In a 22 of La Mancha…
The Guardian features a story about a campaign to reduce crime and improve the police force in the Mexican city of Nezahualcoyotl by introducing the officers to literature.
It sounds straightforward enough, but then there are examples like this:
“Pistols on their hips and submachine guns slung across their shoulders, a classroom full of shoeless police officers trample somewhat sheepishly over the volumes spread out on the floor. ‘Feel them enter your body,’ the teacher urges the men and women in blue as they pass over Honoré de Balzac, Arthur C. Clarke, Rafael Alberti, Rudyard Kipling, Octavio Paz, Ruth Rendell and others. ‘We must lose our fear of books, we must get to know our new friends.’”
Residents of Nezahualcoyotl have mixed opinions about the success of this new program, but one thing, The Guardian claims, is undeniable: “some police are having fun doing things they never imagined being an officer would involve. Not only have they read Don Quixote, they have also translated the first chapter into radio code,” the first sentence of which provides the title of this post.
Related links:
Read the Guardian story here
