Jocotepec sets an example for honoring the police. I hope the nation is listening.
Patrick O’Heffernan
Jocotepec President José Miguel Gómez López and the Jocotepec Council deserve high praise for their handling of the pensions for the families of the two officers brutally ambushed while working an accident scene near San Cristóbal Zapotitlán on Thursday. And praise for the people of JOcoepe for the march honoring the slain civil servants Wednesday. Two paramedics who were also attending the accident were also injured in the senseless attack, according to the story published by my colleague Hector Ruiz Mejia.
Despite the opinion of the municipal labor office that the seniority of the officers only entitled their families to 30% of their pensions, President Gómez López wisely proposed and the Council passed a resolution awarding the officers’ families 100% of their pension. This was especially welcome because officer Andrés Inclán Zamora had been on the force for less than 2 months and officer Edgar Omar Leal Nava had been on the force for only two years– terms that would normally limit their pensions. Their devastated families expected further hardship; instead the Jocotepec Council gave them a lifeline.
Mexican communities do not adequately honor and reward their police officers. In fact, until 2018, there was not even a public database of officers killed in the line of duty, according to the NPO, Causa in Common. Now there is, thanks to a joint effort by more than 30 activists and journalists who collect and publish data on police officers killed or wounded in the line of duty every year.
The findings are startling: 452 police officers were killed in 2018, 446 officers were killed in 2019, and so far this year, at least 338 police officers died violently in the line of duty.
And, because of chronically tight budgets, every municipality in Mexico has too few police and it underpays and under equips the ones it has. The National Public Security System (SNSP) and the National Minimum Wage Commission (Conasami) found in a 2021 study, A Living Wage for Police in Mexico, that the average annual salary of a police officer is $350US a month – about what they could make as laborer. The study recommended that starting salaries for police in Mexico be raised to $680 month – a tough sell for municipalities strapped for cash because of stingy state and federal funding.
So, it is doubly inspiring that, in the face of grossly inadequate funding from state and federal governments, the Jocotepec Council voted to give 100% pensions to the families of the slain police officers. Not only was it the right and compassionate thing to do, but it also sent a signal to the nation – and especially to the national and state governments – municipalities need funds to honor and adequately pay their police forces.
Thank you and congratulations to the Jocotepec government for setting an example. Let’s hope they notice in Jalisco and Mexico City.
Los comentarios están cerrados.
© 2016. Todos los derechos reservados. Semanario de la Ribera de Chapala