I have ALWAYS been told by my south american and Caribbean friends, at night in a dark place you NEVER STOP for the police, they can follow you to a busy area if must be! I won't stop at night for anything!!
- Thread starter dv8
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how to stay safe - tips from dominican police
I have ALWAYS been told by my south american and Caribbean friends, at night in a dark place you NEVER STOP for the police, they can follow you to a busy area if must be! I won't stop at night for anything!!
The maid ruined all of our clothes so we look poorer than Domincans. as well .lol I don't care. I'm over having to have the best of everything.
I play dumb too and if i take too long to get my papers out of the glove box they get frustrated and just say go!
Also jail and prison is "Grad School" for criminals. Many Dominicans learn a lot spending time in the US prison system and when they are deported back to DR, they arrive with so much knowledge on how to commit crimes, when to commit crimes, and how to get away with crimes they commit.
Police, DA's lawyers, judges ARE NOT smarter then criminals they like to think that and that is why so many criminals are never brought to justice because the police do not like to admit that they have no clue in what they are doing.
Criminals knows which houses are off limit in DR and which cars are off limit in DR, if you want to be totally safe find out who is the person that controls the crime in your area and if he put it out there that you and your property is off limit criminals usually stay away because criminals are just like everybody else they do not want to die.
Placing all you eggs in the police in DR, GOOD LUCK with that.
Police, DA's lawyers, judges ARE NOT smarter then criminals they like to think that and that is why so many criminals are never brought to justice because the police do not like to admit that they have no clue in what they are doing.
Criminals knows which houses are off limit in DR and which cars are off limit in DR, if you want to be totally safe find out who is the person that controls the crime in your area and if he put it out there that you and your property is off limit criminals usually stay away because criminals are just like everybody else they do not want to die.
Placing all you eggs in the police in DR, GOOD LUCK with that.
Have you ever been stopped at night by 2 guys on a moto? they just drive next to you on your left and knock in your driver's window while driving, so if you don't stop immediately, you will see the gun pointed to your head, and I bet your car's windows are not bulletproof.
Sometimes I think some DR1 members live in another DR, in parallel universe.
Honestly, you should move to a better neighborhood.....
Yes, they've been beside me
Yes, I've waved them away
No, I was not wearing a bandana
No, I was not wearing a muscle shirt
We all deal with the same problem differently..........
no right , no wrong
Survival........
Had this exact thing happen on Churchill, just shouted some english took the next left uturn and a little fancy driving and they gave up. Oh one thing missing they didnt put a gun to my window, and if they did i may have stopped, also would have made sure to utilize all my connections to make it the last time they did that!
Piantini area (especially on av.Churchill) , Bella Vista, and av. 27 de Febrero between Lincoln and Tiradentes. A lot of PN motorcycle patrols at night, always trying to extort money. Bad neighborhoods you say?
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A lot of that crap on Churchill now even during the day. They don't stop crappy cars, and don't stop new black Land Cruisers, only middle class cars. They will never put a gun to your window during day-evening hours, but at night that's normal if you don't stop immediately.
i would not stop with a gun at my head if they were on a moto driving next to me. IF I was on the move driving i would drive like a psycho to the safest possible place. I am ALWAYS aware when driving at night who is around me and I watch out for people coming up on me.
Stopping would be my last thought!
Stopping would be my last thought!
ok, it's 2 AM, the streets are totally empty, everything is closed, you are driving on Churchill, the cops on a moto are on your left, with a gun pointed to your head because you don't want to stop. Where's the nearest safest place and how many seconds you have before they start to shoot? Are you sure you don't want to stop?? What if you have a red light, would you stop or go on red? Have you been in this situation before? I live 7 years in Santo Domingo, and I would advise to stop immediately.
gee, hernandez, obsessed much? the police is not a problem. i have never been stopped by the police, attacked by the police or abused by the police. quite the contrary, they have always been nice and polite to me. maybe you have the face of a criminal? forehead tattoo? scarface?
I would zap them with my viper tazer gun, followup with a shot of mace spray. If that didnt do the trick i would probably chase them down, run them over and check their pockets for money slap their faces and say "Buenos Noches My Frennn!!!
I have the right people on my speed dial, as well as business cards of those people. That's why I prefer to stop, because I will lose just 5 minutes of my time, but not my life if I don't stop. Regarding the face of a criminal, if you don't stop and you have tinted windows, I believe they don't see your face at all, but they still may shoot.
what does it have to do with your unhealthy obsession with the evil dominican police? you repeatedly spit on them in every thread that has anything to do with safety. did they touch you in wrong places? i have lived here for seven years. not once have i met with any kind of abuse from the police. miesposo travels frequently to all places in DR, from nagua to pedernales, from dajabon to punta cana, day and night. not once did he run into any issues with the police. and he lives here since birth. so please, the police problem is only in your head...
I've also been told never stop at a red light in the middle of the night. I don't live in SD though, so there is like one light about 15 minutes from me. I don't travel around in the middle of the night anyways.
dv8, I did not have any troubles with police, I was stopped many many times just because living in Santo Domingo is a bit different than sitting at home or driving around your little town in Sosua. I always stop and I never had any problem, I already wrote about this in my previous post. But I have a lot of friends here who were robbed by police, some of them had serious problems with police because they did not know how to talk with them and what to do, and maybe you don't know but sometimes police here in SD shoot if the driver don't stop. They don't care who is inside the car, a poor student, a criminal, a lady from Poland or her Dominican husband... you don't stop, they shoot, that's it... some cases were in the news, some not, but people here know about them. So "don't stop if they want you to stop" is the most stupid advice that you can give to newbies on this forum, because they can follow the advice and lose their life.
little town of sosua? damn you! i live in a capital of the privince, novia del atlantico, prestigious and precious city of puerto plata!
i agree with you that "don't stop" advice will not work out well for the newbie. only after living here for a while you figure when to stop. as an european, and from ex-communist country too, i have lots of respect - if not fear - of the police. whenever i drive with miesposo and he does not stop i cringe. no problems so far. but then of few occasions he did stop and we were allowed to continue after a brief conversation. i do not go far by myself: santiago or cabarete is all i ever do, yes. and the same is true for many gringos here on the north coast, they do not drive much.
where i disagree with you is the anti-police attitude. seriously, there is no need to panic. not even to "know how to talk to them". talk to the police exactly the same way you'd talk to the police in your home country: calm and polite. there is no reason to shout or argue.
i agree with you that "don't stop" advice will not work out well for the newbie. only after living here for a while you figure when to stop. as an european, and from ex-communist country too, i have lots of respect - if not fear - of the police. whenever i drive with miesposo and he does not stop i cringe. no problems so far. but then of few occasions he did stop and we were allowed to continue after a brief conversation. i do not go far by myself: santiago or cabarete is all i ever do, yes. and the same is true for many gringos here on the north coast, they do not drive much.
where i disagree with you is the anti-police attitude. seriously, there is no need to panic. not even to "know how to talk to them". talk to the police exactly the same way you'd talk to the police in your home country: calm and polite. there is no reason to shout or argue.
7 years ago I drove all over the country at night. When I say at night I mean I could leave Las Terrenas at midnight and arrive to SD at 5 am. And I was stopped by police just a few times in first couple of years here, and they just checked my gun license and other documents. Now, in 2013, if you want to drive in SD from Piantini to Zona Colonial at 1 AM, you most likely will be stopped 3 or 4 times, at Churchill then at Lincoln, then on 27 de Febrero, and then at Maximo Gomez con Independencia. And every time they will try to extort some money from you. The worst is if you are alone in the car so you have no witness. Honestly, that's too much, I compare SD to Panama City or San Jose where I can drive all night from one place to another one, and I was NEVER stopped by police there.