasn't the Mexico City PD also the same force that made people wear certain hats for breaking certain laws. Apparently crime rates actually dropped after trying that. Nice to see inovation coming from our southern neighbor.

Just now they figure this out? I guess its good THAT they figured it out.

Originally posted by soficrow

The books recommended include Don Quixote, The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz, and The Little Prince.

Of those three books i remember two of them being required to be read by students in Spain back in the 80s, Don Quijote and The little prince, the third book that we were required to read was "El Guardian entre el Centeno" (Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger) back in the eight grade, this brings back good memories.

Anyways, I am not sure how much this would help curb the corruption of police officers in Mexico, imo i think this problem will not be solved with them reading these books.


[edit on 19-3-2005 by Muaddib]