Photo by Arturo Rubio

A man was found dead at a busy Tijuana industrial park early on the morning of May 12. Police cordoned off the area and turned away workers on their way to nearby factories. According to initial police reports, the victim had been shot multiple times by at least three different assailants. A handwritten sign was taped to a wall nearby, stating that the man had been shot because he was a car thief. Last week, another body had been found at the same spot. That victim allegedly died under similar circumstances.

Dumping bodies and leaving handwritten notes at the scene of a crime is a common practice of warring drug cartels, but if the evidence in these two cases is to be taken at face value it could mean that some individuals are fed up with police incompetence and corruption and are willing to take law enforcement into their own hands.

Comments at online news portals owned by Frontera and El Mexicano, Tijuana-based daily newspapers, ran the gamut. Some individuals expressed grief and painted an image of a town slowly spiraling into complete lawlessness. Others cheered on those who might take the initiative and rid the city of a few petty criminals.