In Mexico City, street workers feel heat of crackdown on crime

Published: 2004-08-12

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Jesus Jimenez took a break from washing windshields to think about how former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has him one step closer to jail. The 45-year-old father of four paints his face and dons a clown suit six days a week before arriving to work at a busy Mexico City intersection. As a squeegee clown, he earns about 100 pesos, or $9, a day -- just enough to support his family in a slum on the city's outskirts. Because of an anti-crime proposal hatched by Giuliani -- famous for his zero-tolerance policy credited with slashing New York's crime rate -- and recently drafted into law by the local assembly, Jimenez might have to find a new line of work or go to jail. "I don't know what I'll do. If only this Giuliani guy had stayed home," he said. Thousands of men, women and children who work the streets of this chaotic metropolis are having similar thoughts of late. Police have been rounding up about 340 people daily since the Civic Culture Law took effect in early August, Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard told reporters Aug. 9. The law allows police to arrest those who coerce people into paying for unsolicited services and applies mainly to squeegee men, street performers and "franaleros," who charge drivers to park on public streets.

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