Is the DR on the slippery slope toward dictatorship?

[Texas Bill]

Mirador:

You have just described the New York Police Force of the20-40 timeframe. it wasn't until LaGuardia got elected that the Pendergrast machine and ts accompanying criminal elements were seriously addressed. it took a few years, and the job isn't complete yet, to eliminate the "Mob's" hold on the Police Force.
There is, today, a "New Breed" of "Cops" that are taking over from the original pioneers in honest and honorable Police work. They are doing a good jobs, from all indications and I salute them for their perserverance and dedication. Yes, there still, and always will be, a few bad apples in the barrel, but they are becoming fewer and farther between each year as the bad ones are identified and "weeded out".
I think it significant to point out that the average New Yorker(and American) is a great deal equal to my statement of "endemic complaisance", so the DR doesn't have an exclusive right to that description.
Perhaps, in time, the situation will be alleviated by the ingress of young and bright police personnel whose purpose will be to change the image of their profession by example, rather than by Vain actions. Let us hope so, anyway.

A great deal will depend uopn the public outrage against the present system and by demending reform within the rank and file of the law Enforcement Establishment.

Texas Bill

 

[Mirador]

Mirador:

You have just described the New York Police Force of the20-40 timeframe. it wasn't until LaGuardia got elected that the Pendergrast machine and ts accompanying criminal elements were seriously addressed. it took a few years, and the job isn't complete yet, to eliminate the "Mob's" hold on the Police Force.
There is, today, a "New Breed" of "Cops" that are taking over from the original pioneers in honest and honorable Police work. They are doing a good jobs, from all indications and I salute them for their perserverance and dedication. Yes, there still, and always will be, a few bad apples in the barrel, but they are becoming fewer and farther between each year as the bad ones are identified and "weeded out".
I think it significant to point out that the average New Yorker(and American) is a great deal equal to my statement of "endemic complaisance", so the DR doesn't have an exclusive right to that description.
Perhaps, in time, the situation will be alleviated by the ingress of young and bright police personnel whose purpose will be to change the image of their profession by example, rather than by Vain actions. Let us hope so, anyway.

A great deal will depend uopn the public outrage against the present system and by demending reform within the rank and file of the law Enforcement Establishment.

Texas Bill

Texas Bill:

The only LaGuardia we have in the DR is "la guardia", and they don't get elected because they happen to be the military, and military personnel are sworn to abide by the military code of discipline, obedience and respect for rank. There is no way that the "rank-and-file" will go against the ranking officers and create a "new breed" of "cops", since the DR does not have "cops". The DR police is a branch of the military. The only solution would be to start from scratch, and create a new police force, a civilian police.

 

[Texas Bill]

Mirador:

You merely repeated what I had stated in my response.

The "man" LaGuadia" was elected mayor of New York City and effectively turned that City around.
Had nothing to do with the definition of the"la guaardia" here in the DR and cannot be equated in that simbolic manner.
Don't twist my words to fit something else totally unrelated semantically.
It ain't the same thing by a long shot.
With the DR's history of the Armed Forces and Police Establishment's "social control" of the population, I doubt seriously if any political entity will ever break up that element of the government. Nothing has been attempted nor accomplished in the past and I foresee the same lack of action for the future.
It's nice to dream of "Utopia", but in this case internal internal and social pressures aren't sufficient to bring about such a change in our lifetimes. The politicl imperative is there, but the courage to effect the necessary changes are not. Can you, by any stretch of the imagination, visualize the "rank and file" of the existing Enforcement Establishments voluntarily relinquishing their positions of power and control simply because it would be "best or the country"? No Way, Jose. That would be a fast track to a coup d'etat by those bery same entities. Simply a matter of survival and continuation of the status quo.
Until the political parties currently making up the political leadership of this country establish firm platforms for social and economic progress, nominate only truly dedicated and statesman-like aspirants to political office, totally separate the financing of Government the political parties, eliminate "commission driven" laws and further establish long range plans and policies, the DR will continue to be caught up in a political and economic maelstrom with no "fair weather" in sight.
There are many countries that fit into that scenario and not all of them are "Third World" or "Emerging Nations". Plenty of "First World Nations" are suffering the same way.

Texas Bill

 

[Rick Snyder]

Mirador after going through your OP again I wish to point out a discrepancy in it, of course this is typical of you, whereas you stated, “In only three to four months crime has increased tenfold, something unexplainable in terms of the typically recognized causes of crime”.

For those of us that live here we know that the crime hasn’t increased to the extent that you state and for those that don’t live here they get a false impression of the validity of the situation.

Kingofdice said, “The Penal Code puts an overwhelming burden on the Prosecutors's now to where it makes it nearly impossible to get a conviction. The result is very few convictions for significant crimes”, and the fallacy in this statement is with the word “overwhelming”. What the new penal code has done is put the burden of proof on the judicial side of the house instead of on the side of the accused. Just like in the US they wish that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Miradors statement “With the old code, anybody, including yourself, could be arrested without any burden of proof, even based on the whim of the police, or an arbitrary unfounded accusation" was the problem and they are trying to rectify that problem by having the police first prove a crime has taken place and to prove who committed said crime which in a normal society is a normal procedure. It is then up to the prosecutor to present the facts in front of a judge to prove that a crime was committed and Mr X here is the person that committed it. If, due to incompetence of the police, the prosecutor fails to prove his case then like in the US the supposed criminal walks.

Kingofdice said, “Is it wrong to check on people who are standing on the street corner at midnight? I think not. What are they doing there anyway?”, and this is a very good question and should be addressed due to its relevance to crime in general. Hours of darkness and especially after the hours of midnight are normally the time that society has determined is the time of rest and relaxation. In a country with no major night shift industries and high unemployment the congregation of people on the street corners would automatically instill the question as to why they are there. Nighttime is also the most chosen time for the transportation of illegal and stolen goods by the criminal sector simply due to the fact that they think the majority of people are sleeping, drinking or otherwise indisposed.

Tordok summed it up very nicely when he said, “the problem these days is the truly unprecedented degree of collusion between criminals that are better financed and organized than the DR State, and their would-be chasers easily lured to the mucho dinero involved. I'm yet to see a Dominican Serpico Any clean officers left around are afraid to speak, because they and their families can be targeted for lethal reprisals. Who are they going to go to? The "Suprema"? Fuggeda'bouit”, but his implication that this hasn’t always been the case here is a little to the extreme. The collusion has always been there and through Hippo’s reign it increased and hasn’t fallen off but it isn’t unprecedented.

Like Scandall who said, “Any optimism I ever had for the DR has died over the past year or so. We will see no major progress in our lifetimes...savor the small victories.”, I too have lost any optimism of this country getting its act together. Mirador and other Dominicans like him have and will continue to fail to do that which needs to be done to possibly rectify the “traitors” as his statement, “Why?, because of the traitors, traitors like the Congressmen who were bribed and voted for the artificial "novomundo" island project last night”, indicates.

Rick

 

[Mirador]

.... Mirador and other Dominicans like him have and will continue to fail to do that which needs to be done to possibly rectify the “traitors” as his statement, “Why?, because of the traitors, traitors like the Congressmen who were bribed and voted for the artificial "novomundo" island project last night”, indicates.

Rick

Rick:

I don't know of "other Dominicans like me", and my own feelings are in line with those of Randy (Scandall). I feel like an expat in my own fatherland, a stranger in a strange land. God knows I have tried to influence the current state of affairs, even the current Vice President has payed a visit to my home, and yet I am Taliban to their own personal agendas. I'm on my way out....

 

[Texas Bill]

Rick:

I don't know of "other Dominicans like me", and my own feelings are in line with those of Randy (Scandall). I feel like an expat in my own fatherland, a stranger in a strange land. God knows I have tried to influence the current state of affairs, even the current Vice President has payed a visit to my home, and yet I am Taliban to their own personal agendas. I'm on my way out....

Mirador:

Although we may differ in our approach to the solutions of the problems facing both your and my nations, I encourage you to continue "hammering away" at their roots. Continue to appeal to the "better side" of those with personal agendas, pointing out the social sickness they are embibed with and hope that eventually a modification will take place.
Agreed that one cannot "eat" personal honor and integrity, but one can, by the constant application of those desired ingredients of life fulfill their goals of personal recognition in life for themselves and their families.
I know that there are times when I come across as an altruist and at other times as a cynic. I continue to alter my views on the things about me as the circumstances dictate, but only when reconciled with my sense of correctness.

Keep a stiff upper lip, pardner.
Illigitimus Non Carborundum.

Texas Bill

 

[Rick Snyder]

Mirador,

With the last post by you then I stand corrected and do humbly apologize for my statement about you. It is with that statement by you that makes me feel that there is still hope for the DR.

With that having been said then let me beg you not to give up hope and to continue on trying to convince and teach other Dominicans a better way. It is people like you who are Dominican that know there is a better way and it will only be by a concerted effort by people such as yourself that change will take place on this island.

Once again I apologize to you for having said what I did about you.

Rick