Some headlines are hailing her as the bravest woman in Mexico. Marisol Valles Garcia, all of 20 years old, says she's just tired of everyone being afraid.Now, on the one hand, there's no inherent problem with an all-female police force. Women in a pinch can be as tough (or more so) than men. I give you, for instance, Margaret Thatcher, Mother Teresa, Catherine of Siena, the women of the US military and police forces, etc. Mothers.
Valles Garcia, a criminology student, became the police chief this week of Praxedis G. Guerrero, one of the most violent municipalities in the border state of Chihuahua. She was the only person who accepted the top job in a police force whose officers have been abducted and even killed...
Valles Garcia sees a non-violent role for her 13-member force, which will be mostly female and unarmed.
"The weapons we have are principles and values, which are the best weapons for prevention," she told CNN en Español. "Our work will be pure prevention. We are not going to be doing anything else other than prevention."
Valles Garcia said she aims to establish programs in neighborhoods and schools, to win back security in public spaces and to foster greater cooperation among neighbors so they can form watch committees.
She has recruited three other women to join the force in the small municipality of 8,500 people, the government-run Notimex news agency said this week...
Also, since this is the first set of police in the town in a while (everyone else got killed or run off), perhaps something is better than nothing, and teaching people to get along might help alleviate non-organized crime.
On the other hand, the drug wars are straight out of the wild west days, with bigger guns and more money. The sheriff who walks into town, weaponless and female, and expects to be in charge of anything for very long, doesn't seem to stand a chance. But perhaps there's more to the story than appears in CNN's coverage.
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