Killing of police officials in South Africa – a crisis
Two police officials were killed while on duty in the Kraaifontein area of the Western Cape on 22 May 2011. Once again the killing of police officials became a topic of debate and some interesting viewpoints were put forward. One of these is that police officials are being killed because they are “brutal” in their interactions with the broader public, and behind this brutality is the fact that there is a general lack of management and oversight. This I think deflects many of the issues that are related to the killing of police officials.
While the brutality of police toward civilians hypothesis as a cause of people wanting to kill police officials, may hold some water, the converse could also be true. Police may be acting in a brutal fashion towards civilians, because they are under attack or under siege within communities. However the point made by David Bruce that “[ If criminals]… aren’t going to be tortured by the police… the motivation to violently resist arrest would potentially be reduced,” seems a little over the top. It is a fact that some suspects do face the possibility of being tortured by police when they are captured, but not all do. Many suspects resist arrest mostly because they do not want to be captured, detained, face a trial and possibly spend time in prisons. Their liberty is therefore being taken away from them and many suspected criminals have the delusion that they can get away with it. Therefore these are much stronger motivations for suspects to resist arrest and flee from police and not the prospect of possibly being tortured.
The two police officials killed in the Western Cape recently were attending to a “routine” complaint, where they were gunned down and their firearms taken from them. Therefore they were not making any arrests. It seems as if they did not even manage to get out of their vehicle. Similarly and prior to this, two police officials were gunned down in KwaZulu-Natal while trying to inspect a l iqor licence, also part of their routine duties.
The reciprocal brutality hypothesis is a superficial analysis of the causes and reasons why police officials are being killed and an alarming rate in South Africa. A much deeper analysis is required, and this post will attempt to provide a bit more depth to it.
I find it very interesting when the critics of the police are quick to make the point that the police are inadequately trained, when the police act and kill civilians, especially when dealing with crowds or when acting in self defence. Police are often judged by their critics as having not acted correctly in terms of Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act. However it is not taken into account that the inadequate training of police could have the opposite effect as well, namely that police officials get killed. It is impossible to write legislation, regulations or even train for each and every scenario that could be faced by a police official in his or her “routine” duties, or even those which may not be as routine. Therefore police officials can only be trained to be vigilant. A leading cause therefore, of police deaths could be because they are not vigilant and are not sensitive to the dangers that may be waiting for them. Unfortunately police officials often have to act on information, which is limited, that they are given. They then have to prepare themselves according to this information. Sometimes this information is extremely limited, and therefore they unintentionally walk into a situation which they might consider “ routine”. In other words they are not vigilant enough and get killed. It is often very difficult for a police official to think about the situation that he or she might have to face, when on their way to a scene or incident, because of the limited information available. When they do arrive, they often have to act and make decisions in a split second, which could mean a decision between life and death. The opposite side of this coin unfortunately is that some police officials are hyper-vigilant resulting in causalities by the police.
A further possible cause of police officials getting killed, is the legitimacy crisis that is being faced by the South African Police Force. There have been a number of scandals that the police have had to face, such as the previous Commissioner facing corruption charges, the current Commissioner facing problems in procurement procedures that were not followed, police killing civilians, police officials facing corruption charges, police being accused of not doing the work that they supposed to do, police officials being considered unintelligent and unable to do what they are supposed to do and therefore their work performance being questioned as well as their authority being questioned. To illustrate this, I witnessed the aftermath of an accident which involved a police vehicle. The police vehicle had disobeyed a traffic law, namely driving against the direction of traffic in a one way street. It collided with another vehicle which was exiting a garage. Of course the police vehicle was “in the wrong” since it had disobeyed a traffic regulation, however the way that the driver of the other vehicle acted in a disrespectful way, testing the patience not only of the police officer, but also one who was called to the scene to start the preliminary investigation. Not only that but a colleague of the other vehicle was just as obnoxious and wanted to tell the police officials attending, how they should do their work. I thought that he would be arrested for interfering with a police official in conducting his duties. What this illustrates is that police officials are constantly reminded of citizen’s rights and that they have a duty to serve and protect, that they have to act in a professional manner, but the powers and authority of the police are often questioned and resisted. I think that it is this de-legitimisation, resistance and disrespect that often lead to police officials loosing their lives. Furthermore, it is the de-legitimisation of the police that is leading to communities not “giving up” cop killers. This de-legitimisation, disrespect and sometimes active aggressiveness towards the police is one of the long lasting and greatest legacies of apartheid and colonisation.
Another legacy and related cause of police officials getting killed is the general malaise in South African society which disrespects human life and human dignity. Many segments of South African society are dehumanised. The poor are dehumanised by their poverty, the homeless are dehumanised by their lack of ownership, foreigners are dehumanised by their strangeness. The dehumanisation of people often leads to demonisation and people become objects, to be disposed of at a whim. Many segments of South African society have been objectified and subordinated under the apartheid and colonisation and have had to adapt to severe forms of structural violence. A consequence of this has be to adopted a similar attitude of dehumanisation and objectification of others and therefore the life of others has become cheap. Due to the fact that the police have traditionally been viewed with much disdain, their lives are made even cheaper and of less meaning than anyone else’s. Furthermore we South Africans are relatively reckless, to the extent that we do not even respect our own personal lives. One merely needs to look at the number of people who are killed on our roads.
A further cause of police killings could be due to the general violent discourses that seem to pervade South African society. These discourses come to the fore in pronouncements that people are willing to “kill for” and “die for” some of our leaders, ideologies and causes. Another violence discourse that continues to arise is the “war on”. We make war on HIV/ Aids, terror, crime, poverty, etc. This war talk does not promote peace and co-existence, but rather promotes violence and the attitude that killing or maiming of others is natural and acceptable. It is strange that many of the critics of the police and police actions have not come out to condemn the killing of police officials.
Therefore there are a number of possible causes of police killings. They are to summarise: in adequate training, although it is difficult to envisage all possible scenarios, but especially coaching police officials to be more vigilant. The police have a legitimacy and credibility crisis, which makes people have disdain attitudes towards the police and police officials have become dehumanised and objectified. This it is argued is a general crisis within South African society, and along with this is the acceptance of violence as a normal means to solve problems or remove problems. The normalisation of violence has a lot to do with the brutal historical legacy of the structural violence of apartheid and colonisation.
The question does arise: How can the killing of police officials be prevented?
At a societal level, South Africa should start creating peace discourses and dialogues through socialisation. Non-violence and non-violent means of problem solving should be celebrated, and not violence.
Education in non-violent communication should be established and constructive conflict resolution and conflict transformation should be on the government agenda.
Respect for humanity, human life and human dignity should be normalised throughout all segments of South African society.
Each case study of police officials who have been killed can provide the police with valuable lessons to be learnt, so as to prevent a recurrence of a similar event. However the police need to increase their legitimacy and credibility. Therefore cases of police brutality need to be investigated, and the perpetrators need to face the same punishments as other killers.
Richard Records
4 June 2011
Killing of police officials in South Africa – a crisis
Killing of police officials in South Africa – a crisis
Two police officials were killed while on duty in the Kraaifontein area of the Western Cape on 22 May 2011. Once again the killing of police officials became a topic of debate and some interesting viewpoints were put forward. One of these is that police officials are being killed because they are “brutal” in their interactions with the broader public, and behind this brutality is the fact that there is a general lack of management and oversight. This I think deflects many of the issues that are related to the killing of police officials.
While the brutality of police toward civilians hypothesis as a cause of people wanting to kill police officials, may hold some water, the converse could also be true. Police may be acting in a brutal fashion towards civilians, because they are under attack or under siege within communities. However the point made by David Bruce that “[ If criminals]… aren’t going to be tortured by the police… the motivation to violently resist arrest would potentially be reduced,” seems a little over the top. It is a fact that some suspects do face the possibility of being tortured by police when they are captured, but not all do. Many suspects resist arrest mostly because they do not want to be captured, detained, face a trial and possibly spend time in prisons. Their liberty is therefore being taken away from them and many suspected criminals have the delusion that they can get away with it. Therefore these are much stronger motivations for suspects to resist arrest and flee from police and not the prospect of possibly being tortured.
The two police officials killed in the Western Cape recently were attending to a “routine” complaint, where they were gunned down and their firearms taken from them. Therefore they were not making any arrests. It seems as if they did not even manage to get out of their vehicle. Similarly and prior to this, two police officials were gunned down in KwaZulu-Natal while trying to inspect a l iqor licence, also part of their routine duties.
The reciprocal brutality hypothesis is a superficial analysis of the causes and reasons why police officials are being killed and an alarming rate in South Africa. A much deeper analysis is required, and this post will attempt to provide a bit more depth to it.
I find it very interesting when the critics of the police are quick to make the point that the police are inadequately trained, when the police act and kill civilians, especially when dealing with crowds or when acting in self defence. Police are often judged by their critics as having not acted correctly in terms of Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act. However it is not taken into account that the inadequate training of police could have the opposite effect as well, namely that police officials get killed. It is impossible to write legislation, regulations or even train for each and every scenario that could be faced by a police official in his or her “routine” duties, or even those which may not be as routine. Therefore police officials can only be trained to be vigilant. A leading cause therefore, of police deaths could be because they are not vigilant and are not sensitive to the dangers that may be waiting for them. Unfortunately police officials often have to act on information, which is limited, that they are given. They then have to prepare themselves according to this information. Sometimes this information is extremely limited, and therefore they unintentionally walk into a situation which they might consider “ routine”. In other words they are not vigilant enough and get killed. It is often very difficult for a police official to think about the situation that he or she might have to face, when on their way to a scene or incident, because of the limited information available. When they do arrive, they often have to act and make decisions in a split second, which could mean a decision between life and death. The opposite side of this coin unfortunately is that some police officials are hyper-vigilant resulting in causalities by the police.
A further possible cause of police officials getting killed, is the legitimacy crisis that is being faced by the South African Police Force. There have been a number of scandals that the police have had to face, such as the previous Commissioner facing corruption charges, the current Commissioner facing problems in procurement procedures that were not followed, police killing civilians, police officials facing corruption charges, police being accused of not doing the work that they supposed to do, police officials being considered unintelligent and unable to do what they are supposed to do and therefore their work performance being questioned as well as their authority being questioned. To illustrate this, I witnessed the aftermath of an accident which involved a police vehicle. The police vehicle had disobeyed a traffic law, namely driving against the direction of traffic in a one way street. It collided with another vehicle which was exiting a garage. Of course the police vehicle was “in the wrong” since it had disobeyed a traffic regulation, however the way that the driver of the other vehicle acted in a disrespectful way, testing the patience not only of the police officer, but also one who was called to the scene to start the preliminary investigation. Not only that but a colleague of the other vehicle was just as obnoxious and wanted to tell the police officials attending, how they should do their work. I thought that he would be arrested for interfering with a police official in conducting his duties. What this illustrates is that police officials are constantly reminded of citizen’s rights and that they have a duty to serve and protect, that they have to act in a professional manner, but the powers and authority of the police are often questioned and resisted. I think that it is this de-legitimisation, resistance and disrespect that often lead to police officials loosing their lives. Furthermore, it is the de-legitimisation of the police that is leading to communities not “giving up” cop killers. This de-legitimisation, disrespect and sometimes active aggressiveness towards the police is one of the long lasting and greatest legacies of apartheid and colonisation.
Another legacy and related cause of police officials getting killed is the general malaise in South African society which disrespects human life and human dignity. Many segments of South African society are dehumanised. The poor are dehumanised by their poverty, the homeless are dehumanised by their lack of ownership, foreigners are dehumanised by their strangeness. The dehumanisation of people often leads to demonisation and people become objects, to be disposed of at a whim. Many segments of South African society have been objectified and subordinated under the apartheid and colonisation and have had to adapt to severe forms of structural violence. A consequence of this has be to adopted a similar attitude of dehumanisation and objectification of others and therefore the life of others has become cheap. Due to the fact that the police have traditionally been viewed with much disdain, their lives are made even cheaper and of less meaning than anyone else’s. Furthermore we South Africans are relatively reckless, to the extent that we do not even respect our own personal lives. One merely needs to look at the number of people who are killed on our roads.
A further cause of police killings could be due to the general violent discourses that seem to pervade South African society. These discourses come to the fore in pronouncements that people are willing to “kill for” and “die for” some of our leaders, ideologies and causes. Another violence discourse that continues to arise is the “war on”. We make war on HIV/ Aids, terror, crime, poverty, etc. This war talk does not promote peace and co-existence, but rather promotes violence and the attitude that killing or maiming of others is natural and acceptable. It is strange that many of the critics of the police and police actions have not come out to condemn the killing of police officials.
Therefore there are a number of possible causes of police killings. They are to summarise: in adequate training, although it is difficult to envisage all possible scenarios, but especially coaching police officials to be more vigilant. The police have a legitimacy and credibility crisis, which makes people have disdain attitudes towards the police and police officials have become dehumanised and objectified. This it is argued is a general crisis within South African society, and along with this is the acceptance of violence as a normal means to solve problems or remove problems. The normalisation of violence has a lot to do with the brutal historical legacy of the structural violence of apartheid and colonisation.
The question does arise: How can the killing of police officials be prevented?
At a societal level, South Africa should start creating peace discourses and dialogues through socialisation. Non-violence and non-violent means of problem solving should be celebrated, and not violence.
Education in non-violent communication should be established and constructive conflict resolution and conflict transformation should be on the government agenda.
Respect for humanity, human life and human dignity should be normalised throughout all segments of South African society.
Each case study of police officials who have been killed can provide the police with valuable lessons to be learnt, so as to prevent a recurrence of a similar event. However the police need to increase their legitimacy and credibility. Therefore cases of police brutality need to be investigated, and the perpetrators need to face the same punishments as other killers.
Richard Records
4 June 2011
Rate this: