tamp down
メキシコで連邦警察と麻薬組織との銃撃戦が発生し、その事件で警官1名と42名の組織メンバーの43名が死亡したとみられています。
40 Are Killed in Gun Battle in Mexico
More than 40 people were killed Friday in a confrontation with members of the federal police, who have sought to tamp down an increase in crime in southwest Mexico marked by an accelerating series of violent challenges to authority.
The authorities were still sorting out the details, but the toll was among the highest in several years in an attack involving the police or the military. Monte Alejandro Rubido, the national security commissioner, said that 42 attackers had been killed and that three had been detained. One federal police officer died.
今回取り上げるのは、“tamp down”という表現です。LDOCEで調べてみると、“to press or push something down by lightly hitting it several times”という定義が見つかりました。さらに『ジーニアス英和辞典G4 大修館書店』では、「〈土・タバコなど〉を軽くたたいて詰める、突き固める」といった意味が記載されていました。そのため、今回の記事では「（事態）を鎮静させる、封じ込める」と訳せるでしょうか。(ninetails)
