Ferguson, Mexico

Wanna know where Ferguson leads?  Welcome to Mexico, where a group of "students" at a teachers' college (teaching what?) have hijacked dozens of luxury buses--and their drivers.  Because the bus companies hold the drivers responsible for their vehicles, the drivers are unwilling to abandon their buses, but with the vehicles blocked in by the "students" the drivers are unable to earn a living.

The local mayor is a typical liberal pol--a former community organizer himself--who refuses to take any action.  Sound familiar?

TIXTLA, Mexico –  Three dozen bus drivers are being held captive by activists [communists?  revolutionaries?] from teachers' school, forced to act as chauffeurs for the people who hijacked their vehicles.

The drivers, some of whom have been held for more than a month, say they cannot abandon the buses because their companies hold them financially responsible for the vehicles, some of which are worth well over a hundred thousand dollars. And with authorities unwilling to inflame tensions, no one is coming to their rescue.

"They say we haven't been kidnapped because we can get out and walk around, or swim in the (campus) pool," said one driver who, like the others holed up at the school, refused to give his name for fear of angering the students.  [typical communist bullshit:  "You're free--well, by our definition.]

The students, who have a history of sometimes violent activism, have justified the mass bus seizure as "an expropriation" and say they need the vehicles [well there ya go, Sparky] to ferry them to and from protests.  Omar García, a second-year student at the school, acknowledged it has put the drivers in a bad spot, unable to leave or earn a living to feed their families, but told The Associated Press the students had no other choice, since they don't know how to maintain the buses or drive such large vehicles.

 Several bus companies with vehicles at the school declined to comment, except to acknowledge that they hold the drivers responsible for the vehicles as a matter of policy. The companies say hijackings have become such a frequent problem that some lines have cut back on runs through southern Guerrero state.

The plight of the drivers at the teachers college is just one example of the government's inability to keep the peace in Guerrero state.  Masked students also control toll booths to collect "donations" from motorists passing on the federal highway and hijack passenger buses for their own use. Protesters from a local teachers' union have burned vehicles, public buildings and the offices of political parties, all while federal and state police stood nearby.  [Startin' to sound familiar yet?]
 
"The police are not taking action at this moment to avoid giving the appearance of acts of repression," said Guerrero state prosecutors' spokesman Jorge Valdez.  The state's new governor, a former leftist rebel himself, is "looking for a mechanism of conciliation, negotiation, persuasion — a political mechanism" to control the groups, Valdez said.
The school has become a parking lot not only for the buses but also for seized delivery trucks that once held Coca-Cola and goods from milk, cheese and snack companies. The drivers said the students looted the goods and sold the merchandise to local vendors.

One bus driver said he has been held since Oct. 24 when he was stopped while driving about a dozen passengers to Acapulco. A group of students blocked a road near Chilpancingo and threatened to pelt the bus with rocks unless he opened the door. The students boarded and ordered the passengers to get off.

On a recent day, a hijacked gas tanker sat on the field near about 30 luxury buses from the lines that carry Mexico City vacationers to and from Acapulco. All of the buses are late model, with leather seats and individual televisions.

Associated Press reporters discovered the captive drivers while reporting on 43 missing students from another college, and had to talk quickly before students shooed them away.  One driver warned journalists, "if they see you talking to us, they'll break your camera." 

A pair of students approached reporters as they left the lot. "Who gave you permission to be here?" they asked angrily.

The drivers said their companies aren't paying them for their time as captives. While the students have promised to give them money when they are released, the drivers say that if they do receive anything, it won't come close to their normal earnings of nearly 20,000 pesos ($1,500) per month.

"I haven't had a check for a month. I've had to ask for a line of credit that I can't pay," said another. "I'm being ruined."

When a society sends a clear message that it will tolerate looting, burning, carjacking and robbery if done by a certain segment of the population, you're guaranteed to get not just more of it, but an endless stream.  Unless and until some entity--whether government or armed citizens--wins a firefight with the thugs, thug behavior will continue. 

And why would it not?  People getting "free shit" and swaggering around like kings of the jungle, screaming "fuck the police" a foot from a cop's face without a worry.  Who'd want to change?

Tell us, Democrats:  If someone had said back in 2008 that this shit would happen, would you have laughed?  Would you have indignantly insisted "That's impossible!  Our wonderful black president would never tolerate such!" ?

'Fess up, Democrats:  You would have called the speaker a crazy right-wing nut.  And you know it.

And yet, here we are, eh?  Hope you're enjoying the ride.