SOS Colombia

The last few days have been very challenging for me, mentally and emotionally, like many others, I’ve grown tired of seeing murder and hurt by the hands of those institutions that are supposed to protect us, however, I realize this is nothing new, since I was little my mother thought be to distrust the police, she told me stories of what had happened on the protests when she was young and now I met her friends that fled the country because of threats they received due to their participation in college assemblies or their attendance to different protests. Many people say that the actions taken by the police is a direct result of the violence and vandalism of the protesters, however, during this wave and past ones, we have seen that this is not the case on most occasions, and even if it was, the ratio of people that protest peacefully and people that take advantage of the situation is low, also, many people forget that painting on a wall or even breaking glass is not equal to killing someone, we have a constitution and judicial system in place for a reason. However, this is not something that occurs only in Colombia we saw the same pattern during the protests that started last year due to the murder of George Floyd in the U.S, police brutality and abuse of power are not new, it has been happening here and in many other countries throughout history. Until May 5^th, at least 19 people died during protests, that without mentioning how many injured.

This is nothing new, but it does need to change, these institutions need to be reformed, not only in Colombia but around the world, here, the purpose is not to point at each policeman as evil but to rethink how the whole police system works and how to improve upon it.

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/media-57000133