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103 Comments
- Sublex, on 02/12/2009, -1/+75If you've just kidnapped someone, I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to steal a phone...
- PhillyOC, on 02/12/2009, -2/+33Damn. Didn't even think of that.
You should be a criminal or something. :) - jehan60188, on 02/12/2009, -1/+28you mean like how 10 years ago, people would be offended at the thought of taking off their shoes at the airport? or would be appalled at knowing they were subject to a warrantless wiretap?
small changes, implemented continually after major problems are the way to remove our freedoms.
and that is what has happened
what will happen
what is happening - slantyeyed, on 02/12/2009, -0/+24this will help boost the US economy since drug dealers will buy pre-paid phones in the US instead.
- Spartacusprime, on 02/12/2009, -1/+22But this is an excellent idea! It allows police to track people who may have committed crimes using cell phones! What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
- Beautyon, on 02/12/2009, -0/+14This has nothing to do with kidnapping.
Once someone is kidnapped, the texts and calls they have made will not help the police find them. It will also not help the police predict a kidnapping.
This is an excuse the state is using to get into the personal business of all Mexicans. The EU is trying to bring in similar measures with the nauseating Britain at the forefront. Their pretext is 'Terrorism' and of course, the same thing applies. Knowing what everyone everywhere is texting and keeping it for years will do nothing to stop pr prevent 'terrorism' will not help solve who did it etc etc.
Its the same with ID cards. Any claim that ID cards will help prevent kidnapping, terrorism or ANY crime are absurd on their face. - maeon3, on 02/12/2009, -5/+19They are solving the problem like retards, and taking out some liberties and freedoms in the process.
Let me propose something that would actually fix the problem to 98% decline in kidnapping:
Make gun ownership mandatory for individuals who are likely to be kidnapped. Everyone over 17 years old. Make it a finable offense for people < 17 to travel without supervision of a gun-carrier.
Kidnapping would decrease about 98% in a week when the kidnappers know that the victims are probably going to shoot back.
For all you hippies who think it would make other more worse problems crop up, create guns with GPS devices on them, cameras that turn on when used, etc etc.
In lou of doing something that might work, lets do something totally retarded. - Claverhouse, on 02/12/2009, -0/+13Seems fair: they have to take increasing measures to stave off the collapse. However, it seems obvious that poor people will just be threatened into buying the cellphones for the thugs.
- 4NDr01D, on 02/12/2009, -0/+13steal the kidnapped persons phone and use that for calls
register new phones with teenagers/fingerprints
they will be questioned by the police in association with the crimes
it might go on their record, making a new criminal out of the innocent teen - inactive, on 02/12/2009, -1/+12Your US phone provider keeps detailed logs of all your calls and will provide that data to law enforcement in most cases with no questions asked. They may not have your finger prints on file but that is a minor point since they can come pick you up and force you to provide them at any time they wish.
The only real difference here is that in Mexico they have declared openly that this goes on, while in the US it is whats known as a "public secret" basically doublethink. - ChileanGoD, on 02/12/2009, -7/+18Way to be off topic. Kidnappings are not drug related. They are just that, kidnaps. If you could magically disappear drugs from earth there would still be this kidnapping problem. It's not a side business fueled by drugs although, like in everything, there must be some exceptions here and there.
- w3ber, on 02/12/2009, -2/+12Do you remember that big riot following the Patriot act?
- jehan60188, on 02/12/2009, -1/+10threatened or bribed
the mafia doesn't need to threaten when they can go to the slums, give out cash/shoes/dvds, and coerce people into working with/for them - jason210, on 02/12/2009, -0/+9there are no criminal masterminds.except for the guys that run banks.
- jeremyduffy, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8This makes perfect sense you know. Removing all personal freedoms and privacy is the surest way to eliminate all crime as long as the people controlling the system are pillars of morality and ethics. And we can certainly trust the government to fill that role...
- dienaked, on 02/12/2009, -0/+8Just use the victims cell-phone.
- CayoMan, on 02/12/2009, -1/+9Sad but true, I’ve been living in Mexico for the past 12 years, and it looks like de government didn’t’ t see all this crime spree and drug trafficking coming, and now they take this kind of measures as a desperate act, honestly I think this is an invasion of privacy, let see if the privacy invasion works.
And the problem is not just the kidnapping , we have shootings everywhere on daily bases, executions, robberies, and completely incompetent and corrupt authorities that sometimes are even worse than the criminals. - SuperHyperKid, on 02/12/2009, -4/+12I really hope this doesn't happen here in the US.. Im sorry people of Mexico, this is not cool.
- jehan60188, on 02/12/2009, -2/+9criminal mastermind in the works here...
- inactive, on 02/12/2009, -1/+8Like that is actually going to work, considering the police and legislators are mostly corrupt. The problem starts at the top.
- YinofYang, on 02/12/2009, -1/+7It's a damn shame that kidnappings are escalating in Mexico.
It's difficult for the people to do anything though, because as the article stated, the government is oh-so corrupt. It's not anything like it is here in the States, we are lucky by far. There are border officials who are bribed yearly by big town gangs to keep their mouths shut when they traffick in sex slaves. It's hard to trust a government when it seems so many are corrupt. - ZiggyPlayedG, on 02/12/2009, -3/+9How bad is the state of the media in Mexico that i have to find out about this on Digg?
And while it's true that it's really ***** insecure right now in some parts of the country, it's really not like that everywhere. Stop generalizing things. Not every part of the country is Tijuana. Hell, i bet not every part of Tijuana is insecure. The media is never going to show a real interpretation of a country and it's people.
You all really should meet some Mexican people, because we are not the big hat, huarache wearing, ignorant stereotypes. We are smart and we are stupid just like the rest of the world. I know girls that read Charles Bukowski, and i know girls that think Twilight it's the greatest ***** thing that has ever happened to literature. There's all kinds of people here. - YinofYang, on 02/12/2009, -2/+8That's very true, but looking at the culture and politics in Mexico, I'm not terribly surprised. The common people aren't really given much of a chance to defend themselves.
- DarthTater, on 02/12/2009, -0/+6"Make gun ownership mandatory for individuals who are likely to be kidnapped. "
Dude! that's almost everyone! kidnappings in Mexico could happen even if you have no money! - inactive, on 02/12/2009, -0/+6Or, you know, use a phone booth.
- alexawesome, on 02/12/2009, -1/+6@Zippo: Your DVD story isn't particularly relevant. The issue with legalizing drugs is that once drugs are legalized, they can be sold by reliable sources, monitored and sold at competitive prices. Likewise, consider the people who would be buying these drugs - would they go to shady dealers who cut the drug with so much junk it barely gives them a high? Or would they go to the safe, trusted, reliable, price-fixed person with the safe, consistently strong drug? HMMM.
To an extent, this does apply to DVD pirating. Do you spend money buying terrible quality discounted DVDs, or do you go to more reliable, trusted sources? Even if those sources are still illegal, you're making a conscious choice as a consumer to go for the higher quality goods. The difference is that the crappy DVDs hawked in subways that sell for $5 are more expensive than the high-quality rips you can get for free online. How silly. - jehan60188, on 02/12/2009, -3/+8no, i don't recall ever hearing of that. everyone seemed to rather welcome it (which is how it was timed. the patriot act was written well before 9/11, and politicians were just waiting for a time when they'd have public support)
i would love to read more about that, though - cawpin, on 02/12/2009, -3/+8That's what happens to an unarmed populous.
- inactive, on 02/12/2009, -1/+5To late.
- PhillyOC, on 02/12/2009, -3/+7If this happened in the US there would be hoards of people rioting in the streets. it is a shame that Mexicans have to pretty much take it laying down.
- Barackalypse, on 02/12/2009, -0/+4Why even steal it, Mexico's largest cell phone provider sells phones in 17 countries, just buy a SIM card in Panama. A GSM system with roaming agreements with other major carriers makes it impossible to implement this successfully.
- inactive, on 02/12/2009, -1/+5I just stole a child... Now if there was only some way that I could obtain a phone that I do not need to pay for...
- haydesigner, on 02/12/2009, -0/+4And the ignorant don't seem to mind publicly posting on Digg.
- xplrr, on 02/12/2009, -0/+4The database will not get stolen. It is much easier to steal a phone.
- inactive, on 02/12/2009, -0/+3In other news, sales of landline phones have experienced a dramatic increase.
- nomadxx7, on 02/12/2009, -0/+3Also what stops them from buying a phone in the States and going back into Mexico? Does our technology here not work there or something?
It is similar to buying booze in VT/NH. I live close to the NH border and can go over there to buy a 1/5 of Capt. and not pay sales tax or I can sit at my house drive down the street and pay more + tax for the same thing. With the amount of friends/family making trips to NH to stock up on booze I question this logic about fingerprinting cellphones. Since we're not going to do fingerprinting any time soon how do we stop them from coming into the states, buying a trakfone and then going back down into Mexico? - Jlaugh, on 02/12/2009, -0/+3If Mexico does this the US will soon follow. One step closer to a big brother society. We already have video camera's at the cel phone stores.
- ChileanGoD, on 02/12/2009, -0/+3@Zippo: You're parallel is moronic. They aren't stealing physical DVDs, they are grabbing copies and making new DVDs at a far lower price. Legalizing drugs would lower the price to mass production levels thus effectively killing the organized crime lucrative business. By your logic organized crime will make the same drug even cheaper so people buy it from them. It could happen in theory but it would be alot more work for far less profit.
- faskill, on 02/12/2009, -0/+3Double plus ungood?
- boobsbr, on 02/12/2009, -0/+3this didn't work in brazil.
- D14852001neko, on 02/12/2009, -5/+7It is actually a bit related. Kidnappings in Mexico are drug related, at least, most of the time. The government has made a huge hit to the Narcotraficantes profit, so they go to other "business lines".
- UEichen, on 02/12/2009, -4/+6We would already have done it if we hadn't such a conservative and stupid government, but we are still on our way to doing so.
btw it would be nice if you legalized too, it would stop contraband - inactive, on 02/13/2009, -0/+2The database will not get stolen, some corrupt bureaucrat will sell it.
Im from Mexico too, I know what I'm writing about.
If the police were not involved in crime (drugs, kidnapping, you name it) there could be some control.
The problem is the Mexican culture. We are corrupt, we are lazy, we have no respect for rules, laws or institutions at all. I am sick of it. That is why I am an expat now, and I'm not going back to Mexico. - maidaa, on 02/12/2009, -0/+2Kidnappings is not just a problem in Mexico, Phoenix, Az had 370 kidnappings in 2008.
- D14852001neko, on 02/12/2009, -4/+6Well... I'm from Mexico, and the only thing I fear is that the database gets stolen, although they are now implementing an encrypted database that only a handful of persons have access to.
Lets hope it works! - Barackalypse, on 02/12/2009, -0/+2This won't work on a GSM system when the company sells phones in 17 different countries. The Mexican police can't stop drugs, guns, and kidnappings, do you think they can stop tiny postage stamp sized SIM cards bought legally in Panama?
- nomadxx7, on 02/12/2009, -0/+2@m3th0dm4n
Um how is that dumb logic? It's been proven through history that's how organized crime works. Look at the Mafia. They started with bootlegging alcohol and then into racketeering/tax evasion etc. They diversified their business much like any business would do. To assume that a drug guy once his product has been confiscated would just slink into the underground and disappear is dumb. You're telling me a guy used to nice cars, houses, women, parties and more is just going to give it up because the government doesn't like what he's selling? He's going to diversify into other avenues to make up for the profits he's lost not just disappear like every government agency would have you believe. It's the same principle about why killing the top dog of any crime syndicate doesn't change *****. More minions to take over the controls once the man in charge is out of power. - faskill, on 02/12/2009, -0/+2So, you live in Mexico?
- MephistoMX, on 02/12/2009, -0/+2One important thing the article doesn't mention and most of the comments here are missing is that this effort came about after several members of the Mexican congress received phone calls from supposedly kidnapped family members, asking them to pay whatever ransom was being asked for or they would be killed. Calls to these "kidnapped" people revealed they were safe and had no idea this was going on, so the "used the kidnapped person's cell phone" master plan doesn't apply. Many of these phone calls are being made by well organized gangs from prepaid cell phones, so it makes some sense to do this fingerprinting on new phone purchases, the problem is people here buy/sell/trade millions of used cell phones every day. Who's keeping tabs on those? We won't see the benefits of this measure soon, unfortunately.
- haydesigner, on 02/13/2009, -0/+2Really, @shebaabc?
This coming from a 36-year-old woman who write in her Digg profile: "Obama will never be are president".
I think you need to open your mind to a little more education, and a little less racism (I went through your comment history). I don't say this to many 36-year-olds, but it is time to grow up. -
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