While, on a trip to climb Cotopaxi with my son last year, we were pulled over on a remote road in Ecuador.
The officers demanded papers, delayed us for 30 minutes, implied trouble, and then offered to “let us go” for $100 cash. No citation. No receipt. Just a quiet transaction enforced by a badge. What stayed with me wasn’t the money. It was the fear. The fear of the police was worse than the fear of the mountain. The mountain is honest. Its risks are visible and governed by preparation, physics, and personal responsibility. Corrupt authority is different. It’s arbitrary. The rules shift without warning. Your safety depends not on judgment or fairness, but on appeasing someone with power and no accountability.
That experience didn’t end in Ecuador.
Many organizations, in our city, rightly focus on police misconduct, and that scrutiny has produced real checks and balances rooted in transparency. That work matters. But far less attention is paid to the misuse of civil and regulatory power**,** the kind that doesn’t involve sirens or arrests, yet still instills fear. As someone who has also been targeted by our city, I recognize this for what it is: a gross abuse of power. Not always loud. Not always illegal on its face. But deeply corrosive. It replaces service with intimidation and governance with leverage.
City council members should not be implying consequences. They should not be weaponizing enforcement. They should not be making residents or business owners feel that civic participation carries risk.
Their role is to do the opposite, to make government more efficient, more predictable, and more responsive. To help constituents solve problems, cut through red tape, and trust that City Hall exists to serve them, not threaten them. When the fear of government, whether on a mountain road abroad or in a city office at home, outweighs the fear of real, tangible risks, something fundamental has gone wrong.
