New Tijuana Chief of Police Alberto Capella Ibarra is getting a lot of attention—from the Los Angeles Times and from some other guys who visited his home at 2am one recent morning and shot the place up. He defended himself and his family with an automatic rifle.

After the gunfight at his home in November, Mexican newspapers published cartoon images of Capella as a superhero and dubbed him the Tijuana Rambo.

Professor Guillermo Alonso Meneses at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte says he’s the only public figure who openly criticizes the public for their role in tolerating the gang activity. Even after they praise him for his work:

Capella rejected [the Rambo reference], telling hundreds in a hotel ballroom that society was at fault for meekly tolerating the growth of drug cartels in Tijuana.

Capella, a chubby, soft-spoken 36-year-old with no police training […] moves around the city in a six-car convoy with 20 bodyguards. He can’t even stop at a taco stand without scaring off customers who fear gunmen will drive up and blast away.

Now see, this is the sort of thing that fifty people will write in and tell us is American propaganda. But if you grew up on the border, you know better. Best of luck, boss.

Tijuana’s new chief knows the cartel’s killers are after him [LA Times]