For Harold S.
Sometimes they may get tender and talk about the dignity of the people and other concepts that today are empty and emptied, but the common thing is that they talk about the population that is governed —or aspires to govern— in terms of herd, mass, swarm, crowd (that is what the concept of "population" ultimately contains). The carrot and stick analogy is very basic in terms of mass government, although it sometimes has more generous versions such as "bread and circuses".
The idea is the following: a population is governed in part with what today we would call food and benefits, social rights", but also, and above all, also with a stick. It is wrong to fatten a mule with carrots because it becomes lazy, lazy and unruly. If the mule stands still at the master's command, it is necessary to give it a stick. Now, you can't give it just a stick either because what bone mule has energy to react to the master's violent order. In both ways it would be crushed: in one chubby, in the other dying.
Grosso modoThis is the modern government model, including the one we call "democratic" today. It has its most complicated versions: those that enlarge the varieties and versions of the carrot (constitutional rights, for example) and change, at the same time, the shapes of the stick. There are sticks that are called "non-lethal weapons." There are styles that dare to be called, literally, “dialogue”.
There is no carrot without a stick
Ironies are just right. But I am going to what corresponds to us: the proposal of the campaign of Petro dedisassemblethe ESMAD. In number 4 of its government plan, especially in subheading 4.2 (“For a human security that is measured in lives”), the Petro campaign established the following: “A civil Police for life and human security. The redimensioning of the National Police in accordance with the constitutional mandate implies that it be relocated under the Ministry of the Interior or of Justice (Germany and the US are examples of this).Our priority will beto recover, at an institutional and operational level, the civil character of the police force and accordingly, redefine its functions and priorities, which includethe dismantling of the ESMADand the transition to a new force oriented to the peaceful and intelligent solution of conflicts” (bold and italics ours).
There may be differences of interpretation, such as the one brought to public opinion today by the new Police Director, Henry Sanabria (it is better that we learn these names), saying that the "transformations to ESMAD are based on what was proposed by the campaign of President Gustavo Petro." But we see how in the same sentence it is established that "our priority", in terms of security, "will be the clearing of ESMAD", and that was constantly said in the campaign. Be careful, a clearing priority, not reform or transformation. Of course, it also talks about the transition to a "new force". And whenever they talk about force in terms of government, they refer to “violence”, only they don't use such an overwhelming term so that the mules don't get scared.
Let's not lie to each other and establish it once and for all: ESMAD is not going to be dismantled. Néstor Rosanía, director of the Center for Security and Peace Studies, and leading analyst, says the following: “As analysts we know thatESMAD cannot disappear because all the police forces in the world need a riot squad, but what must be transformed are the protocols for the use of force” (our bold). Of course we are going to change the ESMAD page! We are going to turn the page from a black suit to that of a royal blue and white suit.
President Petro, no matter how much we see him in photos visiting regions and with forgotten crowds lassoing himself towards the poor , cannot and does not want to dismantle ESMAD. The State, which bases its institutions on the potential use of legal violence, cannot afford that luxury. The mayor of Funza was already complaining —and transferring his three-year security impossibilities— saying that the president had left them handcuffed because they could not use force or capture drug dealers and "bad people" from the parks and "public" spaces for the "good people" to take over.
like those of the NGO Temblores), who, if anything, prefer the naked weapon of the policeman to the gas that has expired five years ago that the ESMAD fires; that if they prefer the naked weapon of the policeman that can kill the "non-lethal" weapon that can take out the eyes and maim, and even kill, but only from time to time or if one is unlucky against the "non-lethal" weapon.
It's an understatement to talk about “non-lethal” weapons, but more on that another time. For now, let's throw our hopes to the ground, if there were any, and think about this:If we fear losing an eye or our lives every time we demonstrate, are we exercising that right freely?
August 28, 2022
