Best thing about Tijuana

[Pompal 09.]

When you enter the NL Boystown compound you have to get out of your taxi and be searched by the police. You get asked what you do for a living and where you're from. Sometimes you have to show your ID.

I've gone through that process in NL a few times! I always tell them I'm an attorney when they ask me. It's the one answer that personally, I feel slows their "shake down desires" a bit

 

[1ofdbest]

Having come to TJ from the mean streets of Nuevo Laredo, I appreciate cops that are being cops versus rateros with a badge is quite welcome. When you enter the NL Boystown compound you have to get out of your taxi and be searched by the police. You get asked what you do for a living and where you're from. Sometimes you have to show your ID. If you go alone and are a veteran monger they'll leave you alone, but if they think they can get away with it, they'll either take money while they're going through your pockets/wallet, or shake you down for a bribe with planted drugs or knives. A taxi load of gringos will get taken into the cop office/jail for the search where many people will leave the office hundreds of dollars lighter.

At ground zero on Coahuila in front of Adelita and Hong Kong, lately I have seen a lot of motorcycle cops writing tickets to drivers (Mexicans, Americans, taxi drivers... sometimes cars will get impounded. Since I take the taxi to the zona I'm less concerned about that though). Some of the taxi drivers will want to drop me off at the corner near Chicago so as not to deal with the cops which is fine with me. But they also keep the criminals at bay. I saw a cop hauling a thug out of the alley by his collar last time I was down there.

I know older reports from a few years ago would say that the cops would wait by the SENTRI dropoff point late at night to shake down gringos just a few feet from the border. But now the only time I see cops there are when they're at the taco truck getting a late night snack.

But like Fireballs says, the cops can change on a moment's notice. It isn't that I hate cops but I feel a lot better when they're not around (on either side of the border.)

 

[Chocolate_eater]

HOwhisperer wrote:

Didn't you get the memo? The TJ police is now the friend of mongers. We want more TJ police presence in the zona.

With the rash of choke holds going on a few months ago, and new choke hold stories in the Mexican papers with street walkers acting like decoys to get mongers attention until her friends can mug him from behind.

So now most mongers in the zona like to see the police in TJ.

It's funny how things change.

Personally, I don't like to see too many police in the zona, because that means more random stops, and possible shakedowns, because I'm sure they still have a few corrupt cops on the force.

 

[Alexa]

But unlike Mexico every other Cop doesnt try to rob you. Other surrounding countries are not as passive. C.R. is the only country in Central America with no Military!

 

[USS Mikey D]

I always get that feeling...damn I'm glad to be back in the Jew Esse of A, even when I've only been gone a few hours.

 

[wendy c]

The South Mexico border requires paperwork to get in...as many people from the South would like to earn the "high" Mexican wages. Mexico is a rich country compared to Countries just South.

 

[Jena Lost]

Well you are suppose to have a passport or a passcard...I think we all know that...however they are letting people cross with only their DL's and I saw this today when I crossed this afternoon.

 

[Shehab K]

Hello you do not need a passport true but you need a birth certificate and a couple of ID's without it.
Good Luck

 

[ibeaver]

Actually all of Mexico, not having to deal with any type of passport or visa. You can come and go as you wish in Mexico, I don't know of any other country that doesn't require you to have a passport or pay a Visa fee. South East Asia is notorious for this as well as parts of South America. Nothing worse then making border runs or paying a fee to extend your stay every month or two.