Puerto Plata: The police state!

[DominicanBilly]

Originally Posted by Lambada

Out of interest, was the security guard in uniform?

No uniform, but it was only 7:30pm in the evening. At that very time the tigres were roaring up and down the Malecon doing wheelies. They (the police) should have been there not in front of the baseball stadium.

[wishingiwasthere]

Sorry to make light – but your wife’s cooking IS REALLY good! Maybe the police heard about your kitchen!

I hope he is out of there by now!
Just as an aside - as i remember it - i thought your wife was quite well connected? It dont sound too great out there at the moment.

[DominicanBilly]

Originally Posted by wishingiwasthere

Sorry to make light – but your wife’s cooking IS REALLY good! Maybe the police heard about your kitchen!

I hope he is out of there by now!
Just as an aside - as i remember it - i thought your wife was quite well connected? It dont sound too great out there at the moment.

Yes her brother-in-law (a major federal force) was here last week and involved in the sacking of those 25 police. But he left on Friday so there was no help there.

We paid 1,000 pesos this morning (a bribe) to let him out or else he could stay until Monday and the judge would let him out without having to pay a peso. All they told Wanda was "he was a person we were investigating". Just "BS"

As a second story on this "round up". A plumber had sent his helper to pick up a pump motor he had repaired to install in a clients cistern. On the way back the police arrested the kid. The Plumber came to the police station to get the kid and the motor. Police said you can't have the pump motor until you produce the bill of sale. The pump was 10 years old and any record of it's purchase was "long gone".

Great police work.

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by DominicanBilly

All they told Wanda was "he was a person we were investigating". Just "BS"

Is the conchista still inside? Just following their logic here: they stop conchista for papers, he is covered - I assume also he was wearing helmet? They detain conchista & passenger (your guard) then claim your guard to be 'a person they were investigating'. So if they weren't 'investigating' conchista why did they detain him? Particularly if he had committed no infractions. As to your guard, if they knew who he was, I hope this isn't anything to do with a potentially vindictive previous tenant of yours........ just musing here.

For the benefit of non-residents, police patrols outside baseball stadium are to check ownership of vehicles & illegal arms. Rarely are they drug searches (they go into the barrios for that). Anyone picked up on Friday or Saturday usually has to wait for Monday for release, as DB said, unless sweetener is produced. Friday tends to be a favourite time because sweeteners are more likely to be produced in lieu of 2 full days inside.

Almost makes me wonder whether we ought to use this thread to notify each other as to locations of police patrols, particularly on Friday & Saturday evenings, so people can find alternative routes? At least for the next few weeks when I'm guessing we're going to have a lot more of this.

[Lambada]

There was a 'blitz' Friday as Fishguy reported & another Saturday. Here is a newspaper report & a blog report:

GENERAL THEN ATACA DELINCUENCIA Y APRIETA DUEÑOS COLMADONES

sacandomelao: Escobita nueva barre bien

'Solo esperamos que los operativos y redadas sean realizadas dentro del marco de derecho de cada ciudadano, y no con el famoso señalamiento de "ven tu, tu y tu", sin ver quizás el perfil sospechoso que puedan tener los detenidos, pues muchas veces durante la pasada gestión del General Then, tomaron preso a humildes trabajadores que regresaban de los hoteles, aún portando sus identificaciones'.

They need to be careful about this, otherwise the community will become polarised (those for and those against the General).

[Berzin]

Originally Posted by mountainannie

As to the street vendors etc., this may also be following the model used by Giuliani when he was mayor of NYC when he cut the murder rate in half in a couple of years -he started at the bottom, ticketing panhandlers, and small illegal street sellers to clean up the streets.

Get your facts straight. Giuliani had nothing to do with NYC's dip in crime.

1) The "Safe Streets Safe City" program was instituted by his predecessor, David Dinkins.

2) This program was implemented by the NYPD who were out there doing their job out on the streets, NOT Giuliani. Give the cops the credit where it deserves.

3) Crime waves are cyclical in nature, just like Bear and Bull markets on Wall Street. NYC had just endured the crack epidemic and the murder rate all over the country began to dip at around the same time, for many different reasons. There were a few exceptions like some areas where there is a higher propensity for gang violence than in NYC. There are many reasons for dips and increases in urban crime that cannot be taken out of context.

4) Panhandlers and illegal street vendors are quality of life issues that have nothing to do with the murder rate. The two things are driven by totally different and disparate forces.

So please stop drinking the Kool-Aid and do some research before posting comments that are not true.

[Markf128]

The community is already polarized. There is a major abuse of power in the DR starting from a street cop all the way to the top. I will say that within all this mess there are many exceptions to the rule, but at the end abuse of authority by public servants is part of the culture in DR. None the less, things are changing for the better, yet any progress made can rapidly be retracted in times of crisis.

[Richard Alberto]

Originally Posted by Berzin

Get your facts straight. Giuliani had nothing to do with NYC's dip in crime.

1) The "Safe Streets Safe City" program was instituted by his predecessor, David Dinkins.

2) This program was implemented by the NYPD who were out there doing their job out on the streets, NOT Giuliani. Give the cops the credit where it deserves.

3) Crime waves are cyclical in nature, just like Bear and Bull markets on Wall Street. NYC had just endured the crack epidemic and the murder rate all over the country began to dip at around the same time, for many different reasons. There were a few exceptions like some areas where there is a higher propensity for gang violence than in NYC. There are many reasons for dips and increases in urban crime that cannot be taken out of context.

4) Panhandlers and illegal street vendors are quality of life issues that have nothing to do with the murder rate. The two things are driven by totally different and disparate forces.

So please stop drinking the Kool-Aid and do some research before posting comments that are not true.

Hey wait a minute since when are moderators the know-all to the world. First: Why do you castigate a poster for expressing what he or she may know as truth when what they doing is participating in the conversation. Kool aid was not required. No need to ridicule them like you just did.
Secondly: I'm born, and raised in New York and Giuliani I hate to say was very responsible for the drop in crime. As a District Attorney and with federal help he went after organized crime very heavily and was the primary point man in controlling the Mafia as we knew it. He cleaned the Jacob Javitts Center of extortion and put alot of mobster behind bars.
Thirdly: He gave the Police card-blanc to arrest or summons everyone from panhandlers to drinking from an open beer on the street.
When it first started the only ones that were not happy were those that enjoyed drinking in the streets, or hanging in front of bodegas drinking and playing dominoes.
But trust me there were alot of people happy about this police type state he initiated. It certainly controlled things, because if I remember correctly, you couldn't put on Gazel sunglasses, Kangol caps, new sneakers or chains or you'd be robbed point blank. It was just as bad if not worse than DR. Good kids going home from school were getting killed on the train for their sneakers. Today you can walk around with your brand new iPhone o Ipod and have no issues.

But getting back to my original point, if you're a moderator, moderate don't berate.

[BushBaby]

THANK you Berzin for helping to take this important subject (well for US in Puerto Plata it is an important subject) TOTALLY off topic.

Might I suggest you ask the moderator of this forum to delete anything NOT RELEVENT to the Policing Policies of the DR from this thread (That includes YOURS, Richard Alberto's & MINE!!). ~ Grahame.

[Richard Alberto]

Originally Posted by BushBaby

THANK you Berzin for helping to take this important subject (well for US in Puerto Plata it is an important subject) TOTALLY off topic.

Might I suggest you ask the moderator of this forum to delete anything NOT RELEVENT to the Policing Policies of the DR from this thread (That includes YOURS, Richard Alberto's & MINE!!). ~ Grahame.

With all due respect but who are you to ask that my post be deleted? My post is actually within the topic of a Police state and is relevant to the post. In the thought process I wanted to elaborate on how a strong show of force may be required in order to stem the flow of crime in the area. If the Genral Then has been respected by business owners and residents alike perhaps he knows how to initiate the required controls.

Obviously, there will be some bad calls and arrests but all in all, it may be important in the overall picture.