U.S. and Mexican Police Discuss Border Violence

U.S. and Mexican police officials meeting here at a border crime conference disagreed on the level of violence directed at illegal aliens by border bandits in the canyons east of San Ysidro.

U.S. law enforcement personnel insist that there is a growing level of border violence caused by the increasing number of aliens who are coming into this county illegally. American police officials say the aliens generally do not commit crimes but their large numbers are providing border bandits with more victims.

San Diego Police Sgt. Chuck Woodruff, who works with a combined police-Border Patrol task force that targets border bandits, said at a workshop that the robbers operate from “organized bandit groups.”

“We don’t think that’s true,” said Efrem Vizcarra, an official with the Baja California State Judicial Police. “We don’t have any information that points to that.”

Mexican lawmen described the violence against aliens as “sporadic” and “spontaneous.”

But Woodruff said that descriptions of the bandits given to police by their victims show that the robbers are organized.

“These descriptions match consistently, including the clothing the bandits wear and the weapons they use,” Woodruff said.

While they may disagree on details about how the bandits operate, both groups agreed that border violence is a serious issue.

Mexican officials, while lauding the efforts of the U.S. border task force that operates at night, suggested that the slow pace and leniency of the U.S. judicial system may encourage the robbers to ply their trade on the American side of the border.

“You don’t hear about aliens being robbed on Mexican soil. These bandits may prefer to commit robberies on the American side of the border because American justice is slow and lenient. Our justice is swifter and surer,” Vizcarra said.

As an example, he said that in Mexico anyone convicted of stealing 1,800 pesos (less than $8) routinely gets four years in prison.

U.S. police officials, criticized recently by Mexican officials over two border incidents, denied that relations are strained. And some Mexican lawmen, at least publicly, said that relations with their U.S. counterparts are good.

In recent weeks a 12-year-old Tijuana boy was wounded when a Border Patrol agent fired his gun at the youth across the border. Earlier, the border task force had arrested four Tijuana policemen just inside the Uniteds States. The policemen said they were chasing suspected border bandits.

The shooting of the boy was not on the official agenda of the conference, hosted this year by Mexican law enforcement officials, to improve cooperation at the border. Both sides tacitly agreed not to raise the subject, said a law enforcement official from Los Angeles.

San Diego Police Chief William Kolender said that relations with his Mexican counterparts are excellent. “The small problems we’ve had have been greater overplayed by the media,” Kolender said.

Alfredo Resendez, director of the Baja California Judicial Police, agreed: “Traditionally, we have enjoyed good relations with the Americans, and I don’t think that has changed.”

But some members of Resendez’s own force and police from Ensenada and Mexicali attending the conference said privately that they harbor some resentments against the Americans.

These officers are bitter that Edward (Ned) Cole, the Border Patrol agent who shot the 12-year-old Mexican boy, will not be prosecuted. Cooperation with U.S. counterparts will suffer as a result of the shooting and lack of prosecution, they say.

“That isn’t right. We’re all suppose to be professionals,” said an Ensenada policeman. “And professionals don’t try to kill a 12-year-old boy who throws rocks at you. How can they say that the agent didn’t break any laws by firing his gun into Mexico and at an unarmed boy?”

Police officials from both countries meet annually to discuss ways to better improve relations and coordination between law enforcement groups on both sides. The three-day conference ends today. U.S. law enforcement officials attending the conference came from San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and Imperial counties.