Rights? What the hell are they?

Police, as I think I've said before, are everywhere here in Colombia. They ride around on motorcycles in pairs, on little golf carts or walk the streets with their nightsticks and revolvers. If something really horrible is happening they bring out the paddy wagon, which is just a Volkswagen van.

Yesterday morning, I had my first run in with Colombian law enforcement.

My cousin had to work early yesterday morning and, since he works at his brother's watersports school on the beach, i decided to join him. His house is about 1/2 a mile to 3/4 of mile away from the school and it's basically a walk down the beach.

We left at about 8:15 in the morning at started walking down the beach. Ahead of us, we noticed two police officers riding the beach on their motorcycle. As we continued to walk, we saw the motorcycle stop in front of us.

Coming from the states, i think to myself, "hey, i've done nothing wrong so these police officers can't do a damn thing to me." WRONG.

Before the cop even asked for my ID, I was getting frisked and my cousins bag was being searched. WTF? After this guy grabbed my junk and the other guy tore through every part of my cousins bag (including the battery compartment of his camera) the cops checked our ID's and waved us on our way.

We must have looked like a couple of bad seeds. At least that's what I thought. But apparently, things like this happen all the time. And not for any real reason.

My cousin told me that cops are always looking for people doing bad things. But not to clean up the streets. These police are just trying to make a buck. If they happen to find anything on your person, you can get out of it with the right (read: large) bribe.

So be warned if you're ever in Colombia: you have no rights when it comes to the police searching you on the street.