What Would You Do?

Last Saturday, Lenny and I were on our way to pre-ride the course for the second race in the DF mountain bike series when the police motioned for me to pull over. I knew the only reason that they were pulling me over was because my car has Colorado plates on it and I am a gringa. In any case, they started to give me a hard time because the date on my importation document is expired even though that date means nothing as long as my visa is valid. Like most encounters I have had with the police, I am more familiar with the laws than they are. I showed them copies of my visa and that it is still valid and told them the federal law states my car can circulate anywhere in Mexico as long as my visa is valid. They then tried to pull the classic Mexican police move and told me, "well, in the state of Mexico that is not the case." I then said, "fine, lets go to the local police station so I can talk with your boss and explain to him the law." Lets just say they didn't like that idea. I of course knew what they were after, a bribe. But I hadn't done anything wrong. The police then offered to call someone who would give them a "code" that would allow me to circulate in the state of Mexico for the day, but that it would cost me 300 pesos. I asked them if I could speak with the person that would give them the code, they said no. My choices were I could pay them 300 pesos, which I knew they would just pocket, and get on with my day or I could spend the next hour or more arguing with them. I was leaning towards the later but Lenny has a young daughter and had to get back home as soon as possible for farther duty. So, the police wrote a silly code on a piece of paper and took my 300 pesos. The code said X Plata Total 28/3/2009. I believe it essentially meant that if another policeman pulled me over in the state of Mexico that I could show them the code and they would let me go because I had already paid my bribe for the day.

Two things really upset me about the incident:
1) It was racial profiling. They wanted money and they knew they could get it from a gringo even though I had done nothing wrong. I would argue it is no different than racial profiling similar to what happens in the US with the Mexicans.

2) I love Mexico but I get so frustrated by the corruption here. I wanted to fight with the police until the end because I knew I was right. But does that bring about change and as a foreigner is it my place to try to change things? After all, the monthly salary for police is ~5,000 pesos or $350. No wonder they are corrupt.