Video Shows Bolivian Police Officers Trashing the Country During Their Strike
- Posted on June 23, 2012 at 8:25pm by
Erica Ritz
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Bolivia’s police strikes have become so violent, apparently, that the military has ordered troops onto the streets of major cities to prevent what could be a coup attempt.
“Press reports and intelligence reports are now saying that a coup scenario is taking shape,” Communications Minister Amanda Davila said in an interview. “What gets our attention is that the police are putting weapons in police units where there were none before, they are pressuring other units to turn over their weapons.”
Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra, however, maintains the military are there to protect private property and ensure public order.
But what has really been sweeping the news is the “crazy” videos of countless police officers “trashing everything,” in the words of Business Insider.
They certainly seem to be acting more like anti-austerity activists or Black-bloc enthusiasts than police officers.
The first video from Spanish EFE News shows countless officers brawling at around 16 seconds (made all the scarier by a woman in pink who appears to be caught in the middle of it), then at around 35 seconds the mob starts bashing a car with wooden poles, before seemingly robbing it and setting more fires:
Another video, this time from Russia Today, shows the ransacking of what is reportedly the police intelligence headquarters:
According to the Associated Press, close to 4,000 rank-and-file Bolivian police officers are involved in the mutiny, which began on Thursday when 30 officers and their wives seized control of an elite unit’s barracks just 100 meters from the presidential palace, and ejected its commanders.
Violence clearly escalated in the following days, and some are saying the situation is beginning to parallel a similar mutiny in 2003, when police engaged the presidential guard in a firefight, and 19 people were killed.
The current president is Bolivia’s first indigenous leader and won re-election by a wide margin in 2010, but his approval rating has dropped to about 43 percent amid a series of protests over wage demands, rising prices and objections to his support for a jungle highway that would splice a nature preserve, according to the Associated Press.
(H/T: Business Insider)
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MarsBarsTru7
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 3:16pmThis is only happening because Bolivian Socialism is so great. Haven’t you heard the media sing its praises before or the Academics of OWS say so? Believe it! It’s true! You can see the evidence of it right here.
Report Post »michael48
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 9:17amdid the SEIU register them to vote???…get Ha. to issue them a death certificate…they’ll automatically be in a NYTs poll and have a chance at a $2 million green job…photo ID NOT required…as a matter of fact NO ID required…
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 11:40amOur COMMIE-UNION-LEADERS taught them soooooo well!
Report Post »hempstead1944
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:32amComing soon to a city near you !
Report Post »drbage
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 8:48amIts already here. Think the wonderful, dedicated unionista educators in WI trashing the Capitol because they were being made to pay for their own retirement and health insurance. Think the hard-working unionista of the ILWU trashing the port in Washington state because the port didn’t choose their union. Think any of the OWS camps, brought to you by SEIU and the AFL-CIO.
Report Post »cassandra
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:35amWas andy stern their to organize this violence ? ‘workers of the world unite’ unite to cause more chaos
Report Post »DRAGONSEED
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:21amJust idly wondering:
Report Post »Why is it that LOSERS, the whole world over, cannot seem to get their **** together to create a reasonable lifestyle for themselves, but they are SO ADEPT AT PROCREATING (mouths they cannot feed)??
–And then they look to GOVERNMENT for handouts??
DRAGONSEED
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 4:20amJust idly wondering:
Report Post »Why is it that LOSERS, the whole world over, cannot seem to get their **it together to create a reasonable lifestyle for themselves, but they are SO ADEPT AT PROCREATING (mouths they cannot feed)??
–And then they look to GOVERNMENT for handouts??
Detroit paperboy
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:52amAin’t socialism grand……. Gotta love it !!!!!
Report Post »KEEPINTHESKEERON
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:31amwell jes Stu D. Baker-Hawk– ‘ave you forgotten Carmen Miranda? dey doan dance like Carmen no more!
Report Post »white_ostracism
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:46amMADISON, WISCONSIN COPS DID THE SAME THING
When Governor Walker ordered the state capital building shut down and the doors locked, the police unlocked the doors and allowed Union goon to enter and vandalize the building in anger at Walker. Over $7.5 million in vandalism was done to the Capital building. Citizens would have had to take their rifles and attack the police and Union goons to defend the Capital building but they didn’t. Maybe next time.
Report Post »white_ostracism
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:47amAre citizens in Bolivia allowed to own guns?
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:22am“…acting like police…”
I saw the video of how police helped and protected OWS. I read the articles where the police refused to prosecute OWS.
I’ve also seen the video of police blatantly ignoring abuse of Tea Partiers.
Seems like Bolivia police behave EXACTLY like “police officers”. The cops in the U.S. are mostly union thugs, like the rest of the union thugs.
Report Post »Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 12:06amHas ANY good EVER come out of Latin America?
Report Post »Be_smart_be_kind
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 7:44amYes, my father who is an intelligent, kind and loving man is from Bolivia. Be careful, don’t sound like a stupid Republican (or maybe you can’t help it).
Report Post »michael48
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 1:37pmwrong channel..smart(?)…comrades are just ahead…when you get to DEM-WIT cliff..just jump…lemming picknic when you arrive, at the bottom…and don‘t worry it’s free stuff…
Report Post »Tankertony
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 11:41pmBarbarians will be barbarians.
Report Post »WINNEBAGOMAN
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 11:28pmA glaring example of why public unions are a horrible idea. What happens when police unions get too strong? They’re able to act like this. Be careful America. I will never speak or vouch for Scott Walker’s character, but he’s right in checking the power of public unions in Wisconsin.
Report Post »bankerpapaw
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 10:43pmSEIU would love to sign these thugs up.
Report Post »freeberty
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 11:00pmMaybe you haven’t read the stories were police and firefighters are already refusing to provide emergency services.
Report Post »snufy
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:51pmThe only difference between the opressed and the opressor is who is in charge.
Report Post »Inlightofthings
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:50pm…and how is this different than the OWS’ers trashing our country while on their unemployment?
Report Post »freeberty
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 10:08pmThe Ows‘ers don’t have the approval and backing of the government and the weapons to kill you, for something as lets say, not wearing your seat belt.
Report Post »Inlightofthings
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 10:34pmPelosi
During a press conference Thursday afternoon, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi praised those participating in the “Occupy Wall Street” protests. “God bless them,” Pelosi said,
Obama
“The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side, and that we want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded,” Obama tells ABC News. “And that people who are irresponsible, who are reckless, who don’t feel a sense of obligation to their communities and their companies and their workers that those folks aren’t rewarded.”
So I dunno about no govt support………….
Report Post »freeberty
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 10:57pmFair enough lol, let me put it this way, I fear the professional class of welfare beneficiaries more then I do the amateur class.
Report Post »AUsername
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:31pmthe less cops/mililtary the more freedom you have despite the laws those thugs decide what to enforce and when. basically there more dangerous than the politicians. to many of them veterans and the ones that lost their conscious completely and in the future the so called heros or troops might be enforcing marshall law unless overwhelming force takes them down in their attempt.
Report Post »Fubared
Posted on June 24, 2012 at 9:49amThere is a steamy pile. Read some more before you post. Not all cops are detroit types and not all are vets. Wear a sign so we can avoid you in public.
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:19pmBolivia, Venezuela, Cuba.
Report Post »rsanchez1
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:09pmHere was another populist president who had no idea how to run his country facing widespread opposition. No one will buy the lie that the military was there to protect private property. This is a populist Marxist like Obama, and he thinks his country needs to make up for “transgressions” like Obama, so he takes over private businesses and gives from the rich to the poor, like Obama. The police were clearly there to protect Evo Morales, just like the police state Obama is building up to protect himself and the political elite. Are ya seeing the parallels yet?
Report Post »GaryInTheMiddle
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 8:46pmMore public sector corruption.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 8:34pmAncient Rome: Whom will protect us from the Guards that we employ to Guard us?
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:12pmWhom rules… if you must pay them Tribute to stop their wanton behavior?
Report Post »freeberty
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:36pmA good start would be to cut all federal dollars which have increase exponentially in the past 15 yrs that go to the state, county and city police departments. Unfortunately I don’t think we can depend on either candidate to do this.
Report Post »freeberty
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 8:30pmPolice and other government employees are just part of a welfare benefits program. Ask them to sacrifice and they’ll whine more then a broodmare in section 8.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 8:40pmYes .. I was at a meeting this month where the police were complaining they hadn’t had a raise in 4 years .. I asked them if they had taken a cut — NO .. unpaid vacation — NO … paid more towards benefits — NO … I told them to stop their whinning … they are better off still than 99% of workers in the real world .. and way more than those who have lost their jobs ….
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 9:14pm@CATB
Report Post »lol :) I love you!
CatB
Posted on June 23, 2012 at 11:34pm@LUKERW
LOL .. I should have gotten back here sooner!
(I am on the east side of T.S. Debby .. Gulf coast FL … we’ve had a lot of rain and lightening tonight)
Report Post »