Seems Colombia is entering the protests.

[piezoe]

You appear to have very limited knowledge of the situation in Mexico. While some localities have "disarmed" the local police and only allow them to do traffic duty -- this was due to their alignment with drug cartels and effectively being "agents" of the cartel rather than the government.

To replace these local "police" the Mexican government sent in the national police and military. The murder rate dropped because the Mexican "Feds" are driving around in pick-up trucks with roll-bars with machine guns mounted on them. This eliminated the "drug wars" in the cities but merely pushed the violence out to the rural country-side.

Go work in a place like Monterrey to see all this government presence in person.

In some areas of Mexico the cities are "owned" by the government and the country-side is "owned" by the cartels. Sounds similar to Afghanistan in many ways.

I have absolutely no reason to doubt that what you post is correct. It seems the important question is whether the "local police" were officially police? If the were, then regardless of their affiliation, every one they killed was an official police killing. Lets not lose sight of that, and let's not lose sight of the implications for the police killings in the United States.

Are those U.S. policemen "official" police that are killing 1100 per year? If so these are all official police killings! If it is due to a corrupt justice system, a criminal police union, or criminal police training, or whatever, it is important to know. But they are nevertheless police killings. And must be stopped. If that requires putting police in prison, then to prison they must go. We cannot tolerate lawlessness among police anymore then we can among the populace.

So far as I know there is no law that makes it legal for the police to shoot anyone whether they possess a lethal weapon or not unless it is in self-defense or to prevent immediate lethal harm to a third party. If there is such a law, then it is bad law and must be changed. It appears that the police have gotten away with illegal behavior because until now no one stopped them. There is also substantial evidence to suggest that police regularly lie about the circumstances of their killings, and the unbelievably high incidence of missing body cam evidence can not possibly have arisen by chance. Every such killing should be the subject of comprehensive grand jury inquiry with police testimony under oath using outside prosecutors. Use of body cameras must be subject to regular monitoring with severe punishment for failure to comply with camera requirements. It is long past time to stop police from murdering citizens, regardless of whether that citizen has broken a law. This is not the way laws are to be enforced in the United States. Let's insist that the police follow the law. Let's stop these senseless killings.

 

[kmgilroy89]

You appear to have very limited knowledge of the situation in Mexico. While some localities have "disarmed" the local police and only allow them to do traffic duty -- this was due to their alignment with drug cartels and effectively being "agents" of the cartel rather than the government.

To replace these local "police" the Mexican government sent in the national police and military. The murder rate dropped because the Mexican "Feds" are driving around in pick-up trucks with roll-bars with machine guns mounted on them. This eliminated the "drug wars" in the cities but merely pushed the violence out to the rural country-side.

Go work in a place like Monterrey to see all this government presence in person.

In some areas of Mexico the cities are "owned" by the government and the country-side is "owned" by the cartels. Sounds similar to Afghanistan in many ways.

This is true. When I was in Cancun in 2015 it looked like the military was constantly patrolling the city.

 

[Bugenhagen]

This is true. When I was in Cancun in 2015 it looked like the military was constantly patrolling the city.

I was there in 2014, of you even looked like you wanted to cross the road cars would always stop. 20 miles down the coast, it was back to tbe usual chicken run. Mind you the giant gaping holes and rebar sticking out of the ground in the town itself was shockingly 3rd world. Colombia is way more advanced generally but change is everywhere.

 

[Bugenhagen]

I just read an comment with where as usual a Colombian was apologising to someone who said the police took money from their wallet.

The trick is gringos, don't be so lazy you hand them your wallet, take you drivers licence out. Jesus it's not.. Anyway

"As a Colombian citizen the only thing I can say is sorry about that! Colombian police is the equivalent of a republican in the US".

Not rotten apples, rotten orchard was another comment. Not sure if cops or republicans.

 

[derektrader]

Violence in the advanced country of Colombia ?
Gee, What a shock !
then again Colombia is safer than the violent black ghetto's here.

 

[wrbtrader]

I don't think "defund the police" has got it quite right. "Disarm the Police" makes more sense. Let's let them go on maintaining law and order, but for god sake, let's not let them anywhere near weapons, because they've shown themselves to be incapable of the judgement needed to use them. As a matter of fact, in either Tijuana or Juarez, I forget which, the police were disarmed, and the murder rate plummeted -- Google it!

Police can still kill even if you disarm them via choke holds, knees in the neck, bags on your head with no breathing holes, coerce / manipulate paramedics to give a lethal injections and many other ways.

Yet, all police departments have armed special units. Thus, you can disarm regular police but not the special units that deal with very bad characters that regular police are incapable of dealing with.

Simply, a solution that works for one place may not work somewhere else.

wrbtrader

 

[kmgilroy89]

Police can still kill even if you disarm them via choke holds, knees in the neck, bags on your head with no breathing holes, coerce / manipulate paramedics to give a lethal injections and many other ways.

Yet, all police departments have armed special units. Thus, you can disarm regular police but not the special units that deal with very bad characters that regular police are incapable of dealing with.

Simply, a solution that works for one place may not work somewhere else.

wrbtrader

Yeah, that doesn't work in a place like America where police are likely to be murdered at a traffic stop.

 

[derektrader]

Yeah, that doesn't work in a place like America where police are likely to be murdered at a traffic stop.

exactly. Violent blacks target cops. Its amazing it goes on.

 

[wrbtrader]

Yeah, that doesn't work in a place like America where police are likely to be murdered at a traffic stop.

In most cities the most dangerous / fatal part of the job for Police Officers is during a robbery investigation (home or business), domestic dispute and investigating firearms complaint.

Traffic stop is near the top of the list too in contrast to routine traffic stop that's at the bottom of the list.

In fact, Police trying to apprehend a psychiatric patient or someone with mental illness (having an episode) are more dangerous for Police Officers than a routine traffic stop.

All the above is in reference to North America...not South America.

wrbtrader

 

[Bugenhagen]

Let's all do each other a favour and not engage the crazy racist guy/girl/whatever.



From Colombia Reports based on Medellin, the journalism is a bit iffy at times but this seems to parallel what is being said in other Spanish language media.

"In a surprising U turn, Colombia’s acting police chief on Friday asked forgiveness for police brutality while the country’s government vowed measures to prevent an authoritarian state.

The expressed regret by acting National Police director General Gustavo Moreno and the specific reforms put forward by Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo came days after the brutal killing of an unarmed man by two policemen in Bogota escalated violence between citizens and the police.

Like Trujillo earlier on Friday, Moreno explicitly asked forgiveness for the murder of the 46-year-old Bogota attorney Javier Ordoñez on Wednesday, but failed to acknowledge the murder of nine people and the injuring of 75 people who were being shot by police in an apparent terror campaign.

Bogota mayor wins

Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez (Image: Twitter)

The apologies are a major concession to Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, who had demanded an apology as soon as she learned about Ordoñez death early Wednesday morning.

Until Friday, the authoritarian Trujillo was as fierce to condemn violence that had broken out and had injured more than 190 policemen while seemingly considering all police violence against civilians legitimate.

Lopez got the upper hand on Friday when she found that police had disobeyed her orders and powerful opposition Senator Gustavo Petro accused President Ivan Duque of using the police for “staging a coup” against the Bogota mayor and justifying lethal force to quell any protest.

By then, Inspector General Fernando Carrillo had already opened an investigation into the homicide of the lawyer and announced he would investigate the apparent rogue police terror plot too.

Once the president found himself accused of terrorism and abusing his power to undermine Lopez, a critic and the second-most powerful public official in Colombia, Duque eagerly agreed to meet with Lopez.

Shortly after, the defense minister came with specific police reform Lopez also had demanded to curb the systematic abuse of power by police.

Police reform proposals

1. Framework Policy for Coexistence and Public Safety
   This reform would seek to optimize police service to citizens and empower regions where police presence is weak.
2. Education and training
   This reform would involve the United Nations and the government’s human rights office to improve education in training that would seek the promotion and protection of human rights and the prevent violations.
3. Transparency and integrity
   This reform would seek good practices in foreign police forces and, with the help of the human rights office, revise current police protocol.
4. Human resources
   This reform would seek to improve the general well-being and quality of life of cops.
5. Technological improvement
   This reform would seek to optimize police officers’ access to information that would allow them to provide a better service to citizens.

Progress or no regression?

President Ivan Duque (L) and his political patron Alvaro Uribe. (Image: Democratic Center)

The reforms may not be revolutionary, but they seem to reverse the Duque administration’s increasingly brazen attempts to cater to the most reactionary wing of the ruling Democratic Center party.

Duque’s far-right party has become increasingly radicalized and, especially after party chief Alvaro Uribe was placed under house arrest on fraud and bribery charges, saw no gain in the rule of law but the rule of whoever is in power.

Furthermore, the party is closely tied to organized crime, and the now-defunct Medellin Cartel in particular, and has historically been able to simply legalizing whatever organized crime racket they were involved in while weakening whatever human right was in their way.

Cleverly adapting themselves to whatever was the popular rhetoric in Washington, the Uribistas have increasingly tried to criminalize political opposition or criticism.

This had led to increasing tensions not just between the “Uribistas” and other parties in Congress, but the executive branch and other government branch and, last but not least, Colombia’s notoriously corrupt police and citizens.

"