Call me naïve, but I was shocked when I read in yesterday's paper that 3 policías from my local ward -- Comisaría 23a. on Sante Fe at Gurruchaga -- attempted to rob a supermarket in José C. Paz (outside Cap. Fed.). They used their official weapons to take something like 20 onlookers hostage. One youth was then used as a human shield as they attempted to flee the local police (who were also armed).

The result: One of the three police-bandits was shot and killed while trying to flee. The other two were expelled from the force, I'm happy to hear. Here's the full story in La Nacion:

Tres policías federales roban un local

There was more bad news in a related article. As suggested earlier on this blog, some officers were allegedly demanding cash from local businesses for protection. (Yet they seemed so nice in the 23rd when I went to them for a certificado de domicilio last week.) Read:

Una comisaría con muchos problemas

But today's newspaper saved me from losing all faith in the ward. One Palermo patrolman chased down and apprehended a rapist who attacked a travesti in the local park yesterday:

Violan a un travesti en los bosques de Palermo