Will Javier Ordóñez's death mark a turning point for Colombia?

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

'In the same way we condemn police abuse, we also condemn the violence and vandalism carried out by some protesters. Abuse and violence are not solved by more violence.'

So Bogotá Mayor Claudia López tweeted in response to a night of deadly protests across the Colombian capital that left at least nine people dead and saw over 50 police stations as well as a number of city buses and other buildings vandalised and burnt to cinders.

The protests were a reaction to the death of Javier Ordóñez, a 44-year-old unarmed civilian who was pinned to the ground and tasered for over a minute by two police officers on the night of Tuesday, 8th of September.

The incident was filmed by an onlooker and quickly went viral. While the exact details as to why Mr Ordóñez was stopped by the police remain unknown, it is believed he had been drinking in a house with friends and had gone out to get some more alcohol when he was met by the officers.

In the video, he can be heard pleading various times for the tasering to stop but it continues until a couple of other police officers arrive. He's then taken away to a nearby station where he allegedly receives more abuse that eventually leads to his death.

The Minister for Defence's announcing of a full internal investigation did little to quell the growing outrage in a country that tends to have little trust in its police force.

The vigil organised the next day in the neighbourhood where Mr Ordóñez was attacked was replicated across Bogotá, mostly in working-class areas, with the focal point for each being the local police station, small rapid response centres as they are (known as CAI, Centro de Atención Inmediata).

In my own neighbourhood (Verbenal), in the far north of the metropolis, 25 kilometres from where Mr Ordóñez lived, the gathering started off largely peacefully, similar to what happened elsewhere. 

No more than 20 people blocked one lane of traffic outside the police station which was manned by two officers. Banging pots in the trademark cacerolazo non-violent protest, they chanted 'murderers' and other anti-police slogans.

It wasn't long before a group of youths, mostly male, joined. With their arrival, came the use of physical force in the shape of launching stones and other rudimentary missiles at the well-protected police station — these stations were built to survive bomb blasts, so a few stones barely left a mark on the large reinforced windows. 

Nonetheless, the attack turned into a constant barrage as the number of protesters grew significantly, with attempts made to set the building alight.

With similar incidents occurring elsewhere, reinforcements for the stranded pair of police officers were slow to arrive. But arrive they did, about 20 on motorbikes. 

They managed to push back the protesters and secure the station. What ensued was an ugly stand-off with projectiles being fired in both directions amidst the occasional gunshot, which we assume came from the police.

After hours of attack and counter-attack, the outnumbered officers eventually had to abandon the small station, which was later torched.

Mourners surround the temporary shrine in honour of one of the dead protesters.

The net result at this particular stand-off was three dead protesters to add to the other deaths elsewhere in the city.

Mayor López's — Colombia's most vociferous anti-corruption politician who attracts much liberal support — subsequent call for calm and purely peaceful protests has been largely followed bar a few small but no less destructive incidents in some sectors of Bogotá, as well as in a number of other major cities in the country.

The focus is now turning to what kind of police reform, if any, will be forthcoming.

It's fair to say that most Colombians agree that better training is fundamental to changing the force's attitude in a country with a fairly low level of basic education across the  board. 

There's a widespread belief that many officers use unnecessary force far too often. According to official sources, before this week's violence, there were already over 130 reports of police abuse in Bogotá this year alone. The idea that the horrific abuse suffered by Javier Ordóñez was a rare event doesn't wash with many.

Right now, however, with centre-right President Iván Duque from a party that has had as its motto 'mano firme, corazón grande' — 'firm hand, big heart' — there's a concern in more liberal quarters that he and his administration focus too much on the former and very little on the latter.

The family of the late Mr Ordóñez, as well as Mayor López, have spoken of their hope that his death will be the catalyst for meaningful reform of state forces. 

Those who have been following Colombia for years will be forgiven for being less than optimistic of that being realised.

'We are the law' police

As most Colombian country folk know well, if you poke a bull, you can expect a reaction. In the same way, if you antagonise people, most of us will react in some way.

There are a number professions, however, where maintaining a cool head and looking at things rationally is a prerequisite; or at least it should be.

One of those is policing. Yes, there's no doubt that being a law enforcer is no easy task. So for that very reason, it's something that should not be in the hands of those of a reckless disposition.

Some police officers think they are the law. (Image from Facebook.)

Unfortunately, in Colombia, as you get in many countries, some police officers here don't have the temperament to carry out their duties in an even-handed, fair manner. Add to this a new police code which seems to have been introduced without much forethought or adequate instruction, and the risk of abuse of powers -- or not knowing the limitations of them -- increases substantially.

OK, there's nothing new in the fact that some Colombian police officers are corrupt or take advantage of their position. The issue with the latest police code is that rather than trying to curb these abuses, the way a number of 'boys in green' interpret it results in more problems, not fewer.

What's more, a lot of these additional problems are completely avoidable, with the police very often being the root cause. Rather than taking an objective view of the situation and doing some fact-checking, they take one side of the story and run with that. But hey, to heck with due process when there's a chance of money to be made.

For sure, we all must respect the law, but what about when the law -- or those supposedly upholding it in any case -- don't respect us in the first place? With some of the penalties at the Colombian police force's disposal, it pretty much equals a 'guilty until proven innocent' policy. 'We are the police and we alone can decide whether you've done wrong or not.' Judge, jury and executioner.

There are, thankfully and rightfully so, procedures in place to contest penalties. The thing is, with more common-sense policing, some of these charge notices issued need not have been handed out in the first place.

We could also say that police time is being wasted on rather trivial issues while the bigger criminal problems crippling Colombia carry on pretty much unabated with, at times, police connivance.

Obviously enough, there are areas where more effective policing is needed. Yet, the way the new police code is being used by some officers -- not all that is to say -- seems more a case of coming down hard on the less serious problems in the country. The easy way out.

This isn't terribly surprising all the same. A case of adding a splash of paint to a few internal walls in a house where the load-bearing structures are falling apart, built on flimsy ground as they were.
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Tocaima's toxic teens, fair-weather police

"Be careful lads, it's not safe to walk around here on your own at night." "Yeah, yeah, we hear you. Don't worry, though, we're well used to perceived 'dodgy' areas, we'll be fine."

After over five years living in Colombia socialising, usually without problems, in places that some more well-to-do locals see as dangerous, we tend not to take too much heed of the oft-given advice such as that above. We generally find that the locals security fears are, thankfully, unfounded.

Tocaima: A quaint town, if only it could deal with its delinquents.

This is usually even more so the case when we're talking about Colombia's smaller towns, however popular or not they may be.

So on a recent trip to one such small town, Tocaima, a three-hour spin outside Bogotá, when the locals told my travel companion and I that it wasn't safe at night, we were quite blasé about it.

What we hadn't factored in, however, were over a dozen pumped up young lads (is there any other kind?) looking to lay down a marker to the only foreigners in the village. Luckily for us, the older townsfolk of a far friendlier disposition (not hard to be in this case) spotted the danger and ensured we avoided the planned assault.

Unlike the fair-weather, indifferent — nay incompetent — police officers on duty, these young men weren't going to let a long-lasting, torrential downpour wash out their plans to get their lucrative prize.

On the contrary, they split up and occupied strategic positions along what was a three-minute walk back to our hotel. 

Indeed, the police here could do worse than to take note and learn from these young thugs, if they weren't so damn lazy that is. (OK, eventually, although reluctantly, one officer escorted us back to the hotel, which incidentally was located directly opposite the police station, after being pressurised into doing so by the owner of the bar we were in and some other concerned bystanders.)

So while it all passed off without incident in the end, save for a few aggressive staredowns from our wannabe attackers while we took refuge in the bar, it did sour somewhat our time in Tocaima.

'Any police about?' Not ones that seem willing to work anyway.

It's not a bad town and could be seen as a quieter alternative to the more popular Girardot and Melgar in terms of warmer-weather, short escapes from Bogotá. 

Yet, if young lads such as the ones we almost got robbed by are allowed to run amok, with what seemed like the connivance of the police, the chances of the place growing in terms of tourism are slim to none.

With Colombia ‘open to the world’ as a recent tourism expo put it, places such as Tocaima could do with, at the very least, having a police force that seems willing to prevent crime — all the other social inequality problems the country has to deal with notwithstanding.

As it is, these delinquents, what we can describe as the bad or, better said, toxic apples are rotting the place as a whole. It doesn't have to be that way, guys.
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Colombia's arrested development

I've never really agreed with doing what are changeable types of work by numbers. For example, back in my radio newsroom days, we would be given a certain amount of stories to file daily, while the length of the hourly and main news bulletins had to be the same each day.

Colombia's 'Goodfellas', at times.

Basically, with the odd exception, the news always had to fit certain parameters, regardless of what was happening, or not happening as the case sometimes was.

Fair enough, there are programme and ad-break schedules to stick to and the listeners, so we are told, like familiarity and routine. It's dangerous to mess with their heads you know, it could lead to chaos.

There are other areas, however, where this working to set numbers is far more questionable, to the point that it's potentially dangerous.

My new housemate is a recently graduated Colombian police officer and she told me how when out on patrol — that's two cops on the beat — they have to make a minimum number of arrests per shift. In her case it's three, but for others that threshold can be higher.

OK, but you're talking about crime-ridden Colombia I hear you say; they should easily be able to meet whatever arrest requirements are stipulated. In many places, that is probably the case.

Yet having a minimum target can work negatively in two, somewhat opposing ways. 

First, should officers be on the beat in Barrio Utopia, or more realistically just be on duty in a place where not many arrest-warranting activities are happening on the day, meeting their target is then difficult. With the pressure on, the temptation to 'invent' arrestable offences will surely be high. Who knows, they might try and push somebody's buttons who had previously been minding his own business, drive him over the line and then you have 'insulting a police officer' or the like — out come the cuffs.

On the other hand, if you have officers who, let's say, aren't the most consummate of professionals and are stationed in a heavy, 'caliente' location, once they've reached their arrest total, the onus to continue crime-fighting might be low: 'I've done what I've had to do today and that's it. That stabbing can go by the wayside.'

For sure, this kind of stuff isn't unique to Colombia (and, as I've mentioned before, I find the police here pretty trustworthy), but the bottom line is that there shouldn't be any need for it. Incidents of crime fluctuate depending on time and place. The goal for any upholders of law and order is to try and keep it under control. It's pretty obvious to tell when that's not happening, regardless of what the numbers say.
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