Police Corruption

I was stopped by police twice on the weekend. In both instances my friends and I did nothing wrong and were not acting conspicuously.

On Saturday afternoon I went to Chiango. It is about 30 minutes drive from where I live. We drove down the familiar beach road, when suddenly turned into a dirt road, and then into a trail barely traversable without a 4x4. My colleague took me to his little sanctuary. It was a plot of land abou 100 meters by 40 meters. Large enough to plant some banana trees, cherry tomatoes, and some other small crops. He also built up a gazebo and a small room to store things. Its his mini sanctuary in the middle of nowhere. So, naturally, we lit up a fire and started a BBQ!

On the way back, at about dusk, we were stopped by police. They were doing a routine check of driver license documents. The driver's international license was questioned but eventually he let us continue on our way without a long delay. My second encounter with police was not so uneventful...

On Saturday, we were stopped in the evening in the beach front area. It is known to be a little sketchy at night. Anyway, we were on a street that was not well light when we were flagged by an officer to pullover. He asked for the car's documents which were all legit. Then, he made up some law that said that we were not allowed to be in that area at night since we were foreigners. He then demanded money. We refused. His gun was raised. Might I add, it was a very big gun, an AK-47 at that. We rescinded our stance and started scrambling for some change.

I don't think he would ever really shoot. Nobody did. However, it wasn't worth the chance. We paid him a few dollars and we were on our merry way. Albeit, a little flustered and shaken.