When I got back from South America, I was met with more stories of police brutality and death—a black man was shot and killed by Minneapolis police which led to several weeks of protests. In Chicago, a cop shot a black youth 16 times— his indictment and the film were withheld by authorities until after the mayor was re-elected with the black vote. It seems, often, that we live in the most brutal and violent police state. But what is it like in other countries? What is our police brutality compared to that in other countries?
Here’s a recent story of police brutality in Peru—a country I just left after seeing Machu Picchu:
I’m not defending cops in America. Every black male friend I have has stories of “being stopped by the cops.” They aren’t nice. But how do we stack up against police practices in other countries?
My own experience was interesting and scary. Because of a plane crash in Cusco, our tour company re-routed us on an 11-hour bus ride through the Altiplano plateau in the middle of Peru. It’s high, barren, and has a hand full of people. There aren’t any borders nearby. Still, our tour guide and driver warned us that there would be police stops. We wondered why.
We were told the police were trying to intercept drugs or illegal people traveling across the high plains. Okay, I thought. The real reason, it turned out, was for shake-downs. The police wanted money. As an example, we were told that doctors in Peru make $10,000 a year while cops make $40,000 a year—much of it through bribes and shake-downs and police brutality.
Twice, our bus was stopped. The Americans on board didn’t think a thing about it. In contrast, the guide and driver were shaken up and ran off the bus with official papers flapping in the wind. They were truly scared. The cops looked into the luggage compartment but never came on the bus. We were obviously tourists, so why would they suspect us of anything? Luckily, the cops didn’t want any money and let us go through—and there wasn’t any police brutality.
I know we’re not perfect in our country and we have a long way to go to assure fair and non-racist policing, but my experience in Peru reminded me that in America, we still have pretty honest cops, little corruption, and consideration for human rights. Not perfect, but these things exist.
In other countries, that’s not true. As the article in the link shows, even peaceful protesters can by handled brutally.
