Responding to Police Brutality with Compassionate Civility

By Leonardo Párraga, Executive Director of BogotArt, UNOY member in Colombia (follow up from the ‘Las Vidas Jóvenes Importan’ article)

Some famous metal bands like Metallica have positioned themselves in the scene with songs like fight fire with fire. While I cannot deny that I enjoy this tune and that it is catchy, I am worried how this message has slowly positioned itself as an anthem to respond to the rising police brutality in Colombia. Of course, we should never forget the indignation generated by losing fellow brothers and sisters by violence, we should exercise our right to protest as much as needed to guarantee that no other life will be lost in acts of state violence against its citizens and, most importantly, we should firmly defend the dignity of all lives regardless of their political ideology, but perhaps we can offer a more transformative response to prevent mourning the lives of those in our community, to get one step closer to peace in a more permanent fashion.

It hurts a lot to see the lives of fellow citizens like Dilan Cruz being taken away by the abuse of force by the police. Dilan, a 17-year-old high school student who joined the Colombian protests in November 2019, demanding better conditions to access tertiary education, saw a bullet taking away his dream of accessing university. This is not a one-time event in the country. According to the NGO Temblores, between 2017 and 2019, more than 600 homicides were perpetrated by the police against civilians. For the majority of people, that would be equivalent to their entire circle of friends and relatives suddenly fading away.

One week ago, during the Human Rights Day in Colombia, Javier Ordoñez, a 43-year-old engineer was assassinated by two police officers. He got detained all of a sudden and was brought to the floor. The policemen shocked him with a taser at least 9 times, even after Javier screamed several times “please stop, I beg you”. This procedure lasted 2 minutes and 18 seconds, more than the time it took you to read this far into the article.

Just let that sink in. 

Javier was then taken to a nearby Immediate Response Command (CAI), a small police station where, according to the media, he was severely beaten. The CAI in the Villa Luz neighborhood is the place that saw him alive for the last time. He left two minor daughters behind and a big pain for the entire country. Protests sparked in Colombia, with the epicenter in Bogota. In a matter of two days, 13 people were killed by police brutality and more than 400 people were hurt. Almost all of those who lost their lives are young people under 30. And many of them were hit by firearm projectiles in the midst of the confusion; some were not even participating in the demonstrations. One of them is Germán Smith Puentes. He was 26 at the time he received one of the shots by the police. He was not even protesting. He worked as a delivery driver and was returning home. What is frustrating for many is that while some police officers have been suspended and are under investigation for their role in the different murders against civilians, the investigation will be handled by a military justice system, which is separate from the court system for civilians. There is a big worry that as several times in the past, the abuses committed can go unpunished. To prevent this from happening, we should seek that the police respond to the civil court system when engaged in apparent violations of the human rights of the citizens.

Let us go back to one theme, the role of the police in society. When we look at the etymology of police, it reveals that the terms governance and police were once synonymous, guaranteeing the life in society. Can the institution that guarantees this life operate coherently if it is not also guaranteeing the protection of citizens’ lives? What happens when the institution that needs to protect you is putting your life in danger? Can you simultaneously be the aggressor and the defender? We require an immediate police reform that guarantees that this institution makes citizens feel safe, instead of that their livelihood is threatened. Making sure that there is sufficient training in the police to exercise a human rights approach in their law enforcement would be a good first step. Shortly after the international day of peace, the Colombian Supreme Court of Justice made a ruling that considers “systematic, violent, arbitrary and disproportionate” the actions of the police against demonstrators and demanded that the government implements effective mechanisms to guarantee peaceful protest at the same time that requests an official apology by the government given the harm generated to the citizens. This demand was ignored by the executive branch and left several wondering, what to do when the government is not complying with its responsibilities?

The current Minister of Defense, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, was recently called to a motion of censure for these events and, after more than two weeks since the Supreme Court of Justice ruling, is still refusing to ask for an apology for the killing of peaceful civilians, several of them, young people. Curiously enough, in March 2019, during the 1st Symposium of the Role of Young People in Peace Processes held in Helsinki, he was announcing that protecting young people is the name of the game. I am wondering if he forgot which “game” he is playing? Given that protection of young people in the country is no longer guaranteed, next week the UN Security Council is holding a briefing around the recent killings of young people, hoping to send a strong message and highlight the urgency of now.

And what can we do as citizens? It is our chance to exercise compassionate civility, to make our institutions rise to higher standards, to represent us in the ways that we want. Organizing and playing an active role in reimagining the role of the police in our society and the reforms needed for this vision to be fulfilled is an exercise we can engage in. The recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice was the result of the collective work of a group of 49 organized citizens. The court, concerned about serious human rights violations invites the government and citizens to participate in a ‘working space’ where the use of force by the police can be regulated. Being us, young people, the ones who have been affected the most in recent protests, it is high time for the government to implement as well the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 2250 and 2419 that it has already committed to.

Additionally, during the Great National Dialogue held by the government between November 2019 and March 2020, the government committed to mechanisms of protection and participation of the youth in peacebuilding. These promises are yet to be materialized. We are tired of ‘peacewashing’ events that lead to no results. Each extra moment of speech without action is the risk of another young person being assassinated. Together, with young people, it is the perfect chance to co-create policies and programs that protect our lives and lead us closer to a peaceful society. We have already done it through the power of the arts through symbolic actions. It is our time to say that enough is enough. No other life should be lost in this senseless wave of massacres against young people that Colombia is experiencing. We do not want to be the missing peace and a lost generation.

Who killed them? A video to remember the 5 young people killed in Llano Verde, Cali in August this year. A living memory of the pain of the youth and their families in Colombia.