Me and the Police

This week was the second time I have had to set foot in a Burkina police department. The first time was because we were driving the wrong way down a one-way street. That wasn’t our fault there were no indications of any sort saying it was a one-way road. The officer took our moto then sent us inside. Happily the person in charge was an old friend of Siddo’s from back in Fada, so they let us go.

This time was a bit different. At least this time I was not at fault in any way. Sadly the reason for this visit was the stolen purse of one of my housemates. So…I was awakened early (not realy it was about 9 but I didn’t get to bed until 5am on account of a freshly returned friend from the states) and summoned outside to speak with two police officers.

I don’t have to tell you that my French is not perfect. My French is even less so after only 4 hours of sleep. So in what I understood (which wasn’t much) they police had apprehended the gentleman who had swiped the purse. That’s good news, the bad news is now we would have to go to the PD to give a story.

So about an hour later we left for the PD. I along with my housemate met with the directive or whatever his title is and gave him an account. All this was done through my broken translation of what the detective and my housemate were saying. Long story short they Police now had the purse and we could pick it up but not until later in the afternoon. This whole process took maybe two or three hours while the detective hand-wrote a three page report on the event.

Later that afternoon we went back to the PD to retrieve the purse and items. On the way into the office I heard rumblings to the effect of “you get to meet the guy”. My perception of how this happens in the United States involves a two way mirror and no way for the frick’n guy to see me/us. Not in Burkina though.

We walk in to the office and there on the floor in his underwear is one hand-cuffed prisoner. Great, that’s just what I wanted and expected. The officer takes this prisoner out (good news) but then brings in another. This one is the one apprehended with the purse. So he sits there on the floor and gives some account, denies were made about the amount of money in the purse blah, blah, blah, standard attempt at sounding slightly less guilty or at least less malicious.

Pastor Zongo was with us and of course he got a little preachy toward the guy (I should say kid he was only 16) and told him something that I mostly tuned out from being tired. However, I did catch that this kid is the son of a government representative. I don’t know on what level, be it local or national but whatever, the point is the kid didn’t need the money my guess is he just though it was fun something stupid like that.

Any way we got the stuff back and I’m sure some sort of deal will be struck and the kid will walk, but for now I believe he’s spending time in a cell at the PD. My understanding of the process is that they strip you, take whatever you’ve got on you, and the only way you get fed is if your family brings you food.
Other than this thing are good, Monday was a holiday so no work. It’s November and that constitutes a yay!

Peace
Ben