Legalizing thugs who extort $ not to damage your car

[surfing]

Although there is speculation that Macri will veto the new law (OJALA!) the nuts who make up the legislature voted last night not only to legalize this most odious of activities but to create a "registry" of "cuidacoches" thereby legitimizing open extortion by thugs in the public streets. This slap in the face to the public is outrageous and really makes me want to leave CABA more than ever.
For those who don't know about the trapitos they are the thugs who guide drivers into public (free) parking spacing by waving there traps (dirty rags) and then offer to guard your car for a tip. From whom are they guarding it you ask? Well from themselves! What they are saying in essence is give me 50 or 100 pesos and I won't scratch your car with a key or break your windows as soon as you leave.

We have a government of lunatics. And then people wonder why we have so much crime in the streets --- thugs roam the city with complete impunity as the "police" who are supposed to stop this threatening and illegal activity do nothing since they receive a % of the daily take from the trapitos.

http://www.clarin.com/ciudades/Legislatura-aprobo-ley-regula-trapitos_0_604739838.html

 

[bebero]

Well, don't be exaggerated. Everyone I know gives about ten pesos!

 

[DontMindMe]

Ugh, yes, equally bad are the sketchy villero kids who "work" to get you a taxi outside of Retiro, and then get irritated if you walk past them to go somewhere (like the front entrance) to get it your own damn self. Very enterprising and all, and of course everyone here just accepts it. I'm sure they'll have their own union or something in no time flat.

 

[fifs2]

Well, don't be exaggerated. Everyone I know gives about ten pesos!

The rate demand for the Paul Mc Cartney concert was 250 pesos per car. The guys putside the zoo in March this year hand you a small ticket and ask for 20 per car...
Maybe legalizing it will bring more control and rate parity....

 

[Crema Americana]

My fiance always pays as we're leaving... IF they can reach the car in time. And then he just rolls down the window and gives a 2 peso bill and speeds off.

We don't frequent the same areas much, so that helps.

 

[Davidglen77]

When I was about 8 years old, there were 3 fat pasty white brothers that lived in the house around the corner from me. The "Mazucca" brothers. John, Michael and Anthony. At some point these idiots decided that they were going to charge a "toll" to other kids walking on the sidewalk past their house. They would sit on their front porch and as you would walk by they would run down to the sidewalk and block you until you paid. I never paid them and simply stopped going around that corner. Some kids paid them, until one day one neighborhood kid's big brother and uncle came around with some aluminum baseball bats, end of story and end of toll. I don't condone violence and I don't have a car here but people being constantly harassed will eventually lead them to take drastic measures.......

 

[bebero]

The rate demand for the Paul Mc Cartney concert was 250 pesos per car.

the people I know were asked for 100. but anyway, I think people driving to that concert were idiots. much much easier to take a cab.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Although there is speculation that Macri will veto the new law (OJALA!) the nuts who make up the legislature voted last night not only to legalize this most odious of activities but to create a "registry" of "cuidacoches" thereby legitimizing open extortion by thugs in the public streets. This slap in the face to the public is outrageous and really makes me want to leave CABA more than ever.
For those who don't know about the trapitos they are the thugs who guide drivers into public (free) parking spacing by waving there traps (dirty rags) and then offer to guard your car for a tip. From whom are they guarding it you ask? Well from themselves! What they are saying in essence is give me 50 or 100 pesos and I won't scratch your car with a key or break your windows as soon as you leave.

We have a government of lunatics. And then people wonder why we have so much crime in the streets --- thugs roam the city with complete impunity as the "police" who are supposed to stop this threatening and illegal activity do nothing since they receive a % of the daily take from the trapitos.

I think you might just have answered your own question of the first paragraph by writing your second paragraph. And I'm guessing that you haven't lived in Buenos Aires for that many years because if you had then you would have seen it all before.

One of the the many things I admire about Argentine people in general is their ability, born of necessity, to improvise. No car or washing machine is too old - there's always some way to keep them running. And in particular I admire the way that poor and unemployed people, unlike their cousins in the United States and Great Britain who sit at home watching cable TV and waiting for the next handout, will find a way to make some money of their own.

So who remembers when the cartoneros first started to be a presence in the city? It was a little bit scarey, wasn't it? Random people scavenging anything from anywhere to make a few pesos; nobody knew where they would turn up next nor what they would take. Nobody knew if their railway carriage would be 'invaded' by a poor family and ten cubic metres of cardboard. So what did the city do then? Ban them? Clear them out? Why? After all, they were doing something useful and making some money at it too.

The first thing I'm aware that the city did was to organise the 'white trains' which made it easier for the cartoneros to move their recyclables separate from regular commuters. Now, with a little bit of help from the city, we have a situation where the cartoneros have a recognised place in city life, do something that most of us think is useful and eke out a living from it too. Not a bad result in my view.

There are bad people in Buenos Aires. Some of them steal cars, others steal from cars and whilst some of them might be masquerading as cuidacoches, most of them are just opportunist car thieves. The cuidacoches I come across in the main are simple ordinary people with enough enterprise to see that there's a service they can provide and get paid for.

And good for them. It's like having attended car parking without the car park. And most of them are like the little old lady at Tribunales who has always taken very good care of us whenever we've parked there. So I'm in favour of the city regulating them into our lives, giving them a recognised status like the cartoneros and in so doing, removing some of the channels of corruption highlighted in your paragraphs.

 

[surfing]

While I agree with a lot of your sentiment I think we are talking apples and oranges. Comparing cartoneros to cuidacoches is an unfair comparison. Are there some people doing this parking "service" in the way you describe? Yes -- but those are not the people my post addresses. I am referring specifically to the ones who roam the streets and menace and threaten in an intimidating manner. They don't stick around long enough to "guard" anything. I've been here long years (7) to know the difference between the two.

 

[PhilipDT]

I come across in the main are simple ordinary people with enough enterprise to see that there's a service they can provide and get paid for.

There is a real difference between legitimate enterprising and running a racket which is what it appears to me that these "cuidacoches"do.