“Pick up anything that moves”: a qualitative analysis of a police crackdown against people who use drugs in Tijuana, Mexico
Tóm tắt
Homeless people who use drugs (PWUD) are often displaced, detained, and/or forced into drug treatment during police crackdowns. Such operations follow a zero-tolerance approach to law enforcement and have a deleterious impact on the health of PWUD. In Mexico, municipal police officers (MPOs) conducted the largest crackdown documented at the Tijuana River Canal (Tijuana Mejora) to dismantle an open drug market. We analyzed active-duty MPOs’ attitudes on the rationale, implementation, and outcomes of the crackdown. We also included the involvement of non-governmental allies in the disguised imprisonment as drug treatment referral and potential legal consequences of having illegally detained PWUD. Between February–June 2016, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with MPOs in Tijuana. Interviews were transcribed, translated and coded using a consensus-based approach. Emergent themes, trends and frameworks were analyzed through a hermeneutic grounded theory protocol. Participants recognized the limitations of Tijuana Mejora in effectively controlling crime and addressing drug treatment solutions. MPOs perceived that the intent of the operation was to displace and detain homeless PWUD, not to assist or rehabilitate them. The police operation was largely justified as a public safety measure to reduce the risk of injury due to flooding, decrease drug consumption among PWUD and protect local tourism from PWUD. Some participants perceived the crackdown as a successful public health and safety measure while others highlighted occupational risks to MPOs and potential human rights violations of PWUD. Tijuana Mejora illustrated why public and private actors align in enforcing zero-tolerance drug policy. Perceptions of care are often based on captivity of the diseased, not in health and well-being of PWUD. Officer perceptions shed light on the many limitations of this punitive policing tool in this context. A shift towards evidence-based municipal strategies to address drug use, wherein police are perceived as partners in harm reduction rather than antagonists, is warranted.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Aitken, C., Moore, D., Higgs, P., Kelsall, J., & Kerger, M. (2002). The impact of a police crackdown on a street drug scene: Evidence from the street. The International Journal on Drug Policy, 13, 193–202.
Albicker, S. L. (2014). Identidades narrativas y estigma: Deportados en El Bordo de Tijuana (narrative identities and stigma: Deportees in El Bordo de Tijuana) Maestría, Estudios Culturales, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
Albicker, S. L., & Velasco, L. (2016). Deportación y estigma en la Frontera México-Estados Unidos: Atrapados en Tijuana. Norteamérica, 11(1), 99–129.
Avalos, J. M., & Utley, N. G. (2014). Aproximación al ánalisis de datos cualitativos con atlas ti. Material Didáctico del taller de Análisis Cualitativo con atlas ti [approximation to the analysis of qualitative data with atlas ti. Teaching material of the qualitative analysis workshop with atlas ti]. Mexico: Master's program in cultural studies, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana.
Banta-Green, C. J., Beletsky, L., Schoeppe, J. A., Coffin, P. O., & Kuszler, P. C. (2013). Police officers' and paramedics' experiences with overdose and their knowledge and opinions of Washington State's drug overdose-naloxone-good Samaritan law. Journal of Urban Health, 90(6), 1102–1111.
Beletsky, L. 2016. Law enforcement, drugs and the 'Public Health' approach. Weekly Criminal Justice Newsletter. Accessed 05/02/2018.
Beletsky, L., Lozada, R., Gaines, T., Abramovitz, D., Staines, H., Vera, A., Rangel, G., Arredondo, J., & Strathdee, S. A. (2013). Syringe confiscation as an HIV risk factor: The public health implications of arbitrary policing in Tijuana and ciudad Juarez, Mexico. School of Law Faculty Publications, 90(2), 284-298.
Beletsky, L., Macalino, G. E., & Burris, S. (2005). Attitudes of police officers towards syringe access, occupational needle-sticks, and drug use: A qualitative study of one city police department in the United States. International Journal of Drug Policy, 16(4), 267–274.
Beletsky, L., Rich, J. D., & Walley, A. Y. (2012). Prevention of fatal opioid overdose. Journal of the American Medical Association, 308(18), 1863–1864.
Beletsky, L., Wagner, K. D., Arredondo, J., Palinkas, L., Magis-Rodriguez, C., Kalic, N., Ludwig-Barron, N., & Strathdee, S. A. (2015). Implementing Mexico's "Narcomenudeo" drug law reform: A mixed-methods assessment of ealy experiences among people who inject drugs. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1–8.
Bowling, B. (1999). The rise and fall of New York murder. Zero tolerance or Crack's decline? British Journal of Criminology, 39(4), 531–554.
Brouwer, K. C., Lozada, R., Weeks, J. R., Magis-Rodriguez, C., Firestone, M., & Strathdee, S. A. (2011). Intraurban mobility and its potential impact on the spread of blood-borne infections among drug injectors in Tijuana, Mexico. Substance Use & Misuse, 1–10.
Brouwer, K. C., Rusch, M. L., Weeks, J. R., Lozada, R., Vera, A., Magis-Rodríguez, C., & Strathdee, S. (2012). Spatial epidemiology of HIV among injection drug users in Tijuana, Mexico. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 102(5), 1190–1199.
Brown, R. (2018). The Mexican drug war and early-life health: The impact of violent crime on birth outcomes. Demography, 55(1), 319–340.
Caulkins, J. P. (2002). Law Enforcement's role in a harm reduction regime NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
Chamayou, G. (2012). Manhunts. A philosophical history. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Charmaz, K. (2000). Grounded theory. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 509–535). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Cohen, J., & Csete, J. (2006). As strong as the weakest pillar: Harm reduction, law enforcement and human rights. The International Journal of Drug Policy, 17, 101–103.
Contreras-Velasco, O. (2016). Vivir en los márgenes del Estado: Un estudio en la Frontera México-Estados Unidos (living on the margins of the state: A study on the Mexico-United States border). Región y Sociedad, 65, 235–262.
Contreras-Velasco, O. (2017). Institución policial, violencia y cultura del terror en Tijuana (police institution, violence and terror culture in Tijuana). Revista Mexicana de Sociología, 4, 697–721.
Coomber, R., Moyle, L., & Mahoney, M. K. (2017). Symbolic policing: Situating targeted police operations/crackdowns’ on street-level drug markets. Policing and Society, 18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2017.1323893.
Cooper, H., Moore, L., Gruskin, S., & Krieger, N. (2005). The impact of a police drug crackdown on drug injectors' ability to practice harm reduction: A qualitative study. Social Science & Medicine, 61(3), 673–684.
DeVerteuil, G. (2002). Homeless mobility, institutional settings, and the new poverty management. Environment and Planning A, 35, 361–379.
DeVerteuil, G., May, J., & Mahs, J. (2009). Complexity not collapse: Recasting the geographies of homelessness in a 'punitive age'. Progress in Human Geography, 33(5), 646–666.
Dixon, D., & Maher, L. (2005). Policing, crime and public health: Lessons for Australia from the 'New York miracle'. Criminal Justice, 5, 115–143.
DOF. (2014). Ley general de Salud. Mexico: Diario Oficial de la Federación.
Eby, D. (2006). The political power of police and crackdowns: Vancouver's example. The International Journal of Drug Policy, 17, 96–100.
Ediomo-Ubong, N. (2018). Police crackdowns, structural violence and impact on the well-being of street cannabis users in a Nigerian city. International Journal of Drug Policy, 54, 114–122.
Gaines, T., Werb, D., Arredondo, J., Alaniz, V. M., Vilalta, C., & Beletsky, L. (2017). The spatial-temporal pattern of policing following a drug policy reform: Triangulating self-reported arrests with official crime statistics. Substance Use & Misuse, 52(2), 214–222.
Glaser, B. G. (2004). Remodeling grounded theory. Qualitative Social Research, 5(2), 1–22.
Goetz, B., & Mitchell, R. E. (2006). Pre-arrest/booking drug control strategies: Diversion to treatment, harm reduction and police involvement. Contemporary Drug Problems, 33, 473–520.
Green, L. (1995). Cleaning up drug hot spots in Oakland, California: The displacement and diffusion effects. Justice Quarterly, 12(4), 737–754. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418829500096271.
Greene, J. A. (1999). Zero tolerance: A case study of police policies and practices in new York City. Crime & Delincuency, 45(2), 171–187.
Guerrero, J. 01/28/2016. "Tijuana migrants Hide in tunnels as police raids get deadly." KPBS, News. https://bit.ly/343Kfx8.
Hughes, C. E., & Stevens, A. (2010). What can we learn from the portuguese decriminalization of illicit drugs? British Journal of Criminology, 50(6), 999–1022.
Hunter, G., McSweeney, T., & Turnbull, P. J. (2005). The introduction of drug arrest referral schemes in London: A partnership between drug services and the police. The International Journal of Drug Policy, 16, 343–352.
INEGI. 07/26/2017. Datos preliminares revelan que en 2016 se registraron 23 mil 953 homicidios (preliminary data reveal that in 2016 23 thousand 953 homicides were registered). Aguascalientes, México Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía.
Kelling, G. L., & Wilson, J. Q. (1989). Broken windows. The police and neighborhood safety. Atlantic Monthly, 29–38.
Kerr, T., Small, W., & Wood, E. (2005). The public health and social impacts of drug market enforcement: A review of the evidence. The International Journal of Drug Policy, 16, 210–220.
Maher, L., & Dixon, D. (2001a). The cost of cracdowns: Policing Cabramatta's heroin market. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 13(1), 5–22.
Maher, L., & Dixon, D. (2001b). The cost of crackdowns: Policing Cabramatta’s heroin market. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 13(1), 5–22.
May, T., & Hough, M. (2001). Illegal dealings: The impact of low-level police enforcement on drug markets. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 9, 137–162.
Mazerolle, L., Soole, D., & Rombouts, S. (2007). Drug law enforcement. A review of the evaluation literature. Police Quarterly, 10(2), 115–153.
Meacham, M. C., Roesch, S. C., Strathdee, S. A., & Gaines, T. L. (2018). Perceived treatment need and latent transitions in heroin and methamphetamine Polydrug use among people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 50(1), 62–71.
Morales, M., Baker, P., Rafful, C., Mittal, M. L., Rocha-Jimenez, T., Clairgue, E., Arredondo, J., Cepeda, J. A., Strathdee, S., & Beletsky, L. (2020). Conflicting Laws and Priorities as drug policy implementation barriers: A qualitative analysis of police perspectives in Tijuana, Mexico. Journal of Drug Policy AnalysisUnder Review. https://doi.org/10.1515/jdpa-2018-0014.
Newburn, T., & Jones, T. (2007). Symbolizing crime control. Theoretical Criminology, 11(2), 221–243.
Notimex. 03/15/2015. "Comerciantes piden seguimiento tras desalojo en Río Tijuana (Merchants ask for follow-up after eviction in Río Tijuana)." Milenio Diario, Estados Accessed 04/11/2015 https://goo.gl/taQNZ8.
O'Neill, K. L. (2019). Hunted. Predation and Pentecostalism in Guatemala. In K. Lofton & J. Lardas (Eds.), New studies in religion. Chicago: The University of Chicago press.
Ortega-Granados, L. A. (2017). Los Empresarios y Sus Prácticas de Movilidad Para Enfrentar la Violencia en el Espacio social Fronterizo de Tijuana. Asian Journal of Latin American Studies, 33(2), 27–49.
Osorio, J. (2015). The contagion of drug violence. Spatiotemporal dynamics of the Mexican war on drugs. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 59(8), 1403–1432.
Pinedo, M., Burgos, J. L., Zuniga, M. L., Perez, R., Macera, C. A., & Ojeda, V. D. (2015). Police victimization among persons who inject drugs along the US-Mexico border. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 76(5), 758–763.
Piñera, D., and G. Rivera. 2013. Tijuana in history. Just Crossing the Border, Colección Divulgación Cultural. Distrito Federal: Secretaría de Educación Pública; Comisión Nacional de Cultura; Centro Cultural Tijuana.
Polomarkakis, K. A. (2017). Drug law enforcement revisited: The “war” against the war on drugs. Journal of Drug Issues, 43(4), 396–404.
Rafful, C., Medina-Mora, M. E., González-Zúñiga, P., Jenkins, J. H., Rangel, G., Strathdee, S. A., & Davidson, P. J. (2019). "somebody is gonna get hurt": Involuntary drug treatment in Mexico. Medical Anthropology, 17, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2019.1609470.
Schuckit, M. A. (2016). Treatment of opioid-use disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine, 375, 357–368. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1604339.
Shepard, E. M., & Blackley, P. R. (2005). Drug enforcement and crime: Recent evidence from New York state. Social Science Quarterly, 86(2), 323–342.
Sherman, L. W. (1990). Police crackdowns: Initials and residual deterrence. Crime and Justice, 12, 1–49.
Shirk, D. A. (2014). A tale of two Mexican border cities: The rise and decline of drug violence in Juárez and Tijuana. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 29(4), 481–502.
Small, W., Kerr, T., Charette, J., Schechter, M. T., & Spittal, P. M. (2006). Impacts of intensified police activity on injection drug users: Evidence from an ethnographic investigation. The International Journal of Drug Policy, 17, 85–95.
Strathdee, S. A., Arredondo, J., Rocha, T., Abramovitz, D., Rolon, M. L., Patino, E., Rangel, G., Olivarria, H. O., Gaines, T., Patterson, T. L., & Beletsky, L. (2015). A police education programme to integrate occupational safety and HIV prevention: Protocol for a modified stepped-wedge study design with parallel prospective cohorts to assess behavioural outcomes BMJ Open Online.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1994). Grounded theory methodology. In K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative resesarch (pp. 273–285). Thousand Oaks: Sage publishers.
Stuart, F. (2014). From 'Rabble Management' to 'Recovery Management': Policing homelessness in marginal urban space. Urban Studies, 51(9), 1909–1925.
Stuart, F. (2015). On the streets, under arrest: Policing homelessness in the 21st century. Sociology Compass, 9(11), 940–950.
Suddaby, R. (2006). From the editors: What grounded theory is not. The Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 633–642.
UN. (2007). In edited by Committee on Enforced Disappearances (Ed.), International convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance. New York: United Nations.
Velasco, L., & Albicker, S. (2013). Estimación y caracterización de la población residente de "El Bordo" del canal del Río Tijuana (estimation and characterization of the resident population of "El Bordo" of the Tijuana river channel). Colegio de la Frontera, Tijuana. https://bit.ly/2xsQq38.
Volkmann, T., Lozada, R., Anderson, C. M., Patterson, T. L., Vera, A., & Strathdee, S. A. (2011). Factors associated with drug-related harms related to policing in Tijuana, Mexico. Harm Reduction Journal, 8(7), 1–8.
Wacquant, L. (2001). The penalisation of poverty and the rise of neoliberalism. European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research, 9(4), 401–412.
Watson, T. M., Bayoumi, A., Kolla, G., Penn, R., Fischer, B., Luce, J., & Strike, C. (2012). Police perceptions of supervised consumption sites (SCSs): A qualitative study. Substance Use & Misuse, 47(4), 364–374.
Wood, E., Spittal, P. M., Kerr, T., Small, W., Tyndall, M. W., O'Shaughnessy, M. V., & Schechter, M. T. (2003). Requiring help injecting as a risk factor for HIV infection in the Vancouver epidemic. Canadian Journal of Public Health. September–October, 94(5), 355–359.
Wood, E., Spittal, P. M., Small, W., Kerr, T., Li, K., Hogg, R. S., Tyndall, M. W., Montaner, J. S. G., & Schechter, M. T. (2004). Displacement of Canada’s largest public illicit drug market in response to a police crackdown. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 170(10), 1551–1556.
Wood, E. F., Werb, D., Beletsky, L., Rangel, G., Cuevas Mota, J., Garfein, R. S., Strathdee, S. A., & Wagner, K. D. (2017). Differential experiences of Mexican policing by people who inject drugs residing in Tijuana and San Diego. The International Journal of Drug Policy, 41, 132–139.
Zepeda, G. (2009). Mexican police and criminal justice system. In R. A. Donnelly & D. Shirk (Eds.), Police and public security in Mexico (pp. 39–64). San Diego: University Readers.