We don’t post very much about police chases any more partially because we just don’t really get into them very often. It’s not like we’ve quit driving or going out but we’ve got a theory that the local cops have given up as they know our “don’t stop for cops philosophy”.

But every so often a cop gets bold or we venture to a part of town we aren’t often in and they come after us. This happened a few days ago when we went to get a friend from neighboring Bonfil. On the way we stopped and got the truck new tires, eating at Ika Taco while we were waiting. Literally as soon as we got the truck back and got driving we noticed a municipal police driving too slow. We went to pass them and immediately the chase begun.

I knew it before we passed them. Sometimes you can notice them looking for anyone to harass and as soon as they notice us they come running. This started just after the Grand Hotel as you leave Acapulco on the mountain road known as the Escenica. We know friends who have paid ridiculous bribes on that road and we weren’t interested in stopping for them so we kept driving.

And they got aggressive, pulling up beside us at first to yell at us. When we wouldn’t stop they cut us off, making us swerve into traffic to avoid hitting them. We kept going and they came up beside us again. By this point I was getting a bit tired of them so I yelled out the window “No thank you” just as they came close. I’m not sure they heard the whole message but they did hear no because the cops face fell immediately the chase soon ended after that.

This is still how our police interactions go although this was the first one in a long time. It’s comforting to know we’ve built up a reputation of not taking shit here and that it matters. Embarrass enough cops in a short amount of time and word gets around that you’re not worth bothering with.

And never speak Spanish to them. Really speak any other language. I like to say things like “I don’t need help” and “No thank you” during these encounters because they’re both firm and true.

I love my life here for many reasons one of them being the level of freedom. Sometimes people come here and get the impression that Mexico isn’t as free as we say because of the police and military that inhabit the streets. All things considered I don’t think I could do any of the stuff I do here in the United States without being shot and imprisoned. Never once have we had a cop raise a gun at us in all of our encounters, even when they feared we might be charging towards them while they were on foot (we weren’t).