Friday, August 20, 2010

“Depistolization" in Peñasco!

-by El Gitano Peñasco, "The Peñasco Gypsy"

That word “Depistolization” (spelled exactly as printed in a recent news article) caught me off-guard, so to speak, and as I’ve read the article I discovered it is about a program to get the good people here in Peñasco (and elsewhere in Mexico) to turn in their M-60s, M-16s, AK-47s, IEDs and other explosives, including pistols, etc., for a small amount of Pesos.

Although I applaud the effort and am one with ‘Utopia’, something about getting honest hard working tax paying church attending people to turn in such weapons (even if they really do have them) may not be that good of an idea as I’m not convinced that the “Drug Dealers” or just your everyday run of the mill ‘blood-thirsty-killers’, ‘pistol wielding rapists’, etc. out there are going to participate.

It is like telling tiny 5’ 1” 79 year old Maria or Juan that if they have such devices for the sole purpose to protect their homes, families or businesses from rapists, killers and other criminal types that by turning their ‘1st Responder’ protection devices in for a ‘certificate’ worth between 300 and 600 pesos the ‘Gov (Policia) will be able to better safeguard them from impending harm.

It also kind of reminds me of a time in the USA some years back when they outlawed ‘toy’ guns that were too realistic in appearance, the argument being that would stop the Cops from making a mistake and wrongly shooting someone in possession of a ‘toy’ gun. (George Carlin: “I know! Let’s outlaw the toy guns and keep the real ones!”)

All I know for sure is that if it is 3:00 A.M. in any city and/or community and someone kicks in the front door and hacks everyone to pieces the Police will get involved asap and intervene. But truthfully the vast majority of the time it will be to set up and analyze the ‘crime-scene’ as the damage was done and the ‘evil-doers’ are way down the Camino…

That is not to slam or bad mouth the Police anywhere (it is a real world out here) because I’m all for them, support what they do and the more the merrier is my position because I, too, enjoy being safe.

But if I were one of those good citizens who owned a weapon and turned it in for about $40 (Dollars) and then my home was broken into and harm or death came to anyone in my family, well, I think then I’d have to question the effectiveness and rationalization of the “Depistolization” program (and other such) while most likely watching the nightly news again and finding out that another 28 beheaded bodies had just been discovered today in…

¡Viva Puerto Peñasco y México!

elgitanopenasco@gmail.com
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain