Some police officers in
Governor of the Mexican state of Verracruz decided to strip them of guns following their failure of gun handling test.
Miguel Ángel Yunes Linares took the extreme decision after only 30 out of 130 police officers who participated in the firearm handling test passed.
According to odditycentral.com, the governor’s office confirmed the development, saying it was not exclusive to Alvarado, but other municipalities, like Ixtaczoquitlan, Ciudad Mendoza and Pueblo Viejo have also experienced the same fate.
However, fearing the risks police officers might be exposed to having to fight criminals without firearms, Mayor of Alvarado, Bogar Ruiz Rosas though it wise to mitigate the danger by buying slingshots for the armless police officers within his jurisdiction.
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At a handover event, Bogar Ruiz Rosas told newsmen “today we delivered slingshots to our municipal police.”
He challenged the governor’s decision, saying: “The citizen governor made the decision to take all the weapons, which disqualified him completely, as it violates our autonomy. It’s clear to us that this is a totally political issue and we have to be prepared to carry out our work, professionally, as you have seen us do it.”
A video of the mayor handing the catapults and stones to the police officers and demonstrating how to use them went viral online and Mexicans have been reacting to the development.
It is even a crime in Mexico for police officers to go about their duties without firearms, and that could result in their prosecution.