[ad_1]
The scene is dramatic: two police officers subdue a citizen with electric shock weapons, known as tasers. This one begs on the asphalt. His agonizing voice is heard saying: “Please! Please.” It is night. In the background, a dog barks. A short time later it is reported that the person passed away.
His name was Javier Ordóñez, 45 years old. Father of two children and a lawyer by profession.
(Also read: A man died in the middle of a police procedure with a ‘taser’)
The images recall the murder of the African American citizen George Floyd in Minneapolis (United States), where the police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
There, the action ceased to be a judicial matter and became a political event with enormous consequences. In fact, analysts believe that it could cost President Donald Trump re-election.
Here the case brought to light a disturbing rift between Mayor Claudia López and the Bogotá Police.
Mayor Claudia López revealed, in her first reaction, that she has rejected and “denounced the police abuse, but within the Police they do not take serious measures.”
The question that remains gravitating in the environment is natural: Are they not listening to you?
Article 315 of the Political Constitution of Colombia says that “the mayor is the first authority of the municipality.”
“The National Police will promptly and diligently comply with the orders issued by the mayor through the respective commander”, adds the text of the Magna Carta.
(It may interest you: The story of relatives and friends of a victim of police procedure)
Jairo Libreros, teacher and security expert, reiterates: “Claudia is the first police authority, that is, she guarantees the management of security and citizen coexistence as a decision-maker in public policy, use of force and response capacity” .
In other words, she is constitutionally and legally the one who gives instructions to the police commander, which must be followed.
From the response of the president it seems that this is not the case.
It is not the first time that there is a clearly harmful breakup. Gustavo Petro also complained on some occasions in a similar way. “Historically, the police at the municipal and district levels are reluctant with mayors. They refuse to share the administrative line of command with politics ”, adds Libreros.
A factor that adds enormous noise to the already delicate situation that exists at the moment in terms of citizen security.
(Also: ‘Police abuse is unacceptable’: Claudia López)
In fact, the friction had already started when Claudia López asked to control Esmad, a force that, in this case, is not under her control because it is for the management of public order.
But the surveillance police, the police strategies in the city, the special devices are from the political command line headed by the mayor and that apparently is not happening.
Serious when more and more cases of excessive use of force by police units are known. For example, the brutal beating of a taxi driver a few days ago, also at night, by several agents is still on the retina of many.
In order not to go that far, during the night of the national strike, several motorists beat defenseless young people in a group, actions that were rejected by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Isolated cases? Claudia López believes not:
“From @Bogota we will offer Javier’s family legal assistance so that there is an exemplary sentence, not only to those directly responsible, but also so that there is a structural reform that prevents and punishes police abuse. This is not about bad apples, “he said today.
During the quarantine, the clashes between the president and the institution were also seen by a perplexed citizenry.
It is enough to recall the case of the attacks that were inflicted on an old man who worked on the street as a street vendor.
“Informal vendors are humble and need to work, they don’t go out to be abused. Police persecution must be for criminals and to control theft, that is where the Police have to be “said the mayor annoyed.
And now about this event, with which Colombians woke up on Wednesday. All this happens, what a paradox, when President Iván Duque commemorates Human Rights Day.
POLITICS
