Maravi

Police and violence

Police and violence
By The Post
Fri 09 Sep. 2011, 14:00 CAT

THERE is something seriously wrong with our police. Our police is failing to perform its various roles efficiently, effectively and in an orderly manner.

We all know that officially, the core functions of our police include enforcing the law, keeping the peace and protecting life and property. In carrying out these functions, the law gives our police officers broad discretion. But how the police's discretion is used will have a very big impact on the type of society we are constructing.

The police form a very important part of our judicial process. We say this because criminal prosecutions in this country often start with one being arrested by the police. It is the police who bring suspected offenders before the court to decide on their guilt or innocence and, in the case of conviction, decide on punishment.

Since it is the police who generally decide who should be arrested or not arrested, they, in some way, determine who should be prosecuted or who shouldn't be prosecuted, who should go scot-free. If things are not properly arranged, there is a great danger for abuse of police powers and discretion.

If the police is not operationally independent from the politicians running government, there is a danger of it being used to harass political opponents and dissenters and to protect or shield from arrest and prosecution members, cadres or supporters of the political party in power.

And where this is the case, the rule of law stops to function. Equality before the law, or equal protection of the law, ceases to exist. But we know that equality before the law, or equal protection of the law, is fundamental to any just and democratic society. Whether political ally of those in power or opponent - all must be entitled to equal protection before the law.

However, this is not the case in Zambia today: there is no equality before the law, or equal protection of the law, for political opponents of those in power, those in control of the police and indeed our entire judicial process. Leaders, cadres and supporters of the ruling MMD seem to be above the law. They can get away with anything, with any crime. But we know that such practices undermine both the law and democracy.

We are every day seeing opposition leaders, cadres and supporters being prosecuted for crimes which those who belong to the ruling MMD are not being prosecuted for. Where is the impartiality of the police?

There are so many cases or incidences where the police have watched MMD cadres perpetrate acts of violence against innocent, and sometimes defenceless, political opponents without stopping them or arresting them. This is exactly what happened in Chongwe last Saturday. Police watched Sylvia Masebo's campaign automobiles being stoned and damaged by MMD cadres without stopping them or arresting those doing so.

The police also watched MMD cadres looting people's shops in Chongwe without making any arrests. Opposition PF supporters were attacked by MMD cadres, some ending up in hospital. The police know that their inactivity was wrong. But the justification for this is that if they did anything, they would be in trouble, they would be fired. Basically what this demonstrates is that our police is not operationally independent from the leadership of the ruling MMD. It also means that the police do not decide how they go about their various duties.

The police command is even in the worst position because it is politically appointed and can accordingly be disappointed by the same appointing authority. So they behave like any other political appointee.

They protect the political interests of those who appointed them. It is no wonder Francis Kabonde, the Inspector General of Police, in Kitwe on Monday said police do not arrest people based on newspaper reports because they do not trust newspapers. But is this the right approach to take when the violence in Chongwe happened in full view of the police? This is definitely not right and is a recipe for serious anarchy in this country.

There is need for separation of powers between the police and the politicians in government. This separation is very important for the rule of law and democracy in our country.

This is important because it will assist in ensuring that the police are not used in a partisan way to harass and punish political opponents and protect from punishment the cadres and supporters of those in power.

Giving politicians the right and opportunity to operationally interfere with police work is a recipe for tyranny. In every society throughout history, those who hold the power to direct or administer the operational activities of the police hold power with the potential for abuse and tyranny.

The police must have the power to maintain order and arrest people who commit crimes. But this should not be arbitrary or subject to political manipulation by those in power.

With this behaviour, the police cannot be trusted even in safeguarding the integrity of our electoral process. Our police cannot be relied upon to stop electoral fraud or malpractices by those in power. If today people connected to the MMD are found with ballot papers they cannot explain, no police officer will arrest them. And this is why police officers have been used in electoral malpractices by politicians in government.

Today, opposition politicians and their supporters are being denied their rights in all sorts of ways by the police, acting on behalf of the ruling MMD. This needs to be challenged.

We shouldn't allow the police to be abused in this way. It is said that "evil is powerless if the good are unafraid". The destruction of police operational independence will breed despotism. With the destruction of the independence of the police, our rights and our security are in danger. They will not stop abusing the police on their own. They have to be stopped.

We say this because it is said that "those who have been once intoxicated with power and have derived any kind of emolument from it can never willingly abandon it".

Let us not forget the saying: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Labels: CADRES, MMD, POLICE BRUTALITY

posted by MrK @ 3:18 PM