........ because who else carries guns to the bar ?

A very cogent question, Victorio. But it depends where you are. In 45 US states, local lunatics are allowed open carry of firearms. Of course, according to Wayne LaPierre, the best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. You know, like Dodge City circa 1850? We can only hope they can all shoot straight.

A broad daylight attack should be quite easy to see on a decent camera system. Even if its from a private stores camera, I would still print photos or anonymously deliver to newspapers the images or video. Public shaming and lack of anonymity for criminals go along way. There must be a way of banding together and outsmarting the criminals since Rob's idea of prohibition seems to be years if not decades away.

Your idea shows a dangerous naivete on how things work in Mexico.

(Oh c'mon anti-Me Gusta guys. OlsenMN's response is PRECISELY why I have this emoticon)

Or as my Grammy used to say, ahYAYus!
(She was the only person I knew who could get three syllables out of the word "yes" with her Luavull Southern Belle accent)

At least Mexico is on the verge of legalizing marijuana, and the State of Guerrero is also pushing hard for the legalization of opium to remove that business from the hands of violent organized criminals. If we keep removing their largest sources of income we level the playing field so that our military can be recalled to their barracks and our soon-to-be more professionalized police forces can deal with criminals who don't have access to more resources than they do.

A broad daylight attack should be quite easy to see on a decent camera system. Even if its from a private stores camera, I would still print photos or anonymously deliver to newspapers the images or video. Public shaming and lack of anonymity for criminals go along way. There must be a way of banding together and outsmarting the criminals since Rob's idea of prohibition seems to be years if not decades away.

Your idea shows a dangerous naivete on how things work in Mexico.

“The response of the police wasn’t very swift” “the police and La Marina were all over downtown last night keeping an eye on tourists and the various events”. Which is it? Agree a vile and cowardly attack.

Both are true. The police and military were seen making their rounds and keeping an eye on public events. But they still took over 5 minutes to arrive to the scene of the crime, an eternity when there should always be police present downtown while bars are open and special public events occur. Our downtown area simply isn’t that large.

My question for this discussion is where are all the federales, marines, municipal policia and tourist police that we see cruising in daylight at NIGHT? Are they not allowed out?

The police and La Marina were all over downtown last night keeping an eye on tourists and the various events. Perhaps you fail to appreciate just how easy it is for organized criminals to also watch the police in order to time an attack. Besides tech, they have watchers called halcones. As long as popular recreational substances remain illegal, the organized criminals who control their routes and markets can outspend the authorities roughly ten to one.

The lessons of Prohibition aren't that difficult to comprehend. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Excerpt from post by allen

......."Those damn narco bars were sure to cause a problem sooner or later."

@ allen

¡Definitely!

En el "calor de las copas" anything's possible, e.g. violent activities.
Among other things related to those bars and some of the clientele who frequent them, these types of events are more than a latent problem, quite to the contrary.

As a side note about the bars en el Centro, particularly in the area of el Zócalo:

One opened up around a month ago, called "Mala Copa", if I recall correctly.
It is just next door or so to the pharmacy to the left of OXXO in front of el Zócalo.
I could hear the "pum-pum-pum" pounding bass noise emitted from that pigpen almost as far down as the parking lot of el Muelle. It's even noisier than the bar "La Ingobernable"

As usual, con la complacencia de las autoridades, who obviously aren't actively enforcing environmental Norms related to noise contamination.