My original thought was to do a comparison column on corruption in México and the US. Recent news events in México preclude this. It is the recent fatal police raid on the News Divine club in the District Federal (DF) that resulted in the deaths of 12 people which included three police and one 13-year-old girl.

     This raid involved a disco type of club on the second floor that was grossly overcrowded with young school students celebrating the end of the school year. There were originally two exits, the front stairs, and a rear exit. The rear exit was chained shut. Why this club was permitted to operate is a question that the head of the local borough should have to answer to. And why was obvious underage drinking allowed either? Police alcohol testing proved the later.

     Now let's look at the way the police conducted the raid. They arrived in full force with one bus to haul the arrested away. (There were about 600 stuffed in the club at the time.) Then the club manager announced to the crowd that the police were conducting a raid and everybody would be arrested. That started the run down the stairs. At first, the patrons were directed to the bus. When it filled up, the police barred the single door to prevent any more from leaving until more busses could come. Official police photos show in detail the systematic trampling of the teens at the entrance. And published photos show the police beating those who tried to get out. Another interesting question here: After taking the arrested to the local police station, why were young girls forced to disrobe for the cops to take pictures of them? Federal police had to raid the police station later to recover these photos.

     The result is that the police commander of the raid, the chief of the DF police and the DF attorney general has all been fired by the DF mayor, Marcelo Ebrard. The club manager, raid commander, and some police have already been charged with murder. A few cops have received lesser citations. There is also talk that the firings might reach another 20 "underlings" in the police department.

     On the other hand, civil rights observers here are saying that the raid was directed more at the victims (the youngsters) than the real lawbreakers.

     A little Deja-vu here: In 2004, the DF police chief was fired for his lack of performance in preventing the fatal lynching by locals of two policemen in a southern borough of the DF. While local television crews arrived in time to broadcast the entire hour long process of beating and torching the cops, the police chief couldn't get reinforcement police on the scene for over one and a half hours . . . while the México TV viewers watched. The police chief that was fired then is now the mayor of México City, Marcelo Ebrard, who has now fired the present police chief.

     The general low training level of the entire police forces here is evident. One of the first things that you learn in crowd control is that you always give the crowd a direction to go. Never let them feel "trapped", but "direct" them. Otherwise you have a good chance of a stampede. Out of control crowd control (pardon the pun) was primarily responsible of the escalation of last year's Oaxaca event that still has not simmered down yet.

     Another thing lacking is simple discipline. And that brings up the San Salvador Atenco police rape and pillage event in the Fox administration years. It had its beginnings when the administration was looking for land to build a needed additional airport for the DF. San Salvador Atenco was picked for the location. This is a small hard scrabble town to the North east of the DF. The first error was not communicating properly with the residents who do subsistence farming there. Second was offering unrealistic compensation for their land. The result was an open rebellion of the farmers armed with machetes that forced scrapping of the airport project. The government backed down. And the stage was set for the next act.

     The State of Mexico police made a raid later in the town to clear street vendors from the central district. With the previous success of resisting in their minds, the locals captured and detained several police as hostages. The police, infuriated, responded in a general rape and pillage event on the town in general that lasted the whole day with at least one fatality. Women were raped at random, and many others were "power groped" by the police. And while this was going on, random homes were stripped of anything of value. Over 200 people were detained. Some are still in jail, charged but not tried. I still remember a photo of a girl from Chile, a student of a local university with rumpled clothes and the dazed look of trauma, being thrown onto a truck for detention. They later illegally deported her to keep her quiet. As of this date, no one has been even seriously investigated for these criminal actions by the state authorities for crimes against humanity.

     The state governor, a possible candidate for a run for president in 2012, simply said of the charges, ". . . they are just trying to make our fine police bad".

     And one wonders why the police forces in México are held in such low esteem?

     While México is in the process of reforming the legal system here, the next big needed reform is to reform the whole enforcement apparatus from top to bottom. Simply firing 20 or so people is meaningless. It is going to require decent pay for good cops along with proper training and a sea change of the system countrywide.

     And what do you do with the bad cops? Simply firing them will only add them to the professional criminal class, as has happened before.

     Politicians in general are not trusted in many countries. This is normal. But when the law enforcement is not trusted, you have a big problem.

     México has to wake up on this issue.

     But if you think that using an army for police duties is a permanent solution to police problems, think again. The army is trained for combat and emergency disaster duties, not policing.

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Richard N. Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) contributing columnist, lives in Tlalnepantla, Edo de México. E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com