May 22nd, 2009
Image: A large number of police stations in SA are guarded by private security companies…
Story 1: Student held after spat with cops
19/05/2009
Pretoria - A local student had to spend a night in a police cell after he apparently wanted to make a sound recording of a police station on his cellphone, and six police officers tackled him. Werner Smook, 21, wanted to make a recording of police officers refusing to identify two colleagues who were apparently drinking coffee at a restaurant while on duty.
Smook, an engineering student at the University of Pretoria, was released on R1 000 bail from the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria on Monday afternoon. He is expected to appear in the Hatfield Community Court on Tuesday morning. He and Ruan Combrink, 25, a theology student at a private academy and Cobus Pretorius, 23, a student at the Tshwane University of Technology, were driving through Hatfield on Sunday night.
At about 21:00 they saw a police bakkie that was parked with two wheels on the pavement and two wheels on the street in Burnett Street. Combrink said the bakkie was “kind of an obstruction in the road”. “The blue lights were on.” Two police officers in uniform sat at a restaurant drinking coffee, he said.
The students took photographs of the bakkie to “lay a charge as the police officers were on duty and the bakkie was in the road”. The police officers turned up and wanted to know what was going on. “We told them we were taking pictures of their illegal actions.” Combrink said the officers then admitted that they were “corrupt”. He said they then told them to call the “commissioner” as he was “just as corrupt”.
This led to a confrontation between the two groups. The policemen became angry and said the students were racist. The officers then drove to the Brooklyn police station. The students also arrived here to lay a charge.
According to Combrink, the officials in the office refused to identify their two colleagues. Smook wanted to make a recording of this “refusal”. Six members then pushed Smook to the ground and held him there, “pushing him with a knee and choking him,” said Combrink. Smook was arrested.
Police spokesperson, Captain Colette Weilbach, said Smook was arrested on charges of crimen injuria and intimidation. According to the officer who had arrested Smook, he had told police officials they were corrupt. Weilbach asked that Smook lay a formal charge at the police station and bring the proof (the photos and sound recordings) to back up his allegations. An investigation would be held. If the member was guilty of an offence, disciplinary steps would follow.
Story 2: Relief, then horror over cops
De Deur - Jarryd Viviers was extremely grateful to see a police vehicle in front of him, since he was being followed by what he presumed to be hijackers. But then the police officers opened fire on his bakkie, slapped and kicked him and accused him of allowing a suspect to escape, he said on Tuesday.
On Friday night, Viviers, 24, was on his way from De Deur to his home in Apple Orchards in the Mahindra bakkie - which belongs to his employer - when a car started following him. “At first I thought nothing of it, but when I turned into our street and saw the car was still following me and flashing its headlights non-stop, I became suspicious and drove on past my house.” “I didn’t want to be robbed and killed by ‘hijackers’ in my own driveway, so I kept on driving to look for help.”
Viviers was on Grasmere Road, which leads to the N1 toll road, when he heard a siren and saw blue lights in front of him. “I was so happy to see the police, because the car was still following me and I was very worried about my safety and the bakkie,” he said.
He stopped at the side of the road, but before he could even get out, bullets started flying. It appeared as if there were police officers in the car that had been following him. According to Viviers, the car behind him did not have a blue light on its roof, and no police signs were visible from the front.
“The policemen slapped and kicked me, and accused me of letting a suspect get away.” Viviers also told how one of the police officers told him: “Get in your car and fuck off.” Shado Mashobane, police spokesperson, has confirmed that the police are investigating a case of malicious damage to property.
According to Koos Mostert, Viviers’s employer, he will also be laying charges of assault and attempted murder. “If Mr Viviers lays a charge of assault and attempted murder and the investigation proves that a police officer had been negligent, departmental and criminal action will most certainly be taken,” said Mashobane.
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Image: black Metro cop attacks young White woman during a political meeting in Pretoria, September 2008
Posted by uhuru-guru in Gatvol, Transition to black rule | 14 Comments
