Thread: Tijuana police force ordered to turn in guns

Tijuana police force ordered to turn in guns

By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

7:21 p.m. January 4, 2007

TIJUANA – The city's entire 2,300-member municipal police force has been ordered to turn in its weapons, leaving doubt Thursday about who would be patrolling this city of more than 1.5 million residents.

The surprise directive from Mexico's Defense Secretariat comes a day after President Felipe Calderon ordered Operation Tijuana, a major offensive against organized crime in the city. More than 3,000 soldiers and federal agents are being sent to the city with the aim of tackling the city's crime problems.

Federal officials were expected to conduct ballistics tests on the weapons, apparently to see if they could link any of the weapons to the many killings that have been attributed to drug cartels.

Dozens of police officers carrying a range of handguns and automatic weapons lined up Thursday at department headquarters on Eighth Street. The Mexican military, which maintains a registry of weapons, routinely checks police weapons, and officers initially thought this was a regular check.

Federal officials have repeatedly said corruption is widespread in Tijuana's department, which is charged with responsible for maintaining public order in the city.

Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, in a television interview, said that he has ordered the police department to refrain from patrols.

“I can't send them to war without a weapon,” the mayor said.

In the absence of the city officers, the mayor said federal forces will be doing the job of the municipal department.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexi ... crime.html

I don't think a dirty cop in Mexico would be stupid enough to turn in a gun for a ballistics test if its been used in a crime. But who knows? At least their president is attempting to do something down there.

The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on 1878-06-18 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act was intended to prohibit Federal troops from supervising elections in former Confederate states. It generally prohibits Federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under Federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act substantially limit the powers of the Federal government to use the military for law enforcement

Wow...we have a Constitution so the Military won't come after our law enforcement weapons...George would never...allow...what a minute...We Still have a constitution right????

Originally Posted by redbadger

Wow...we have a Constitution so the Military won't come after our law enforcement weapons...George would never...allow...what a minute...We Still have a constitution right????

All it would take to reverse Posse Comitatus is a simple act of Congress, signed by Bush.

CountFloyd...darn it...Now I am going to have a bad dream tonight

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

Originally Posted by redbadger

Wow...we have a Constitution so the Military won't come after our law enforcement weapons...George would never...allow...what a minute...We Still have a constitution right????

All it would take to reverse Posse Comitatus is a simple act of Congress, signed by Bush.

Do we still have a Constitution??? Probably not as far as Bush and Gonzales are concerned...... And would it surprise anyone if Bush reversed Posse Comitatus with another of his infamous "Signing Statements"???

Originally Posted by legal4mykidsfuture

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

Originally Posted by redbadger

Wow...we have a Constitution so the Military won't come after our law enforcement weapons...George would never...allow...what a minute...We Still have a constitution right????

All it would take to reverse Posse Comitatus is a simple act of Congress, signed by Bush.

Do we still have a Constitution??? Probably not as far as Bush and Gonzales are concerned...... And would it surprise anyone if Bush reversed Posse Comitatus with another of his infamous "Signing Statements"???

According to jorge boosh, The Constitution is "Just a damn piece of paper"