THE INCOMPARABLE HONDURAN POLICE FORCE

I was hoping very seriously to go at least a few months before having a run in with one of Honduras’ many corruptions. Specifically the most powerful of them all: the Police. But alas, this was not to be as I only made it exactly 1 ½ weeks.
A friend had picked Danika and I up from West End (the “touristy” area of Roatan) after a day at the beach with the Sawinskis. We were driving home in the dark and were passed by a truck carrying 10 policemen with guns. In the States when a policemen passes you, you may feel a little twinge of panic until the car is safely out of sight, but for the most part if you did nothing wrong you can have faith in the fact that your life will not be affected. In Honduras, this is not the case. Not two seconds after the truck had passed us, it whipped around, raced in front of us and stopped abruptly, creating a road block. All 10 policemen jumped out of the truck and ran at us with guns pointing straight at us. I looked at my friend in complete panic and he told me to stay in the truck. Two policemen opened the driver side door and pulled my friend out and threw him on the ground, gun to his head. The police on my side were yelling in Spanish for me to “Get out of the truck! Get out of the truck!” I didn’t even have time to open the door before they whipped it open for me and pulled me out, Danika in my arms. My fear turned to anger as I struggled to find the words in Spanish to “get the gun away from my baby!” Instead it just came out “Mi hija Senor! Mi hija!” We spent the rest of the night being interrogated at the Police Station, the reason we were even pulled over still not known to us. The night ended with us finding a ride home after everything was compenscated, including Danika’s sippy cup.
Later we were both cleared of any “wrong doing” and our things returned to us. I would love to say that the chances of something like that happening again are one in a million, but unfortunately when you have a group of corrupt people who are then given power and control over the general public with virtually no repercussions for their actions, this is what you get.
To prove my point; the very next day my friend was street racing his motorcycle, and was pulled over by the police, and rightfully so. His way out of a ticket: he bought the officers beers at the next bar.