Santa Marta: fight between gangs blocks road - Other Cities - Colombia

On a bridge of the Vía Alterna, northeastern sector of Santa Marta, clashes have become a habit with stick and machete among youth who belong to gangs.

(Also read: This was the shocking discovery of an abandoned baby in the house of Santa Marta)

At any time of the day and night they meet in the middle of the road and attack each other for several hours.

These acts of violence prevent the entry and exit of cargo vehicles from the Santa Marta Port and they generate big traffic jams, as recorded in videos broadcast by the community.

Likewise, the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods remain full of panic every time these brawls occur.

And it is that many times the stones thrown in the middle of the fight are going to hit the houses, whose roofs end up affected.

This Wednesday, he presented one of the clashes stronger than so far this year. Not even the police could control the rain of stones thrown by the young people on each side.

For this reason, the intervention of the Mobile Anti-riot Squad was necessary, which with tear gas was able to achieve a return to tranquility in the area and enable the passage of vehicles.

At a Vía Alterna Bridge, more than 100 young people gather to face stones and machetes. This situation has become a serious public order problem that puts the lives of residents in the area at risk and also interrupts mobility. pic.twitter.com/Qy38n7qcgF

– Roger Urieles (@Rogeruv) March 3, 2022

We are investigating to establish who are the organizers of these fights. We are going to prosecute them

However, in that intervention, three police officers were injuredaccording to the report of the commander of the Metropolitan Police, Colonel Jesús de los Reyes.

The senior officer commented that these young people meet through social networks to later attack each other.

“We are investigating to establish who are the organizers of these fights. We are going to prosecute them,” said Colonel de los Reyes, who also invited parents to exercise greater control over their children to prevent them from participating in these street brawls.

(You may be interested: Three femicides have shaken Magdalena in the last few hours)

Young people do not go to class

The public institution in the area ran out of quotas, and this directly affected the youth population

Richard Olmos, ward leader caribbean wavesassures that the majority of these adolescents, among whom are minors, do not even attend school.

“The public institution in the area ran out of quotas, and that directly affected the youth population, which in a large part decided to stop studying since the pandemic and continues to dedicate their time to leisure, drug addiction and other scourges,” noted the civic leader.

Olmos requested the Mayor social, cultural projects and educational for these communities, as a strategy for the resocialization of young people.

“This is not about prosecuting or hitting those involved. It is necessary to go further and provide them with extensive assistance so that they straighten their path and become useful people to society”, the man pointed out.

Roger Urieles
For the time
Santa Marta

More content from Colombia:

– They would have murdered her to steal her new truck in Barranquilla

– In an operation with a helicopter, one of the most wanted in Villavicencio fell

– Embera families in Bogotá returned to their ancestral territory in Risaralda

Judge Blocks Texas Investigation of Trans Teen's Parents

A Texas judge on Wednesday blocked the state from investigating the parents of a transgender teenager over gender-confirmation treatments but stopped short of preventing the state from looking into other reports about children receiving similar care.

District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary order halting the investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services into the parents of the 16-year-old girl. The parents sued over the investigation and Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s order last week that officials look into reports of such treatments as abuse.

Meachum wrote that the parents and the teen “face the imminent and ongoing deprivation of their constitutional rights, the potential loss of necessary medical care, and the stigma attached to being the subject of an unfounded child abuse investigation.”

Meachum set a March 11 hearing on whether to issue a broader temporary order blocking enforcement of Abbott’s directive.

‘Unfathomably cruel’

The lawsuit marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton labeling certain gender-confirmation treatments as “child abuse.” The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal sued the state Tuesday on behalf of the teen.

“We appreciate the relief granted to our clients, but this should never have happened and is unfathomably cruel,” Brian Klosterboer, ACLU of Texas attorney, said in a statement. “Families should not have to fear being separated because they are providing the best possible health care for their children.”

Spokespersons for Abbott’s and Paxton’s offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. A spokesperson for DFPS said there would be “deliberate discussions” about next steps.

The ruling came as President Joe Biden’s administration announced new steps to protect transgender children and their families in response to Abbott’s order. Biden condemned state laws targeting transgender people in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

“Like so many anti-transgender attacks proliferating in states across the country, the governor’s actions callously threaten to harm children and their families just to score political points,” the president said in a statement Wednesday night. “These actions are terrifying many families in Texas and beyond. And they must stop.”

Meachum issued the order hours after attorneys for the state and for the parents appeared before her via Zoom in a brief hearing.

Paul Castillo, Lambda Legal’s senior counsel, told Meachum that allowing the order to be enforced would cause “irreparable” harm to the teen’s parents and other families.

“It is unconscionable for DFPS to still pursue any investigation or inflict more trauma and harm,” Castillo said in a statement after the judge’s ruling.

The groups also represent a clinical psychologist who has said the order will force her to choose between reporting her clients to the state or facing the loss of her license and other penalties.

Ryan Kercher, an attorney with Paxton’s office, told Meachum that the governor’s order and the earlier opinion don’t require the state to investigate every transgender child receiving gender-confirmation care.

Restrictions meet opposition

Abbott’s directive and the attorney general’s opinion go against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday encouraged anyone targeted by a child welfare investigation because of Abbott’s order to contact the agency’s civil rights office. The department also released guidance saying that despite the order in Texas, health care providers are not required to disclose private patient information regarding gender confirming care.

Arkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. A judge blocked Arkansas’ law, and the state is appealing.

The Texas lawsuit does not identify the family by name. The suit said the mother works for DFPS on the review of reports of abuse and neglect. The day of Abbott’s order, she asked her supervisor how it would affect the agency’s policy, according to the lawsuit.

The mother was placed on leave because she has a transgender daughter, and the following day, she was informed her family would be investigated in accordance with the governor’s directive, the suit said. The teen has received puberty-delaying medication and hormone therapy.

DFPS said Tuesday that it had received three reports since Abbott’s order and Paxton’s opinion but would not say whether any resulted in investigations.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Castillo said he was aware of at least two other families being investigated. He also said some medical providers have stopped providing prescriptions for gender confirming care because of the governor’s order.