Colombia "legalizes" empanadas (and other stuff)
by Adriaan Alsema June 23, 2019
Colombia’s congress has approved the so-called “Empanada Law,” putting an end to an absurd legal debate that began earlier this year after Bogota police fined a man for buying the popular snacks.
While effectively decriminalizing the purchase of empanadas on the street, the law particularly sought to protect informal street vendors from police harassment.
An obscure article in the country’s police code prohibits “the promotion or facilitation of unduly use of public space,” which some creative police officers used to fine people of buying stuff from informal street vendors or confiscate street vendors’ products and carts.
Colombians were particularly indignant when a Bogota man was given a $230 fine after he had bought an empanada from a street vendor.
The incident led to absurd situations in which cops chased citizens for waving empanadas at them or fined people for asking where they could buy empanadas.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/colombia-legalizes-empanadas-and-other-stuff-you-buy-on-the-street/
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