A Small Town Cop, Out-Gunned by Traffickers

19 June 2009 - The violence got so scary that hundreds of citizens occupied the Ascension town hall in May to demand that the Mexican army come protect them. Soldiers now rumble through a couple of times a week. Then they leave.

Jaime Antonio Chacón was on the beat here just three months when the rookie police officer stumbled upon an assassination in progress.

A couple of hitmen, known as sicarios in Mexico, were going after a local hoodlum when Chacón in his municipal police truck rolled into the middle of a gunfight last month. One of the sicarios took aim at Chacóns forehead and squeezed off a single round.

In the video above, Chacón talks about how it feels to be a small town cop seriously out-gunned by drug-trafficking heavies with superior weapons and good aim.

There are more than 400,000 police officers in Mexico and the vast majority are municipal cops like Chacón. They are low paid, poorly trained, badly equipped. In Ascension, the police lack the working radios, bullet-proof vests and machine guns they want. Lousy morale creates ideal conditions for corruption, which is rampant in municipal forces.

Mexican cops also pay a heavy price. Since President Felipe Calderón declared war against the cartels in December 2006, more than 900 police and soldiers have been killed.

This is dangerous work these days, says Javier Muñoz Chavez, a veteran on the force.

After the sun goes down, Chacón says, the shooting starts.

We asked Chacón if he is afraid.

Not so much now, Chacón says, who was assigned to bicycle patrol. Because I work during the day.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• documentary
• news
• mexico
• drug
• war
• violence
• ascension
• border

[hojita]

THATS FUCKED UP... THEN THEY ASKED WHY PEOPLE JOIN THE FUCKING CARTELS.... AND THE FUCKING ARMY ONLY GOES TWICE A WEEK? JUST TO GET THINGS HEATED AND THEN LEAVE HOMEBOY THERE BY HIMSELF AND ONE BULLET!!! THATS JUST FUCKED UP...

[bogartification]

id bet hes one bad mutha fucka, dont even need a gun just 1 bullet .

[mebesaturday]

and can you blame them for jumping the fence? I'm sure you would, if you lived there.

[brustad54]

he dosnt have just one bullet. didnt you hear him the gun is fully loaded but he only has 1 bullet to reload with giving him a total of 7 bullets. still tho 7 isnt much better then 1.

[TheBlackKnight07]

@Supernaught16 Their Mexican, there salary probably forbids it. (They cant afford it.)

[Supernaught16]

if i were one of those cops i would buy my own tools of the trade

[ENMDRAGON]

7 bullets total come on man that is how you want to save peoples get an AK47 and no one will go to the town 

[johan6693]

@bogartification Funny how you switch from "Hes a bad ass with only 1 bullet" to Irony sounds to me like you dont even know what this argument is about just want to have the last word on it but that's fine boy just shows your nothing but a stupid little kid and dont bother replying anymore cause i wont.

[bogartification]

@johan6693 i know life is fun and games i just learnt how to laugh at things that are ironic, those are some of the most dangerous towns in the world on the border from mexico entering america one of the most protective countries in the world and theirs only a hand full of people their to protect it from that side, notice the irony, its a sad story but id say even that guy with one gun and a hand full of bullets can go home and have a laugh, dont bother replying anymore cos im not!

[johan6693]

@bogartification So your saying this situation is funny to you a town with a few cops having to ride on bikes and not even have enough ammunition to defend them self's from the cartel very funny. And you might not be 12 or 19 but you sure do sound like an immature 10 year old grow up boy life isn't fun and games you should know that if you aren't a 10 year old

[bogartification]

@johan6693 learn to laugh you derpressed sap, maby some day youl learn how to laugh at the things that are funny and quit walking around with your head up yer ass, and im 19 not 12, ye bitch.

[johan6693]

@bogartification Spoken like a true 12 year old kid. Grow up there things in life that aren't funny even though it may sound like it. It's not all fun and games you'll soon learn that.