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Putting people first
27/03/2008 12:47 - (SA)
Georgina Guedes
This past Easter Monday, I was driving to a friend's house in Craighall Park when I saw a police blockade pulling over and searching random luxury cars.
The search wasn't being conducted by the traffic police, and at 10 in the morning, people weren't being breathalysed, and the cars being stopped were all different makes and colours, driven by people of all makes and colours, so it was clear that the police weren't searching for a specific stolen vehicle or criminal.
Driving back past the blockade a little while later, I commented to my friend that I wondered what they were looking for that was important enough to use four vehicles and over ten policemen to pull over suburban families on their way to the Spar.
"Oh, I'm sure they know what they're doing," was her blithe and touchingly naïve reply.
That the police know what they're doing is an assumption that has been challenged by news reports in the past couple of weeks as well as by my own personal experience.
"You've done the right thing"
Let's start with the personal. I was once tailed home by an awful old man, who every time I stopped at a robot, drew up along side me and eyed me out. As I wove a circuitous route home, he stayed behind me.
So, doing what I thought was the clever and appropriate thing, I drove to the nearest police station, stayed in my car and hooted until a policeman appeared.
He wasn't exactly unpleasant about it, but clearly thought I was barking mad. There was no reassuring "you've done the right thing, ma'am," or offer of a cup of tea while my stalker was reprimanded and sent on his way.
Instead, he asked the man behind me what he wanted. The man told him he had a daughter my age and wanted to make sure I got home alright. Having extracted this piece of information, the policeman looked at me as if to say, "OK, what now?"
I suggested that I wait a while until I could be sure he had really driven away. The policeman seemed reluctant to waste any more time on an activity that was clearly boring to him, but waited until my pursuer vanished round the block before lumbering back inside.
No coffee, no biscuit, and certainly no reassurance.
Surely, it would be worth asking to see the man's identification? Perhaps cross-checking it with a list of known sex offenders? Keeping it on record in case someone like me eventually reported an assault by the same character, to prove that he had a history of deviant behaviour. Anything, really.
Upholding the law
That police spokespeople continue to maintain that their raids on the Stellenbosch nightclubs were procedurally correct is laughable, in light of CCTV footage to the contrary.
I would like to see where in the policing handbook it says that it's OK to fire a warning shot indoors at a group of non-violent students in a bar. I would also like to see the bit about spraying mace in the faces of people sitting on the floor with their hands up.
Comments made to other News24 columnists that this is the way in which people are treated all the time in raids on Mitchells Plain don't make it any better. The fact that now white and black people can be equally brutalised by the police cannot be viewed as progress in any civilised nation. (Mitchell's Plain bar owners would do well to install CCTVs of their own.)
The way in which the force has closed ranks on this one, when a video citing South African police brutality is being transmitted around the world, is ridiculous. At the very least, someone very high up should state publicly that the matter is being investigated fully.
Brutality on a smaller scale
Another story is breaking this week about a woman who was allegedly assaulted by a policeman after her dog did its business on a Cape Town sidewalk. Granted, she should have picked up the offending mess (she says she had already used the one plastic bag she had brought with her), but the level of response she received from the police officer - being slammed into a wall - is not a proportional one.
At least in this instance, the police force has responded by saying that there will be an internal inquiry. Perhaps when they're done with that one, they'll turn their resources at the Stellenbosch problem.
Although the policemen and women involved should be exhibiting some modicum of common sense, it's not entirely their fault that they don't know what the requirements of their job are. Proper training should be carried out, showing police that their primary function is to keep people safe, and that being safe and feeling safe are inextricably linked.
Being a policeman isn't about a petty show of power, it's about serving the public, being approachable and solving serious crime. It's about following procedure.
While people are molested for misdemeanors like dog fouling, brutalised while enjoying a non-disruptive night out on the town and pulled over while driving to the local Spar, we have arguably the highest crime rate in the world. This kind of behaviour from the police is a long way from making anyone feel safe in South Africa.
And in other news this week, police in Germany rushed to help a man who was out in the freezing street in his underwear because there was a mouse in his house.
Georgina Guedes is a freelance journalist. She feels neither protected nor served, and she certainly doesn't feel that she has been put first.
Send your comments to Georgina.
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