| Bent Coppers? 03:51 - Jun 22 with 1143 views | Pendejo |
On holiday in Colombia have rented a large 4x4 to deal with some of the roads here.
Got stopped by a police check point, nothing new or to worry about, show your documents, answer a few questions and off you go.
This time he wasn't interested in the docs, he had a binder and a speel about supporting orphans (took me back to some bars I visited in Mass.) anyway he wanted cash, COP10,000 (call it £2), we gave him COP15,000 and went on our merry way.
My wife was furious, but hey 20 years ago they'd have been fake cops and would have taken the car and all our possessions.
Today was the 2 most frightening drives of my life;
The first was ascending some steep mountain tracks of dubious quality to my mother in law's new home
The second was descending said tracks after dark
Embarrassingly my brother in law in his 31year old 1L Chevy Spark seemed to take this journey with ease, until m-i-l drive, which he couldn't ascend as there were 2 of them in the car and a crate of beer.
I made it up the drive but almost shat myself on lack of space to brake in as the ascent features a lot of sky but little of the ground in front of the wheels.
But I'm still alive, though I have lost my damage deposit.
When I wake up in the morning the fixtures will have been published COYB |  |
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| Bent Coppers? on 16:05 - Jun 22 with 808 views | bradforblues |
Love Colombia, spent some time in Cartagena and Santa Marta and loved it. Re the cops, that's life over there, the big mistake some people make is that everything and everyone is the same wherever you go. For £2 you went on your way |  |
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| Bent Coppers? on 16:21 - Jun 22 with 779 views | bluelagos |
When I quizzed a colleague why he was happy to dash the police at roadblocks (i very rarely did) he said they were keeping us safe. When I pointed out that that was his job and he received a salary, my colleague asked how I would survive on around £100 a month and even that was "intermittent"
When the police are out to "collect" it is somewhat frustrating, but unless you've walked in their shoes etc. is impossible to understand.
In Lagos the cops were so bent they colluded with robbers. When I was arm robbed (7 guys with AK47s) in '05 it was at a police checkpoint. The police would have no doubt collected a slice of the what was stolen (Usd200, phone, watch and my shoes ffs)
So bent? Yeah, probably but in a system that is bent from top to bottom. Would guess a copper in Colombia is paid peanuts so just think of it as helping out someone who needs to feed his family.
Not worth arguing too much, they have guns and sometimes they'll happily use them... |  |
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