I was sitting in a taxi yesterday stopped at a really long light and gazing out the window when I suddenly saw a tall, well-built man start punching a smaller one. The smaller one had been leaning against a pole and talking to someone he knew. Next the big guy grabbed the backpack away from the victim and carried it off. It looked just like a mugging, except for one thing.

The big guy was wearing the uniform of the San Isidro municipal government. Accordingly, despite looking like a criminal assault, it was a case of state-sanctioned violence. We can rest assured that the thuggish-looking perp won't be doing any time. I last saw the victim grabbing at his backpack and pleading with his assailant for its return while other similarly-garbed enforcers converged on his location.

"He's an unlicensed street vendor," the taxi driver informed me. I personally doubted it, but even if that was true, did that really justify a surprise assault and backpack confiscation? He wasn't, after all, engaged in selling anything to anyone at the time of the incident. Even if the police cracked his backpack open to find tons of marketable goodies, so what? Anyone to whom he sold those items was undoubtedly a willing buyer and the guy was probably improving the economy.

For all the justifications and veneer placed on the incident it looked exactly like a street robbery.