Monday, November 09, 2009

Roadblocks in Merida

I don't know why I don't pick up the local paper more often; there's so much to catch the eye of the neurotic foreigner!

Besides the happy ending article, there's another on page 9 of the Local section (where all the good stuff is) which proclaims that police roadblocks in Merida, particularly the ones where motorists are stopped and checked for alcoholic breath, are being modernized.

There'll be more lights, no roadblocks after overpasses or curves, that sort of thing. All because an officer was run over by a truck because the driver 'didn't see' the roadblock.

Which is fine.

The thing they didn't get around to 'modernizing' is their method by which they obtain their breath sample, as shown in the photo accompanying the article. The officer, and I know this from personal experience as well, is holding a piece of cardboard by the drivers face and is sniffing the drivers breath as it is blown towards his highly trained nostrils.

Surely this is modernization! And what a thrill it must be for any aspiring police officer to have to perform this degrading duty. What if urine samples had to be taken? It's a disturbing thought...


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3 comments:

Jorgito said...

What you don't know, is that the SPV is so far ahead in technology that the piece of cardboard is covered by a chemical that turns red if the alcohol content on your blood is higher that what permitted, otherwise it turns green...

Not!

William Lawson said...

I did NOT know about the specially treated cardboard!! That's amazing. Perhaps the authorities in Progreso can develop a similar system (a cloth that turns colors, maybe?) to detect happy endings?

Dontcha Know? said...

And thus the oft-shouted phrase:

"Driver gets the last stick of gum!"

(replace with 'last mint' as necessary)

That's all it takes unless you are so stinking drunk that the alcohol is wafting out the very pores of your skin...