If I want to know as little as possible about risks in Rocky Point, I'll read the Rocky Point Times. Yes, I already had all that information. What I really wanted to know is whether Rocky Point has acquired a criminal element that may also be prone to robberies and kidnappings, which are surprisingly common elsewhere in Mexico even though such incidents are rarely publicized. I'm also wondering whether law enforcement is being compromised.
When six men are excecuted outside a small town and no one wants to talk about it, I think I have my answers.
Not sure where you live, but I can assure you that Rocky Point has no more of a criminal element than your community, particularly if you live in a city. Phoenix is the number 1 city for kidnapping in the US. A big part of the problem is that reporting crime in crime ridden cities of the US just does not have the sex appeal of crime in Mexico. Many neighborhoods in US cities are completely controlled by gangs, so much so that it's just not new so it's not News and not worth repeating every night that the neighborhood is gang controlled. "We reported that last week so we don't have to talk about it anymore." Lots of criminal incidents in the US go unpublished and unreported there ain't enough paper or enough air time to read the inventory of crime. So if you want to know as little as possible about crime in your area, watch the local news and read your local news paper. The news here is reported by local News outlets, like radio. Yes it's in Spanish and yes if you don't speak the language you won't get the news, but it is there. The fact that it's in Spanish is not part of some nefarious plot, Spanish is the language of Mexico.
As for law enforcement, well they ain't perfect in the US either. I lived near Santa Fe NM in a small community. It was reported as one of the most crime free towns in the entire US. I found out that the Chief came in every day and collected all of the incident reports, sat next to his trash can, and decided which of the reports actually involved a crime and which didn't. He effectively was involved in "crime reduction" because no one knew about it!! The police were too busy running speed traps to be concerned about burgularies. If you did complain too much, you invariably got robbed yourself. The chief accused me of assaulting him when I got too insistent on neighborhood patrols.
Yes, burglaries occur here. Surprisingly few when you consider, for example, that the community of Las Conchas is virtually abandoned 90% of the time making it an ideal target. Maybe someone is covering up? While they are not there a lot of the time, owners do communicate with each other. When there is a burgulary the word goes around pretty fast. They use it as an index of the effectiveness of the security they hire.
Do you sit around you dinner table talking about crime in your community every day? Mob killings have been common in the US, now gang killings are more commonly reported. Mostly they kill each other, hardly worth reporting in a crime ridden city. Bodies were found buried all over the West side of Albuquerque a bit ago. Lots of them. People did not start moving out because of that. It made the news for a few days only because there was a lot of digging going on discovering more bodies. Now remember that's NEW Mexico, not Old Mexico.
I visited here regularly for 5 years and have lived here full time for 4 years. I routinely stroll Calle 13 in the night and have never been accosted, except by someone selling "something". I live in the Mirador and walk to the beach day and night and have never been accosted by anyone. I drive the highways to Sonoita, Hermosillo, Sahuaripa, Bacanora, Bahia de Kino and even out into the desert with no problems. Two sons visited over the Thanksgiving holiday and hit many of the local bars with no problems. My nephew visited over the Christmas holiday and walked all over day and night with no mishaps. I spent New Year's eve in one of the local neighborhoods, sitting around a fire outside and had no problems. There is a much greater probabilty that I'll be hurt by falling off the ladder while trimming the palm trees than by someone else. Most people get hurt by accidents in their own home, not by crime.
Yes it can be discomforting to see men in uniforms with automatic weapons in the streets. I felt that way in Rome, Athens and Cairo.
Someone did break into my house about 2 months ago. The alarm went off and in the 5 minutes it took me to get to the house both the police and the alarm company arrived. Nothing was taken, nothing was damaged. Yeah it was an attempted burgulary that was thwarted by taking precautions, just as you do in the US.
I'm not sure what you want to talk about regarding the 6 bodies. I guess there were 6 of them, and I guess they were dead, and I guess they were shot, and I guess they were buried in the desert somewhere near Sonoita and Penasco, I guess they were not tourists, I guess it was cartel related. I guess all that because I personally did not observe any of this, I'm a real cynic, not because I don't think its an accurate report. I could probably get a look at the post mortem if I wanted, but I'm not interested in the gory details. It's clearly a human tragedy.
Well I hope you feel OK to come down again , stay in a nice house on the beach, fish the estuary, have Tacos at Marys and stroll the Malecon. Bring your friends too, you already know it's the cheapest beach vacation you can find !! Just be alert as you should be anywhere. You might want to avoid Phoenix due to the kidnapping problem there!!
