If you want to know what it’s like to live in a police state, try walking through the Segundo Barrio on Wednesday.
City Council, or maybe it was the Chief of Police, has declared martial law for the neighborhood, on the occasion of the Pope driving through a nearby street in a foreign country, separated by a canal, a river, a series of fences, a railroad track, and armed guards.
Are the people who live in Segundo supposed to stay home all day and watch teevee?
Their city representative made a little noise about the restriction, but I reckon that was a sop to her constituents. She doesn’t have the political juice to really get anything done.
It’s a good thing El Paso isn’t a litigious community. Of course if it were, the citizens might get a little more respect.
It is plain stupid, if you ask me. I just took my wife and her brother downtown so that they could catch a bus to Chihuahua, at El Paso/LA Limo’s little bus station. We were not allowed to drive below Paisano. City buses, the Limos, and a couple of plain pickups went through, but we were turned away. I just do not understand the need for such paranoia.
Juarez, where the Pope ACTUALLY IS, is wide open and sections of downtown El Paso are in lockdown. Many businesses, schools, and city offices are closed and all those people aren’t allowed to walk within viewing distance of the Pope. It’s funny how El Paso wants to be taken seriously as a growing, full service, destination city but who’s citizenry are treated like children who can’t be trusted when an event like this happens….and is not even being hosted here! How embarrassing.