The institution hopes that the Assembly will raise to an organic law the norm that regulates the use of force and that the president will pardon those who are serving sentences.
Two collateral victims died days ago in Guayaquil after being hit by bullets in the middle of clashes in which police intervened.
Amalia lost her life almost two weeks after being shot in downtown Guayaquil, when a plainclothes policeman tried to arrest some pencil sharpeners outside a bank. The next day, Sebastian, 11 years old, died in a cafeteria in the Centenario neighborhood in the middle of a shootout between a policeman and a thief.
This has caused a whole debate about the protocol followed in these cases, the progressive use of force and the processes that the uniformed officers must face. In recent cases, the families said they would denounce the police for manslaughter, because they consider it irresponsible that they used their weapons in the midst of the people.
State of exception: Guillermo Lasso tells police officers that the government supports them and will assume their legal defense
President Guillermo Lasso announced that he will pardon the processed police officers in the performance of their work.
Hundreds of members of the institution hope to be benefited by this offer from the president, since only in Zone 8 there are about 600 police officers who are facing legal proceedings. At the national level there would be more than 900 cases.
The head of the Department of Institutional Defense of Zone 8, Major Byron Osejo, mentioned that among the five lawyers that make up the department they defend many of the comrades who have been denounced.
Osejo explained that they will defend the police officers questioned days ago, because they would have acted according to police protocol, that is, they applied progressive use of force: they identified themselves (verbalization), asked the criminals to stop and fired as defense against the thieves’ bullets .
However, Osejo knows that the defense, if it goes to court, will not be as easy as it seems.
“As an institutional lawyer, I can come to a stand and say: ‘I protect the police with a regulation,’ when the lawyer of the other party is going to take out an organic law (COIP) that will have greater weight,” he said. the official, who assured that the police servant needs a rule, because currently “we have a soft legal system that does not protect the police in their actions.”
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Faced with this situation, the institutional lawyer hopes in the next few days to appear before the plenary session of the Assembly to request that the regulation (Law for the Progressive Use of Force) on which the police work is based be elevated to organic law.
“I conducted a meeting with 300 police officers to find out what else they fear when using the weapon. 70% of those surveyed said they fear the judge and the administration (internal affairs), over and above losing their lives, being injured or facing subsequent retaliation. The police need to feel supported, ”explained Osejo.
The major said that there have been cases in which the uniformed have had to pay for the dead; as if it were a traffic case, they have come to settle with the family, and for that they have had to make large loans. All to regain freedom and not lose their careers.
Representatives of the Law School and the UEES Legal Clinic met with police generals days ago to coordinate legal sponsorship of the gendarme who was involved in the event that ended the life of a child in a Centennial venue.
[Estado de excepción: Guillermo Lasso dice a policías que el gobierno les respalda y asumirá su defensa legal]
Juan Manuel Guzmán, defender of the Police accused by the death of the minor, together with the rector of the UEES and local authorities, held a dialogue on Tuesday about the legal support that will be provided to the police server involved in the deadly incident.
“They have asked me, together with the University, to provide legal support to the official who was present at the pitiful event in which a minor was killed. As a professor of the criminal area, of course, I have agreed to collaborate in everything that has to do with the defense of the police member, ”stated Guzmán, now a sponsor lawyer for the accused Police.
“He was there, he did what any sane policeman would have done. I want to express my solidarity with all the people who were present there, the common enemy that we have today is the criminal. The police cannot be the person attacked for dealing with an act that generated unforeseen unintended consequences, ”Guzmán said.
The origin of the bullet, in analysis
The lawyer commented that so far it cannot be concluded which was the specific bullet that ended the life of the minor. In addition, he added that the criminal began with the shots and the police reacted to the shots, it has not yet been determined which of the shots was the one that hit and took the life of the child under 11 years old.
Álex Castro, agent of the institutional defense department of zone 8, said that what his colleague did was to ensure citizen security and public order. “It must be clear that the National Police do not go out to kill, they go out to protect their citizens, the police servant in use of his powers acted as established by ministerial agreement 3472 of article 12, which is the progressive and adequate use of the force, ”he said.
The police officer involved is currently working normally. (I)
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
