The notorious Glen Nayager walks again….For more on the march in question click here. For information the march on Nayager click here.
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4890370
Brute force simply not the answer to better policing
March 16, 2009 Edition 1
David Canning
POLICE work is a dangerous and usually thankless task in a country marked by high levels of violence. There are many fine police officers but, unfortunately, also too many rogues in uniform.
Some of them have remained in senior positions for far too long, protected by their connections, it would seem, and I am not even referring to suspended police chief Jackie Selebi.
A couple of years ago a senior officer present at a protest march held by homeless people in Durban threatened a reporter he would be beaten up should he have the temerity to report on the incident. The officer used far cruder language. Obviously our journalist ignored the threats and did his job. We carried the report, and fortunately with no ill consequences for the reporter.
We could not leave things as they stood, and lodged an official complaint against the officer.
A preliminary investigation took place in which statements were taken. However, there was no response and no visible result. About a year later, I queried why we had heard nothing. We then received an official letter saying the allegations had been dismissed.
I have absolute confidence the reporter was telling the truth – there was another journalist present and he also had no motive for making this up.
This incident would be lost in time were it not for the fact that this same officer continues his wayward practices. He has experienced a charmed career despite numerous accounts about his methods.
Last week, a lawyer disclosed how his client had been arrested and badly roughed up without a shred of evidence against him. He alleged another man (not his client) had been repeatedly beaten with a length of hosepipe. According to the lawyer, several other allegations of misdeeds, in respect of other incidents, are being investigated against the named officer.
Now, because a police officer is passionate and effective in combating crime (as is evident in this case), he is not entitled to use such strong-arm tactics.
This is not because we are ruled by lily-livered liberal ideals, as some gun-happy policemen would hold, but because one unchecked excess leads to another, as is clearly happening here.
Brute force and brute brains may put a few mobsters and killers away for good. They will not solve the country’s crime problem, but lead to more extreme criminal behaviour, to wrong arrests and to (literally) grave injustices. Neither can we allow the media to be manipulated and threatened in this way.