When A Mime-Lover Becomes Mayor

Bogota Colombia’s mayor had an unusual approach to getting citizens to behave. He hired mimes to “follow, imitate and mock citizens who committed public incivilities like jaywalking, picking pockets and driving recklessly. So successful were the first mimes that 400 more were trained as “traffic mimes” to monitor pedestrians at street corners. Just how the good citizens of Bogotá responded to mimes holding up signs chiding their manners, I cannot say. To my knowledge no mimes met an untimely end. But the experiment was successful enough to be replicated in Lima, Peru.”