New Times article for tomorrow; SCARECATION

Cabo

Spanish Mackerrel
... Phoenix New Times News By Ray Stern Thursday, Mar 10 2011 ;

I keep hearing that Rocky point is safer than Phoenix blah blah blah, Shootings and killings in front of police, one in the hospitals with out ONE Arrest???? (not the first time) How could these killers escape town, no one had a cell phone to get their lic plates in this age of You tube? And for one killer to walk into a hospital and take 5 shots on someone in the emergency room??? It is beyond my comprehension. Looking at the multiple of machine gun fire (AK-47) the danger of a free bullet is real. The parked cars and the white 4X4 where mutilated.

Mr. Stern gives a good analysis on the subject. His staff was sent down to investigate first hand reports.

He hits the nail in the head with this statement: " Rocky Point has been a pocket of tranquility in Mexico — and exceedingly safe. For Americans, anyway."

Here are some snips;

New Times also spotted the Marines driving around town in Humvees equipped with belt-fed machine guns and stationed at the new airport near the Mayan Palace.

The nature of crime in Mexico, and especially how law enforcement responds to it, disturbs American sensibilities. Nationally, only about 2 percent of cartel suspects arrested are brought to trial, according to a State Department.

No arrests have been made in the August murder at the Malecon, the fatal shooting of a Rocky Point taxi driver in January of this year, or even the shooting of the former Rocky Point police chief.

Good stats:

"Nogales saw its crime rate skyrocket last year.
At least 226 people were murdered — a 70 percent increase over the 2009 figures, says a State Department source.

By contrast, the rate of murders per 100,000 in New Orleans — America's murder capital — was 52 in 2009, about half that of Nogales.

Rocky Point has had about 11 murders per year since 2007, according to figures obtained from the town's police department. Assuming a population of about 50,000, that equates to 22 murders per 100,000 — less than half of New Orleans' rate.

But if it's unfair to compare Rocky Point to Juárez, it's also unfair to compare it to New Orleans, which hosts about 6 million visitors a year. Only a fraction of that number of tourists visit Rocky Point each year.

Strictly by the numbers, Tempe is safer than Rocky Point. Though the city experienced a record year for murders in 2010, with 12, the population of Tempe is nearly four times that of Rocky Point, and it has more yearly visitors.

Also, most of the murders — including those of ASU students Kyleigh Sousa and Zachary Marco — were solved by police, and the murderers have been brought to justice.

On the positive: " obvious by checking a map: You don't need to travel through Rocky Point coming north from either Baja California or the mainland. No major smuggling routes through Rocky Point exist to fight over"


Well here it is; read all about it.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2011-03-10/news/fear-is-killing-tourism-in-rocky-point-mexico-though-tourists-are-relatively-safe-there-for-now/
 
Wow

I've been going to RP for 20+ years, I have 4 kids who have been there from 2 months of age. My wife's Grand Parents had a cabin in Cholla Bay in 1955, I have had a house since 1988.

I remember the murder in Las Conchas in 1991 of an American woman by her husband's Transvestite play thing, In 2001 I went down the day after the shooting at the shrines north of the bridges,
where 2-3 people were shot execution style you could still see the blood stains on the road. I was there last year when the car was shot up at the RR track crossing.

I was also there last Aug. 2 days after the man was shot at the marina, I have seen bar fights with heads being busted in more than one cantina.

One of the reasons I love going to Puesrto Penasco is because it is a bit different, both good and bad, but mostly good.

Sure things are being made out to be it is the end of the world, but I would live in Mexico anytime without fear. Just think about what you are going to do.

I guess that is just me and a whole lot of others, But I was brought up with the attitude " If you don't have anything good to say, why bother to spoil some other persons day "

If you are uncomfortable with the way things are now, I guess you should go somewhere where you feel safe and stop trying to control others with your fear, bad stuff does happen anywhere, Not just in Mexico.

This isn't an attack on you, just your method of fanning the flames on a bad thing that happened.

This why I hate forums, way too many Party Poopers.

Don't worry, Be Happy!! Especially in Puerto Penasco

FYI, I am going to RP Saturday with 12 people including my kids and some of their friends, without any fear!!!
 
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jerry

Guest
The one statistic that matters:
Dead bald headed American Tourists in Sonora: zero after all...it is all about me
 

Cabo

Spanish Mackerrel
Broken wave, I love ~~~~~ rocky point.

"This why I hate forums, way too many Party Poopers."

???

Listen friend, you doing the ostrich dance is OK by me. Reality is that 100's of bullets where shot in a mass celebration. I do not care what you think. Like others, this bothers me. Especially that nothing gets done or solved. They know who did this, but everyone looks the other way. But I degrees.

This article is going out tomorrow Front page and will be seen by 250,000 Phoenicians. It is NOT MY article. Although I agree that, I repeat;

" Rocky Point has been a pocket of tranquility in Mexico — and exceedingly safe. For Americans, anyway."

Luck has it that the Carnival Fiasco is not included....
 

Mexico Joe

Cholla Bay 4 Life
Broken wave, I love ~~~~~ rocky point.

"This why I hate forums, way too many Party Poopers."

???

Listen friend, you doing the ostrich dance is OK by me. Reality is that 100's of bullets where shot in a mass celebration. I do not care what you think. Like others, this bothers me. Especially that nothing gets done or solved. They know who did this, but everyone looks the other way. But I degrees.

This article is going out tomorrow Front page and will be seen by 250,000 Phoenicians. It is NOT MY article. Although I agree that, I repeat;

" Rocky Point has been a pocket of tranquility in Mexico — and exceedingly safe. For Americans, anyway."

Luck has it that the Carnival Fiasco is not included....

Cabo, tell us the truth compa, you're the author aren't you? Even better, you're the life partner of the author? Regardless you are power pumping this up my butt hole like I want you standing behind me. I'm going to have to cross reference slap you for your irresponsible verbatim. First I need to ask you a few questions. Were you there at the location of the shooting when it happened and did you see it? Do you proof anything you write? What is the ostrich dance and will it get me more woman at the club? Your negativity has me all fired up at 6:40am on this wonderful Thursday morning. Ok, now back to the heavy hitting. When you say, "Reality is that 100's of bullets where shot..." it is somewhat irresponsible for you to make such a general quantitative claim as to how many rounds were fired, ESPECIALLY IF YOU WEREN'T THERE, PLEASE TELL ME YOU WERE! I dont know what assault rifle was used during the shooting but in general an assault rifle clip holds anywhere from 15 to 30 rounds depending on the gun. This goes back to the question I have, how many is 100's? The definition of hundreds is 100 to 999. Im going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you meant hundreds as in 200 lets say. At 200 rounds thats about 6 or 7 clips. Furthermore, you said, "The parked cars and the white 4x4 where mutilated". I dont know your definition of mutilated but the pics are on this site and personally I dont feel like any of the cars are "mutilated". In addition, the approximately 30 bullets in the white truck isn't hundreds. It's unfortunate that you have to generalize with words like "mutilated" and "hundreds". I can only imagine you telling this story to someone in Phoenix or Tucson or where ever it is that you live. "Yea man, shootout on 13th street, hundreds of bullets fired, cars were all mutilated, yea complete disaster". You discredit yourself and Rocky Point every time you generalize with negativity. People that read this forum might not get an accurate description of what happened with words like "mutilated" and "hundreds". Lastly, I'd like to point out a few inconsistencies with the author (Cabo's life partner). There were more than one that came to mind when I was reading the article but I'm only going to share a couple that I felt were inconsistent. On page 4 at about the middle of the page the author starts to ramble, "Last year a series of troubling news articles only served to ramp up the fear of norteamericanos considering a Rocky Point trip". This is where the author starts to lose train of thought. The author goes on to list the "troubling" news that has plagued Rocky Point in the last year; "• May — Fake checkpoints reportedly were set up for a few nights on Highway 8, the road that leads from the border crossing at Lukeville/Sonoyta to Rocky Point. People manning the checkpoint asked travelers for identification but didn't hurt or rob anyone. It's unclear how long the checkpoints were in operation, but there have been no reports about them since". To my knowledge and I'd like to be corrected if this isn't accurate but I thought that issue with the Nogales consulate office putting out the advisory was disputed and in my belief was thought to be downright untrue and even unfounded. That these checkpoints were UNCONFIRMED. They never did find anyone actually out there in the highway stopping people. If this is to be true and those checkpoints still remain unconfirmed I dont think it is responsible to include that in the article as something that has factually happened in the last year. Furthermore a second questionable event that wasn't even directly or indirectly related to Rocky Point is thrown in. " • August — The bodies of 72 migrants from Central America were found in a ranch house just south of Texas in San Fernando, Mexico. A week later, the lead Mexican investigator in the case and one of his officers were kidnapped and killed". The author makes this one of his BULLET POINTS and then the next paragraph explains that it isn't really relevant to RP... OBVIOUSLY, then why the F%#$ did you make it a bullet point as to why people are staying away from RP?! I'm not saying I completely disagree or discredit the article. The article does posses positive qualities. Lastly, CABO you almost feel angry yet happy that this article is going out today. I feel the negativity when you capitalized Front in "Front page" and the delusional assumption that 250,000 people will read the NEW TIMES. Lol, I doubt 250,000 people would have read the article if it was on the front page of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, let alone the NEW TIMES. The news paper is a thing of the past, wishful thinking sir! Charlie Sheen wants you to know, #Planbetter and proof your work player. Destroyed ! #ImOut #Winning
 

El Gato

Guest
My DH wasn't feeling very good for a couple of days - turns out most if not all the employees were checking up on us to make sure that everything was ok. When we went walking yesterday they all made a point of saying how glad they were he was feeling better (we hadn't even been aware that anyone knew) - I do know that at a moments notice we would have a lot of help immediately available. I rarely had the same feeling where we have lived before.
 

jerry

Guest
Hey all in all it wasn't a bad story.I still don't know what this "don't travel alone" stuff is all about.Hey if someone did get cross wise of the narcos having someone riding shotgun wouldn't help much without the shotgun.
 
Cabo, I agree with some of the other posters that you seem to be trying to fan the flames of negativity. I read every line of the article and found it well-researched and well written. Nothing scandalous, and certainly nothing warranting your alarmist post.
 
I likewise found the article to reflect the exact sentiments of the attitude and environment. I also believe that the number one reason that Penasco doesn't have as many visitors as in year's past is the Passport requirement. For years, RP was considered the cheap, fun vacation. That same demographic of visitors isn't very likely to spend $70-100 when in years past you could come back across the line with your State ID or DL ready to camp out on the beach or join a pool of 10-12 in a big house.

Our economic climate doesn't help either...
 

Ladyjeeper

Sonoran Goddess
Staff member
What Rosy and showlowjoe said! But, I still travel alone except not at night anymore. Well, there was that one time recently..........LOL! I even bring my 83 year old mother with me sometimes. And she's not afraid either! I was browbeaten into getting a Mexican cell phone 6 months ago. But, I can't live my life in fear! That means they win. Rocky Point is my life, 46 years of 54, along with the Jeeping and I'm too old to change that now.....When I feel unsafe, I will stop coming down......I would hate for that to happen, tho. It would make me a different person and not for the better............
 
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Doug C.

Guest
Thanks for the post Cabo. I come to these forums to read all things RP. Good and Bad. I also like to know what the news sources are saying about RP and appreciate it when someone keeps me up to date.

As for the shooting, we were at Hideaway several hours after and heard several people lamenting why this would happen during carnival, so close to spring break and what the US news would say.

Doug
 

Terry C

Guest
From Cabo, On the positive: " obvious by checking a map: You don't need to travel through Rocky Point coming north from either Baja California or the mainland. No major smuggling routes through Rocky Point exist to fight over"
 
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