Who is policing the police?

Barely a day goes by or you read, hear or see of in the Media of the Police overstepping the boundaries of their mission and vision - brutality in executing their duties, rudeness against the public, neglecting their duties in protecting the arrested in police cells, raping of suspects in custody, assaulting members of the public, accepting bribes, etc. And so the list continues.

It is actually frightful. The very people we entrust to safe guard us against all evil have become the perpetrators. Who is policing the police? Who can we trust?

But it is not only the reporting in the Media that let one shivers. The daily interaction with family, friends, colleagues, and people arrested by the same Police, posts on Blogs, you name them, some stories coming forth are mind boggling.

It is no use to give incidents or discuss it. Everyone knows about it. But what needs talking about is what is the public figures, voted by us to protect us, doing about it? Are they too afraid to act against those they appointed in positions of trust? Has it become a matter of the tail wagging the dog? Or is it the master who has become afraid that the dog will attack him?

Or, is it only the first significant steps towards, or preparation for a Police State?
But can we expect anything better from those that should serve and protect when those who are supposed to manage them, police them and lead by example are sometimes the opposite?

The honest and purpose driven police officers are fighting crime from both side. The true criminals on one side and their own corrupt and criminal minded colleagues on the other side. No wonder the real criminals are having a field day. Prisons are overcrowded but even here the joke is on the law abiding citizens’ expense. They say it is not due to the fact that the criminals behind bars could not afford a decent lawyer but that they could not afford the bribe money!

It is Government’s responsibility to protect us whether they like it or not. They should realize that in framing a democratic government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

Policing is an on-going experiment, namely whether policing can promote security and serve liberty as the ultimate purpose of government. Justice and peace in a society rests on restraint, by government and by the citizenry. Laws provide both a guide and a motive for such restraint for the good of everyone.

It is a general perspective of Joe and Jane Citizen that criminals feel safe and happy because they know that the police are useless. Let the real government stand up and be counted. Please say no to corrupt police forces. Let they start serving the citizens as they should.

By Hendrik DB de Villiers