Mexico’s and the USA’s prison system is run by thugs!
Capitalism has long created and enforced a thug-like prison system. I have recently been told the experience of someone in this system and which thousands of people do too. I am also reading The Trial by Franz Kafka and I was reminded of this experience. As I listened to this person in tears both of relief because he got out, but also because of complete fear for what happened to those not as lucky as him, I felt sorry for him because even if he was not put back in jail, he won’t be able to become anything else because of capitalism’s structure. And so here is his story and I hope that this will not be the fate of him, and that someday Mexico’s thug-jails will be gone as will the criminality produced by poverty in an alienating system like Capitalism.
“I was at a party and two friends went to a store and stole some alcohol. They went back to the party and continued listening to loud music. The police showed up and I tried to run. I would have gotten away but my brother was in the house and I couldn’t leave him.
The police caught us and lined us up against a wall where they began to hit us. They hit the girl with the butt of their gun on her head and she fainted. They hit us on the shoulders, the head and the face and they kicked us and stepped on us. My brother yells as they hit him and I scream at them to let him go but they continue punching us on the face and then they put us in the car. My brother is sixteen and so he gets lucky and is only kept over night. I, however, was there for three months.
My friend was sent to Topo Chico where they tied him up and hit him with wooden boards. They then soaked him and connected him to the light where he was electrocuted.
They are tied up for three months where they lie in their own filth and some are shot in front of all the other prisoners. My friend owes the Zetas 20,000 Pesos and the police will continue to hit him until he pays the Zetas.
Sometimes when the police shoot someone that is tied up, they offer a prisoner to take the blame in return for 20 years in prison but without being tied up in their own filth and without the daily starvation and blows.
Most of them are innocent but they get us on the street and they torture us to get money from us; which isn’t much and sometimes their parents are forced to accept the cruelty of which is bestowed upon their kids. Sometimes it’s 4,000, sometimes it’s 30,000 but if you don’t give them money, they torture you.
They get us to confess by putting us on a board and then a towel on our face which will become drenched with water and we’ll feel as if we’re drowning. We begin to get sick from the filthy cells. I have sores all over my skin and I can’t stop itching, but I almost forget it because of how happy I am to get out.
I got lucky but I’m sorry for others that don’t because they can’t afford the quota. We are all poor and we don’t receive decent educations because even the public education is expensive and so we resort to petty crime and then get caught… Sometimes, even those with money get caught.”
Mexico has thug-like prisons that are run by cops that are no better than the organized crime. In fact, the Zetas, a major cartel group, came from the Mexican police force. And by having this alienating system and prisons, it creates a circle of even more crime. Good luck to all of the youth trapped in this unjust system that is full of corruption and which many people cannot escape.
The urge to pass commenting on this post was there, but the flesh is weak.
There are so many things wrong with the message Safiyyah is trying to convey herein that, at this time, I am not sure if not to applaud the actions of the police at Topo Chico is not the rit thing to do here.
Here you have a fucker, with a friend who owns money to the bloodiest drug cartel on earth, and we do have a pretty good idea why, at a party where his friends offered stolen alcohol, and perhaps other not so legal goodies, and gets caught and treated as the criminal he is by virtue of association.
Maybe if he was working a second job to bring more money into his family coffers or at church thanking our Good Lord for the blessing to be alive instead of deeping his social relationships with thugs he would not have had become one.
With that said, I am not advocating that police departments in Mexico, or the USA don’t have their share of crooked fuckers. We all have watched the news in the past three months and I can testify there are no shortages of headline news featuring LEOs gone bad. And, hold on to your powered butts, there are many of them still in the force by the thousands. Police have become since the beggining of the 1900 in represion forces and have acted and will continue to act against those they vowed to protect and to serve ( what a cheesy motto).
Nevertheless, don’t expect to see many police officers with good judgement out there, and because of that, it is becoming increasingly harder for police forces all around to differentiate a duck from a quacking raccoon.
So I guess, let your friend know to call it a day, and exercise better judgement on his friends acquisition endeavours.