Dear Editor,
I wish to comment on a few matters that is gaining the attention of the public on Facebook, these are, a police making a stop and enquiry of a civilian and the other, where peace officers went to a location to make an arrest. In the first mentioned scenario the officer was met with a hostile female member of the civilian crew who promptly removed the police barricade with the associated “cuss” words to go with. When this did not get the desired result, she attacked the officer biting him on the hand. In the second scenario peace officers went to a certain location to make an arrest of a female member of that household, to which the officers were again met with a hostile crowd and a poorly clad woman who was the subject of their arrest. The out of control crowd – which I will call friends and relatives of the accused – were up in arms against the police demanding answers to questions such as why she was being arrested and her mother stating emphatically that her daughter ain’t going any “expletive” way.
Now, at this point I must loudly make the call for the authorities, to have our policemen and women fitted with body cameras, because this will go a far way in making matters of this sort easily adjudicated in a court of law. I move on with my analysis, in the first mentioned story. I blame the police officers for not acting in the appropriate manner, you have set up a cordon and about to make the requisite questioning or arrest – as the case may be – why entertain comments from the hooligan crowd? Why allow yourself to be sidetracked by unnecessary questions of other parties not related to the incident? This shows poor police work on the part of Law Enforcement. My second point is once that woman showed signs of aggression she should have been handcuffed and properly restrained, because no one knew what she was capable of doing, in this case she bit the officer! This is outrageous to say the least and for this reason I call on the GPF to take a careful look at their operating procedures. When a civilian can physically attack a peace officer, then it sends the wrong signal to the lawless public out there, it shows that we have a spineless police force that is incapable of carrying out its policing duties. This quite naturally emboldens the lawbreaker into more disorderly conduct. This cannot be allowed to take root in a civilized society
The next instance I want to discuss with you, is the police going to a house to make an arrest, this time it is to make an arrest of a woman. Here again the Lawmen encounter a hostile crowd who encourages the poorly clad woman to resist arrest. Now, the officer in question was asking her to get dressed and to accompany them to the precinct, but the raucous, intimidating, foulmouthed, crowd were encouraging her on to flatly ignore the officer’s directives. I know that this sort of behaviour gains traction in some quarters, that is, when you can openly curse law enforcement, violently chase them out of your area, break a police barrier, kicking the officer in the head in the process and much more. When this culture of lawlessness becomes the norm then you know where we are headed. The point I am making is when society can degenerate to such an extent where anyone, from politician to ordinary people, can show outright defiance to the law and by extension to lawmen, then this is a clear indication that there is a total breakdown of law and order. In my book the rule of law must be upheld or else we are going nowhere as a people and as a nation. Law and Law Enforcers must be respected.
Sincerely,
Neil Adams
