opinion

Who will watch the watchers?
by Raúl Leis R. --- raulleisr@hotmail.com

The climate of insecurity in which the country lives generates the logical reaction of demanding a heavy hand on the part of the authorities. The problem is that when abuse of authority and police brutality are engendered, it's not only against alleged criminals but also against citizens in their legitimate use of their rights to protest and dissent. For examples, the beating of those affected by the poisoned medicine, the repression of the Kunas at Madugandi and others.

The abuse of power or authority is the undue excess in the exercise of a public function and it's a crime that's committed by those who, invested with public powers, in the performance of their jobs commit acts contrary to their duties imposed by law, which affect the liberties of individuals, intimidate them, or cause them vexation or moral or material damages.

Some cases have been internationally recognized. Among these are the use of excessive force in controlling demonstrations; deaths or injuries inflicted by law enforcement officers in alleged "confrontations, in which investigations many times demonstrate that the police opened fire on unarmed victims and then fabricated evidence of a shootout; the use of torture to obtain confessions; the police shooting to kill, rather than attempting to arrest suspects, in many cases for minor crimes; and the killing of uninvolved third parties in armed confrontations between police and criminal suspects.

Join with the above the discrediting of the branches of government, among them the courts, which is easy to see in the polls. One example of this is the lack of public confidence that Panamanian justice would duly punish Noriega and thus the opinion that he should go to France.

Well remember that under the rule of law, the authorities should recognize that citizens are free and rational human beings, with the ability to make their own decisions and accept the consequences of their acts. The citizen should be respected and not be the victim of abuses of power by the authorities.

The country that we want is a nation under law, with institutions founded upon the rights of the citizens, not the unilateral imposition of will by those who occupy the different governmental posts.

Still relevant is the question put by Cato the Elder to the Senate of ancient Rome, which wanted to organize a police force: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who will watch the watchers?) The answer, perhaps, is to create professional police forces: efficient, subject to transparent and competent control mechanisms and respectful of human rights. This would apply to the selection and training of law enforcement officers, to criminal and administrative investigations of authorities involved in human rights violations, and to the creation of proper internal and external control systems.