Fed up with escalating crime and the lack of police protection, residents of an economically challenged Tonala neighborhood have decided to take the law into their own hands.
In an unprecedented move, residents have placed three prominent signs around their neighborhood warning transgressors that if caught they will not be reported to polaice but instead “lynched.” Neighbors have also set up security cameras to track the movements of “strangers,” and keep in communication with each other via a special app.
The three-block neighborhood in question was established almost a decade ago without the blessing of authorities and is considered “una colonia iregular,” meaning that it has no electricity, running water or street lighting.
Because of the Tonala government’s indifference to their situation, the 60-odd families that make up the community now refer to themselves as “Rancho anti-gobierno” (Anti-government Ranch).
The neighbors say they have no choice other than to follow the lead of vigilante groups in Michoacan who took back control of their communities from Los Zetas, the violent and dominant criminal group in the state.
According to some reports, various delinquents have already learned that these tough Tonala neighbors mean business. One video seen by local journalists shows a man being severely beaten after he was caught allegedly trying to break into a house. He was eventually set free.
Residents say they are fed up with criminal gangs using their neighborhood for their nefarious activities. The bodies of at least four people murdered by drug cartels have been dumped on the colonia’s dark streets, as well as dozens of abandoned stolen vehicles, always stripped of their prime assets. There have also been reports of rapes, kidnappings and home invasions.
Tonala’s chief of police has urged residents to take down the signs that threaten miscreants with lynchings. He has pleaded with neighbors to give his force time to bring some law and order to the beleaguered neighborhood.