Posted by Mike Hampton a.k.a. Wicked Mike on Aug 25, 2013
There’s been a disturbing
trend in Knysna for citizens to be illegally
arrested, even by the bakkie load. Poorer areas such as Rheenendal
find the Knysna SAPS acting as a law unto themselves that is scarily reminiscent of the brutalities of apartheid.
Don’t think you’re immune
if you’re white or living in town. I know of several such people who’ve had
unfortunate run-ins with our proud, local police. This has been going on for a
long time and the police are being sued in several cases.
I will elaborate more in
the future but for now i give you this excellent article by Ruth Hopkins that
appeared in the Pretoria News this week:
Taxpayers
continue to fork out for police brutality spurred by lack of sanctions on the
errant, writes Ruth Hopkins.
Steven Mothao was walking
back home from a piece job on August 10, 2010, through Fordsburg in Joburg. Out
of nowhere, three police officers appeared and pushed him against a wall.
While onlookers gawked at
the unfolding incident, the officers slammed him in a police van and detained
him in a police cell for 22 hours, 14 of which he was not even offered a glass
of water, before he was kicked out on to the street again.
The officers never
identified themselves, did not have an arrest warrant and did not inform Mothao
of the reasons for his arrest. He sued the minister of police for damages
resulting from the unlawful arrest and was awarded R150 000 in March.
Read more........
There is much more to this
article. Read the rest of it on IOL as A Force Estranged from the People.
