GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - Angry Mexican mob burns two policemen alive

Angry Mexican mob burns policemen alive

Killing of undercover agents sparks debate about vigilante justice, police corruption

By TRACI CARL
Associated Press
Thursday, November 25, 2004 - Page A20

E-mail this Article
Print this Article

Advertisement

MEXICO CITY -- The images were chilling: A young man, his face bloody and swollen, struggled to tell a television reporter that he was an undercover federal agent, shortly before an angry mob burned him and another officer alive on camera.

The horrific footage from an incident that took place on Tuesday has sparked a debate on growing vigilante justice in Mexico, where police are viewed as inept at best and corrupt at worst and where many say they must take matters into their own hands.

Tuesday's killings occurred amid rumours that children had been kidnapped from an elementary school in San Juan Ixtayopan, a neighbourhood of 35,000 on Mexico City's southern outskirts. When residents saw three men taking photos and staking out the school on Tuesday evening, they took action. One after another, they set off dozens of crude, rooftop bullhorn alarms that serve as backup security. Neighbours heeding the alarms poured into the streets, where they cornered then beat the men. Surrounding crowds cheered and shouted obscenities as blood splattered.

Reporters arrived and the assailants pushed the victims before television cameras so they could be interviewed. Barely conscious and struggling to talk, they nodded and gave one-word answers when asked whether they were federal agents.

As television helicopters hovered overhead, police arrived. One man was rescued, carried away unconscious.

The other two were bathed in gasoline and set ablaze, their charred bodies left in the street as dozens of people milled about.

Federal police director Admiral Jose Luis Figueroa said the three men were plainclothes agents who had been sent to the neighbourhood to investigate drug dealing near the school.

Police were searching yesterday for those responsible for instigating the violence but had made no arrests.

Yet public debate focused on the police.

Many questioned why it had taken riot officers hours to arrive. Others said vigilante justice is to be expected in a country where the police are infamous for seeking bribes and often implicated in the same crimes they are supposed to prevent.

There appeared to be little remorse in San Juan Ixtayopan, a picturesque community of small concrete homes tucked into pine-covered hills at the foot of a snow-capped volcano.

Under the watchful eyes of nearly 300 uniformed federal police officers yesterday, residents in the town's central plaza discussed the events of the previous night as vendors loudly hawked newspapers carrying photos of the victims and boldface headlines screaming LYNCHED.

Many people were reluctant to speak to reporters or denied they were present during the beatings. But others complained that police had ignored initial reports of the kidnappings, and said they did not regret what had happened.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ional/Americas

damn , I also just watch the clip of the officer giving his last interview before being burned alive !! the family of that guy must be fuckin devastated

:( :(