The other day I was faced with a minor moral dilemma that I would like to discuss. At around 5:00 am, I was awoken to the sound of someone yelling outside my apartment. My initial reaction was, “holy shit, someone broke into my place and somehow tripped and broke their leg because they’re making way too much noise to be a sly burglar!” Because of my tile floors and lack of abundant furniture, any sound coming from nearby intensifies, causing me to believe that the source of the clamor is inside my living room. Realizing that this could not really be the case, I went to the kitchen where I have a good view of the street behind my apartment. I discovered that the screaming was coming from that direction. Although I could not see the actual man in distress, I could hear him yelling, “auxilio, me roban! Auxilio, me están robando!” He was crying for help because he was being robbed. My first thought was to get my cell phone and call the police. Remembering my college sociology class and the story of the woman who was murdered outside of an apartment building full of onlookers who all assumed that someone else would call the police, I headed to my bedroom for my phone. While I made the trip, I was going over the emergency numbers in my head. Is it 0-6-6 or 0-6-0. Is that for “seguridad publica” or for all emergencies!? I returned to the kitchen, cell phone in hand, and took one more careful look out the window to see if I could catch a glimpse of the victim. It was then that I knew I couldn’t make the call.
Across from where I heard the screams, on the wall of the shadowed building opposite the man in distress, I saw red, white, and blue flashing lights. It was a police car, already having arrived at the scene! How great! Someone already called. Oh how great humankind can be! Relieved to see that the police were there, I headed back to my bedroom to catch a few more minutes of sleep when I heard the same cry as before, “help, I’m being robbed! Help, I’m being robbed!” Remembering uncommon stories of police corruption I have heard during my time in Mexico, and thinking about my close friend Sergio’s experience a month earlier of discovering that the policemen that held his stolen car in custody had taken his valuables from the trunk, I realized that the police officers themselves were robbing this man. I looked at my phone and thought, “what do I do? I’ve got to do something but who the hell do I call now!” I felt horrible. At that moment, hated how helpless I felt. There I was, ready to break the societal tendency of collective inaction, but had no one to call.
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7 comments:
You should have called the Ghostbusters... who you gonna call?
:-)
Pepe
Come home!!!
That's crazy!!! I can see feeling very frustrated, but you shouldn't feel bad...doing nothing there was the only smart option. I'm sure getting involved in that mess wouldn't have done the guy much good!
What a great post, even if it came out of such an unfortunate incident. How completely frustrating...
Hey H,
I love the posts!
Since I am from Mexico City, I could say something a little bit different about this.
A moral dilemma includes a social environment, in this case a big latin city society who knows the kind of police around. I´m pretty sure that some 'natives' would call someone else, but we all know how the system works (....at least, I like to belive so)
It is, then, when a moral dilemma not only require a decision, but the will to achieve it in a different environment. If I were
abroad, I would bet my moral dilemmas would be harder to understand and solve.
My respect for your actions & thoughts, I´m glad you wrote about it.
Mao
Here are some additional comments I sent to my friend Jaime, in response to his analysis of the situation.
Hey Jaime,
Yeah, it is interesting to consider the three options. One other factor, which I may not have made clear, is that I couldn't actually see the man. That really would have changed the situation a lot. It would have enabled me to make more judgments and thus better justify my ultimate decision. He could have been really drunk or slightly drunk. Or, sober and in a suit and tie, or sober and looking like a "ratero." Here I've come to understand that a "ratero" is someone who fits the profile of a thief. Based on what I have experienced with that word, I picture a "ratero" as someone with darker skin and lots of hair gel in his hair, and probably a young man. Anyway, being able to have seen the man would have affected my actions even though the judgment would obviously have been superficial since the guy who stole Sergio's car earlier this year did not seem like a typical "thief."
Another factor that is worth considering is the socioeconomic environment in Mexico. I could have called someone to catch the crooked police officers but to what extent would I want them punished? These guys are corrupt for a reason, after all. They earn some of the poorest salaries of all of North America. It would be pretty shitty for them to loose their jobs. The official minimum wage in Mexico City is $54.80 pesos a day. That's obviously not the police base salary but it gives you an idea.
$54.80 pesos. How crazy is that?! http://www.sat.gob.mx/sitio_internet/asistencia_contribuyente/informacion_frecuente/salarios_minimos/
what a feeling of helplessness. your intentions were good. it's a tough situation to be in because you didn't know exactly what the scenario was and the people who you would turn to for help could very well have also been corrupt police. you wouldn't want to find yourself in a troubling mess possibly fearing for your own well-being just because you were trying to be a good person. stay safe over there! *consie
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