(NEWZIMBABWE) South Africa angry on the brink: Graca Machel
26/11/2013 00:00:00
by Agencies
THE wife of former president Nelson Mandela has warned that South Africa has become an angry nation, as it is refusing to deal with its apartheid past.
Human rights activist Graca Machel, 67, said the nation is on the brink of “something very dangerous” which it may not be able to stop.
The Mozambican third wife of ANC icon Mandela was speaking at the memorial service of a taxi driver who died in police custody after officers tied his hands to the back of their van and dragged him to this death.
Taxi driver Mido Macia is alleged to have argued a traffic violation after which police handcuffed the 27-year-old to their vehicle in front of a horrified crowd.
He was found dead two hours later in a police cell in the Daveyton township of Johannesburg, last Tuesday.
At the memorial Machel said South Africa’s anger came from “unaddressed issues” referring to the nation’s history of apartheid.
Machel said a reluctance to deal with the nation’s past has resulted in an ‘increasing institutionalisation of violence and a police force which is ‘actively aggressive’ towards the public.
“South Africa is an angry nation,” she said. “We are on the precipice of something very dangerous with the potential of not being able to stop the fall.”
She said: “The level of anger and aggression is rising. This is an expression of deeper trouble from the past that has not been addressed.
“We have to be more cautious about how we deal with a society that is bleeding and breathing pain.”
She spoke out as South Africa’s justice system has grown increasingly synonymous with police brutality.
In 2011 a man was beaten to death by police during a peaceful protest in the Free State and last year, police opened fire on workers during a miners strike, killing 34 people.
Another recent case highlighting the nation's culture of violence and high number of private gun owners is that of fallen Paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius’s fatal shooting of his partner Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius, who is currently out on bail, argues that he accidentally shot his model girlfriend believing her to be a burglar, using one of several firearms he kept at his mansion.
Machel’s comments are likely to rattle ruling party ANC, which has been at the helm of the nation since the abolition of apartheid.
Both Machel and her husband Nelson Mandela have refrained from commenting on the running of South Africa since he left his position as president 14 years ago.
President Zuma, speaking to traditional leaders in parliament last Thursday, said that despite the events of recent weeks, it was wrong to paint his country as an “inherently violent place to live in”.
“South Africa is not (a) violent country. It is certain people in our country who are violent. By and large we are not, we are peace-loving people.”
Meanwhile South Africa's Independent Police Investigative Directorate reported 232 deaths in police custody and another 488 deaths as a result of police action from early 2011 to early 2012, a ten per cent drop over the previous year.
Labels: APARTHEID, GRACA MACHEL, POLICE BRUTALITY, SOUTH AFRICA
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Zim embassy official shot dead by SA cops
21/10/2013 00:00:00
by Pretoria News
SOUTH Africa police have remained tight-lipped about the killing of an official of the Zimbabwean embassy at the weekend.
Lucky Hakueri, 37, a security official at the embassy, was shot and killed, allegedly by a police officer in Glenwood Road in Lynnwood on Saturday after apparently he and a friend were mistaken for possible lawbreakers. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said was the shooting.
"I can confirm that we are investigating it. Our investigators attended the scene on Saturday," spokesperson Moses Dlamini said on Monday.
Family members and witnesses said Hakueri and his best friend were waiting outside a friend’s complex in Glenwood Road at about 2pm. They were approached by an officer from the Garsfontein police station who was in civilian clothes and allegedly holding an R5 rifle.
The pair had arranged to meet their friend to play tennis and were waiting for her to open the gate. “I guess I took too long to open the gate and I heard shots. At the time, I had no idea Lucky was involved,” said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.
She thought the officer had suspected Hakueri and his friend were criminals. The pair in turn thought the officer was a hijacker, as he was not in uniform, and they sped off.
The officer, according to Hakueri’s family and his friend’s wife, opened fire because he thought they were speeding off to evade arrest.
In an attempt to escape, Hakueri crashed his car into another vehicle nearby. Both the men were shot from behind, after which Hakueri lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a wall.
After trying to call Hakueri’s cellphone and failing to get a response, the woman ran outside to see what the commotion was about. She spotted Hakueri’s blue BMW several metres from the entrance to her complex.
“His friend was lying on the ground and the man had a gun pointed at him. I asked him why he was shooting them, explaining they were waiting for me. Only then did he put away his gun and call an ambulance,” the woman said.
She was not allowed near Hakueri, but said she could see he was not moving. “I was supposed to see him and he was waiting for me. Then everything just went wrong,” she said, adding Hakueri was a regular at the complex over weekends.=
Hakueri’s wife, Sarah Sande, was at work in Joburg at the time.
She was informed of his death only after she tried to get hold of him.
“He was a loving and caring husband. He was my life partner. I am nothing without him,” Sande said on Sunday as she cradled the couple’s two-year-old son, Leroy Camilo, in their Riviera home.
“He loved our son so much.”
The other man, Hakueri’s best friend of almost 10 years, was wounded in his right side and remains in intensive care at Zuid-Afrikaans Hospital in Sunnyside. He is believed to be under police guard.
He has yet to be told about Hakueri’s death.
His wife said the police had commented that he could face charges of burglary. “They (the police) are not telling me what’s going on. They are just saying he is a suspect.
“I don’t know what to tell my husband when he asks me,” she said, adding that he was an IT specialist and earned an honest living.
They have a two-year-old son.
Provincial police spokesman, Lungelo Dlamini declined to discuss the matter, saying it was now in the hands of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
It could not be established whether the police officer had been arrested. Sande said she was waiting for the family’s elders to arrive before funeral arrangements could be finalised.
“All I want right now is answers. I am confused and I do not know what happened to my husband.”
Zimbabwe’s deputy ambassador had gone to the police to try to get an explanation of what prompted the shooting, Sande said.
Labels: POLICE BRUTALITY
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(NEWZIMBABWE) MDC-T slams upsurge in ‘police brutality’
09/10/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
COMMENT - More MDC grandstanding to the international gallery. They have nothing to run on other than dragging down the image of their own country, and the livelihoods of their own countrymen. - MrK
THE opposition MDC-T party has expressed concern over what it said was an upsurge in police brutality after cops put down a demonstration by women in Hwange and removed hundreds of families illegally settled in Mashonaland West province.
Police reportedly moved in with batons to put down a demonstration Monday by spouses of Hwange Colliery Company who were protesting the company’s failure to pay salaries for about five months.
Hwange Central MP Brian Tshuma said some of the protesters were badly beaten and sustained injuries while at least two were detained.
In a statement Tuesday the MDC-T said the violent suppression of the demonstration contravened the country’s constitution.
“On Monday, at the Hwange Colliery mine, the police violently disrupted a demonstration staged by over 100 defenceless women who were demanding outstanding salaries and allowances for their spouses who have not been paid for over five months,” the party said.
“These women and some children were viciously assaulted by the police with baton sticks and booted feet. This suppression of the demonstration was in clear violation of Section 58 the new Constitution which clearly provides for freedom to demonstrate.
“This shows that Zanu PF, through the police, is bent on subverting the people’s rights enshrined in the new Constitution.”
A Bulawayo-based pressure group, Bulawayo Agenda, also claimed that the company had threatened to sack the spouses of the protesting women.
“Employees at the colliery have gone for 5 months without receiving their salaries prompting the Monday demonstration which was violently disbanded by police leaving four women hospitalised after sustaining injuries,” the group said.
“The company is also threatening to lay-off all the husbands of the women who participated in the demonstrations.”
Meanwhile, the MDC-T also condemned the removal of hundreds of villagers in parts of Mashonaland West where the party claimed they had been settled in order to vote for Zanu PF in the July 31 elections.
“On Tuesday, hundreds of families were left homeless in Mapinga, Banket in Mashonaland West after a group of vicious and heavily armed police officers destroyed and burnt their huts,” the party said.
“What is clear is that these families who have been at the farm for less than four months were brought in by Zanu PF to vote for its candidates in the 31 July elections.
“Now that the elections are gone these poor families are being discarded like dirt and have been left to face the vagaries of weather.
“Further, the MDC notes with concern the unconstitutional and unlawful farm invasions by Zanu PF officials throughout the country, especially in the Mashonaland Central province.
“We are convinced that what is happening now is a clear sign that once again Zimbabwe is on the brink to returning to lawlessness, brutality and anarchy.
“We call upon all Zimbabweans to be united and stop Zanu PF from bringing Zimbabwe back to retrogression.”
Labels: MDC, POLICE BRUTALITY, PROPAGANDA
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Woman beaten by SA cops over lost baby
09/09/2013 00:00:00
by The Star
A ZIMBABWEAN woman was last week allegedly slapped, hit in the face with sandals by South African police and then forced to wash an official’s vehicle, before being released for a crime she says she never committed.
Peace Dube, 23, claims she was subjected to this ordeal at the hands of volunteers at the Ivory Park police station in Johannesburg where she had reported her missing five-year-old boy.
Dube had just learnt from a local community radio station that her son Ngqabutho, who had been missing for nearly a week in Tembisa, had been found and that she should report to the police station immediately.
At the charge office, Dube and a friend who had accompanied her were told to go to the trauma unit at the station.
“When we got there, my friend was told to take my son and leave me behind. They told her not to give me money for transport because I would be locked in for negligence.
“They said I was an ignorant mother and that’s when I was smacked and hit with shoes on the face and hands as I tried to protect my face,” said Dube.
Just when she thought her ordeal was over, Dube said a trauma unit official instructed her to wash his car before her release.
Dube said the female volunteers then told her she was an ignorant mother.
“I did not know anything. I thought maybe those women had the right to beat me as I had lost my son. I look better now, although my hands are painful, my eye was bruised and I could not see with it,” she said.
On Friday, two days after the alleged attack, Dube opened an assault case at the station.
Ngqabutho went missing while visiting his uncle at Entshonalanga, Tembisa, with his mother. He had arrived from Zimbabwe three days before his disappearance on August 25.
“He was playing outside with other kids when he told them he was going back to the house. I was checking on him frequently, but at around 4.30pm when I went to call him so we could leave, he was nowhere to be found.
“I asked the other children where Ngqabutho was and they told me he had told them he was going back to the house.”
Labels: PEACE DUBE, POLICE BRUTALITY, SOUTH AFRICA
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Residents stone ‘criminal’ Mchinji police unit
By Patricia Masinga, Nyasa Times
September 25, 2012
Angry residents around Kamwendo Trading Centre in Mchinji district on Tuesday morning pelted stones at Kamwendo Police Unit, charging the officers have overstayed and take part in criminal activities.
Kamwendo often experiences crime, which is said to be currently on the rise.
The commotion started when villagers noted a suspect casually handcuffed to a tree outside the unit, raising questions of security and seriousness.
“They must go and be replaced by others. We think they have overstayed and take part in criminal activities,” said one angry villager.
Police confirmed the incident and said officers were currently engaged with leaders to map a way forward to assist the two parties assist each other to secure the area.
Labels: POLICE BRUTALITY, POLICE CORRUPTION
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Govt warns wanting Chambishi cops
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Fri 07 Sep. 2012, 10:15 CAT
HOME affairs deputy minister Ngosa Simbyakula has warned that all officers found wanting in the manner they handled the Chambishi riots will be punished. And Simbyakula is this week expected on the Copperbelt to review how police officers handled the riots.
This follows Copperbelt Province minister Mwenya Musenge's demand to transfer all police officers at Chambishi Police Station for alleged negligence following the riots that rocked Chambishi last Friday in which four people were killed and property worth millions of kwacha was looted.
Musenge has demanded the transfer of police officers from Chambishi because they had allegedly been not alert, hence the outbreak of the riots which led to the loss of four lives.
Musenge said police in the township were informed about plans by residents of Zambia township to kill some businessmen and their relatives but did not act quickly to avert the situation.
According to a statement by Ministry of Home Affairs head of public relations Moses Suwali, Dr Simbyakula said the trip to the Copperbelt was to review and appreciate for himself how police officers handled the situation during the riots, after which a decision would be made.
Dr Simbyakula said that whilst on the Copperbelt he would meet Musenge, the provincial commissioner of police Mary Tembo and other heads of departments under his ministry so as to discuss the issue in depth.
He said he did not want to rush to transfer officers before gathering facts and appreciating clearly what was on the ground but warned that all officers found wanting in the manner they handled "this unfortunate incident" would be punished according to administrative provisions under the police Act Cap 107 in addition to transfers.
He also warned members of the public to desist from taking the law into their own hands because it was a serious crime. "The scourge is slowly getting rooted in this country and hence we need to quickly stamp it out before many lives are lost," said Dr Simbyakula.
He said his ministry deeply regretted the loss of lives and damage to property resulting from the riotous behaviour.
Over 100 residents were arrested in Chambishi in connection with the riot and looting of property that ensued. Those arrested have been charged and are appearing in court in Kitwe.
Labels: POLICE BRUTALITY, RIOTS
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Marikana: Mthethwa receives preliminary report on assault allegations
25 Aug 2012 09:07 - Sapa
A report alleging that arrested mine workers have been assaulted by the police was handed to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Friday.
"The preliminary report provided to the minister confirms that on August 22 it came to the attention of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) that
detainees linked to the Marikana incident were assaulted by [SA Police Service] SAPS members at Phokeng police station and Mogwase police station," Mthethwa's spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement.
Police shot dead 34 striking Lonmin Platinum mine employees and wounded 78 in a violent confrontation last Thursday. A total of 260 mineworkers were arrested.
They complained to the IPID that they had been assaulted by the police during their arrests.
"The IPID's investigators registered a case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm at the Mogwase Police Station. Investigators obtained statements from 50 victims in this regard," said Mnisi.
Two similar cases were opened at the Phokeng and Jericho police stations by mineworkers detained there.
Mnisi said arrangements were being made for some of the miners to be relocated and to receive medical attention.
"Any police officer who conducts him or herself in a manner that is not in line with constitutional principles should face the full might of the law and I encourage IPID to investigate these allegations, without fear or favour," Mthethwa said in the statement.
– Sapa
Labels: LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINING, POLICE BRUTALITY
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Marikana tragedy: Who authorised the use of live ammunition?
21 Aug 2012 21:05 - Andisiwe Makinana
There was only one question opposition parties in Parliament wanted answered by the judicial commission of inquiry into the Marikana tragedy. Members of Parliament on Tuesday demanded the inquiry, announced by President Jacob Zuma on Friday, investigate who authorised the use of live ammunition on the striking workers. The incident left 34 people dead and more than 70 injured last week.
In a fiery parliamentary debate on Tuesday about the Lonmin platinum mine tragedy Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa emphasised the responsibilities that the Constitution imposes on citizens, but opposition MPs said the Constitution has been breached and whoever gave the instruction to the police to use live ammunition should be held accountable for the deaths of 34 striking workers.
Mthethwa said Thursday's event could have been avoided "if all of us had adhered to the noble principles of our Constitution".
He said the Constitution guarantees rights and imposes responsibilities on the citizens of the republic.
Mthethwa cited section 17 of the Constitution which assures the citizens the right to "peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and present petition and section 205 which speaks specifically to the South African Police Service and enjoins the members of the service to 'prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and secure the inhabitants of the republic and their property and uphold and enforce the law'."
He said the police as part of our security services are always and at all material times guided by the Constitution of the Republic. The police did all in their power to avert (a violent) situation, he said.
"As we indicated above, the Constitution of the Republic guarantees us the right to strike, to protest in a peaceful orderly manner to express our dissatisfaction with anything. While all South Africans enjoy these rights, rights always come with responsibilities," said Mthethwa.
But leaders of the opposition parties came out guns blazing demanding answers on who authorised the use of live ammunition, and also called for a broad and data-driven commission of inquiry.
Lack of leadership
The Democratic Alliance's Lindiwe Mazibuko said the tragedy spoke of a lack of top-level leadership and of ministerial accountability.
She said the judicial commission of inquiry should specifically establish who authorised the use of live ammunition on the striking workers, within the context of how the police manage violent strikes. "Whoever authorised the use of live ammunition must be held accountable.
"It must also be revealed on what, if any, intelligence was the planning was conducted; and if the national police commissioner, Riah Phiyega, exercised appropriate judgment and leadership. At what point did she intervene?"
Mazibuko said the commission should also carefully examine the conduct and Mthethwa's role adding that: "In most democracies, a crisis of this magnitude would have immediately precipitated the resignation of the minister, and, in many cases, the fall of the government.
"The DA is concerned that no one in this government seems to be assuming political responsibility for the [tragedy]. We need accountability now."
She added that police minister, the secretaries general of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and the chief executive officer of Lonmin should carefully consider their positions, and offer their resignations. "Their position is untenable."
Congress of the People president, Mosioua Lekota reiterated that the incident was avoidable "had we only stuck to the provisions of our Constitution".
'Militarisation'
Lekota blamed the "militarisation" of police, especially highlighting the introduction of military ranks to the police service. He said this had prepared the "young" police officers in a manner which resulted in an outcome like the Marikana tragedy.
He said while the Constitution prescribed for a police service and not a police force, Zuma introduced military ranks. "When the authors of the Constitution decided on a police service, and not on a militarised police force, they had been informed by what had happened in the past under the then police force."
Lekota said whoever authorised the use of live ammunition was in breach of the Constitution.
"In this country, the Constitution does not allow death sentence, who is this authority who has the right to say to the police shoot with live ammunition that was definitely going to take lives ... Who was this person who is above the Constitution, who had the authority to decide that this right to life will be suspended today, for this moment and therefore shoot? ... Who had the authority to waive the right of the people to life and to mow down those numbers of people that were slaughtered on that day there," asked Lekota.
The Inkatha Freedom Party's Velaphi Ndlovu questioned the presence of the police in Marikana, saying they had been used by management.
"Why did the police go there, who called them? Workers were not on the mine property and didn't pose any threat to the management."
Civilian leadership
The appointment of a civilian to top police leadership also came into question.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, who visited Marikana with other leaders of the opposition parties on Monday, said incidents like Marikana were here to stay, "unless we do away with the deployment of people with no professional police background to senior SAPS levels to command juniors with military training".
"Perhaps, it is time for this House to review the mechanism of civilian oversight in the SAPS. Should we not confine civilian oversight to the office of the Minister and let experienced police personnel run SAPS?"
Holomisa also questioned the tactics the police used to disarm and disperse striking mineworkers.
He then suggested that Parliament should closely monitor these salary negotiations given the questionable involvement of the police in this labour dispute. "We should not lose sight of the fact that both NUM and Amcu workers have one thing in common. They demand a salary adjustment."
Labels: BANTU HOLOMISA, LABOUR, MASSACRE, MINING, PLATINUM, POLICE BRUTALITY
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Murder trial for Mzuzu Cops set for August 7
July 22, 2012
The High Court in Mzuzu has set August 7th 2012 for hearing a of a case in which six Police Officers from Mzuzu Police Station are alleged to have murdered Edison Msiska in Police Custody early this year.
The court set the date in its order after the State applied to vary the suspects’ bail conditions since their bail was due to expire on July 20th.
In granting bail on April 18th, the Court warned the State that the bail will fall out at the expiry of 90 days if the suspects are not brought for trial within the stated period.
Msiska was brutalised to death by Police. Photo-Nyasa Times
The development means bail has been extended by another 30 days.
According to notice of hearing dated 11th July, 2012 under criminal case number 13 of 2012, the State versus Inspector Gertrude Mukhondya, Constable Bertha Mtandi Chavula, Constable George Kamphe, Constable Joel Kapunda, Constable Lucious Mpakeni and Constable Victor Nsoloma, proceedings will start at 9 am.
Msiska, a former Natural Resources College student, died on February 29 under mysterious circumstances.
But renowned Malawi Pathologist Doctor Charles Dzamalala, who was hired to do an autopsy, described Msiska’s death as the worst case of assault he had ever seen in his 13 year old career.
Labels: POLICE BRUTALITY
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Cops disperse instant justice mob using stones
By Fridah Nkonde
Thu 19 July 2012, 11:50 CAT
POLICE officers in Lusaka yesterday used stones to disperse an instant justice mob in Kanyama that wanted to mete out punishment on a murder suspect. Police in full riot gear surrounded Kanyama police station to prevent residents from stoning the police station and harming the detained murder suspect.
Police sources said the suspect, Namangolwa Ndeleli, in his early 20s, was found loitering on Tuesday night around 01:00 hours in a place where people were being murdered.
"What has been happening in Kanyama is very bad. The issue of people being murdered has been happening almost on a daily basis and the victims have been women and children. Some people have been attacking and killing women and children so when the situation worsened, police started the patrol programme.
And on Tuesday night, this boy who has been apprehended was found loitering around an area where people are usually killed and he was apprehended," police sources said.
The sources said the residents believed the suspect was among those behind the killings but that as far as police were concerned, Namangolwa was still innocent.
More drama unfolded when police officers decided to take Namangolwa to Lusaka Central police station.
When residents saw police officers dragging the murder suspect into a Toyota Corolla, they started throwing stones at the police and police officers retaliated by throwing back the stones at the residents.
The residents stoned everyone they saw standing at the police post.
Police in riot gear did not have any option but to continue throwing stones back and mock chargeat the mob.
The officers who had come to fetch the suspect later drove off under heavy police escort after about a 20 minute standoff.
Meanwhile, sources within the police say officers want to question an uncle of the late NIPA student Ruth Mbandu, who was brutally murdered in Lusaka.
Sources said one of the named uncles was the last person to have been with Ruth before she was killed and police wanted to question him.
Labels: POLICE, POLICE BRUTALITY
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Mike Bloomberg's New York: Cops in Your Hallways
POSTED: April 3, 11:30 AM ET
Operation Clean Halls
Courtesy of NYCLU
An amazing lawsuit was filed in New York last week. It seems Mike Bloomberg’s notorious "stop-and-frisk" policy – known colloquially in these parts by silently-cheering white voters as the "Let’s have cops feel up any nonwhite person caught walking in the wrong neighborhood” policy – isn’t even the most repressive search policy in the NYPD arsenal.
Bloomberg, that great crossover Republican, has long been celebrated by the Upper West Side bourgeoisie for his enlightened views on gay rights and the environment, but also targeted for criticism by civil rights activists because of stop-and-frisk, a program that led to a record 684,330 street searches just last year.
Now he’s under fire for a program he inherited, which goes by the darkly Bushian name of the "Clean Halls program." In effect since 1991, it allows police to execute so-called "vertical patrols" by going up into private buildings and conducting stop-and-frisk searches in hallways – with the landlord’s permission.
According to the NYCLU, which filed the suit, "virtually every private apartment building [in the Bronx] is enrolled in the program," and "in Manhattan alone, there are at least 3,895 Clean Halls Buildings." Referring to the NYPD’s own data, the complaint says police conducted 240,000 "vertical patrols" in the year 2003 alone.
If you live in a Clean Halls building, you can’t even go out to take out the trash without carrying an ID – and even that might not be enough. If you go out for any reason, there may be police in the hallways, demanding that you explain yourself, and insisting, in brazenly illegal and unconstitutional fashion, on searches of your person.
The easiest way to convey the full insanity of this program is to simply read stories from the complaint. The first account comes from Janean Ligon, a 40 year-old black woman from East 163 St. in the Bronx. She lives with her three sons, J.G., J.A.G., and Jerome, all of whom have been repeatedly stopped and harassed.
According to the suit, Mrs. Ligon in August of last year sent her son J.G. to go to the store to get ketchup. He went to the store, got the ketchup, and started home. Just outside the door to his apartment, he was stopped by four policemen, two in uniform and two in plain clothes. They ask him why he’s going into the building. He explains, produces identification, and even shows the police the ketchup in his bag. But that’s not enough. After that:
… One officer asked J.G. to identify the apartment in which he lived. J.G. responded, telling the officer his family's apartment number. The officers then rang the bell to Ms. Ligon's apartment. Over the intercom, Ms. Ligon heard a man say that he was a police officer, and he needed her to come down to identify her son.
Terrified that J.G. was injured or dead, Ms. Ligon ran out of the apartment to find out what had happened to J.G. As she approached the lobby she saw J.G. standing just outside the vestibule near the mailboxes, surrounded by four officers. She collapsed and began weeping. One officer began laughing, asked Ms. Ligon if J.G. was her son, and handed her the ketchup.
In another incident, police stopped three friends of a Bronx resident named Alex Lebron as they were leaving his apartment. Lebron’s mother saw the teenagers being interviewed in the stairwell, approached the police and told them she knew them and everything was okay. She then went to her apartment and told her son that the cops were talking to his friends. Lebron, according to the suit, then races downstairs "to prevent their arrest." Here’s the rest of the story, according to the complaint:
Mr. Lebron encountered his handcuffed friends and the two police officers in the lobby of his building. He told the officers that he lived in the building and that the teens had been visiting him. The officers responded that it was "too late" and placed the three young men in a police van…. The arresting officers took W.B., J.G., and their friend to the 44th Precinct, where they were locked in a cell. After approximately two hours, they were given summonses for trespassing and released. The trespassing charges against W.B., J.G., and their friend were later dismissed.
This is Michael Bloomberg’s New York – where, in a stirring homage to the underappreciated Wayans Brothers classic Don’t Be a Menace to South Central (While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), you really can be arrested for "being black on a Friday night." (Okay, the Lebron incident was actually a Wednesday night – June 15 of last year).
Stories like this "Clean Halls" program are beginning to make me see that journalists like myself have undersold the white-collar corruption story in recent years by ignoring its flip side. We have two definitely connected phenomena, often treated as separate and unconnected: a growing lawlessness in the financial sector, and an expanding, repressive, increasingly lunatic police apparatus trained at the poor, and especially the nonwhite poor.
In recent years, as Wall Street firms turned into veritable felony factories, we had pundits and politicians who cranked out reams of excuses for one white-collar criminal after another and argued, in complete seriousness, that sending a rich banker to jail "wouldn’t solve anything" and in fact we should "tolerate the excesses" of the productive rich, who "channel opportunity" to the rest of us.
On the other hand, we’ve had politicians and pundits in budget fights and other controversies railing against the parasitic poor, who are not only not "productive" enough to warrant a break, but assumed to be actively unproductive (they consume our tax money and public services) and therefore sort of guilty in advance.
When I read this "Clean Halls" story I immediately thought of the various robosigning scandals. If even one law enforcement official had been able to take just one stroll through, say, the credit card collections office of a Chase or a Bank of America at any time in the last decade, he would have seen rows of cubicles full of entry-level employees whose entire job was to sit around all day long, right out in the open, forging court documents. Whole departments attended to this job for years and years and somehow nobody with a badge ever got a whiff of it.
But in New York, we have cops cruising through private buildings, checking bags full of ketchup 200,000 times a year. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Labels: POLICE BRUTALITY
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Zimbabwe student shot, killed by US cops
Grief ... Teenager's dad Mabasa Nhekairo speaking to US TV station over shooting
28/03/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
A NAKED man fatally shot by police in the US state of Georgia on Tuesday night has been named as 18-year-old Zimbabwean, Tendai Nelson Nhekairo.
Cobb County police say they responded to reports of a man shooting a gun at an apartment complex off Shadowood Parkway around 7.40PM. Officers turned up to be confronted by a naked man armed with two knives, a spokesman said.
Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police Department told local television:
“He made an aggressive movement towards those officers and unfortunately those officers had to use what means was necessary to stop that aggressive act.”
Nhekairo was a student at nearby Campbell High School, reported Channel 2 Action News.
The teenager’s mother, Blessed, and father, Mabasa Nhekairo, said they had never seen their son behave violently and knew of no mental health problems he may have had. They admitted they were having a hard time believing what police are saying.
"I don't know what happened on Tuesday night, but what I do know is that my son did not have any violent tendencies," the senior Nhekairo said.
He said Tendai was a keen American football player and looked forward to graduating from High School. Channel 2 Action News, meanwhile, reported the teenager had been arrested recently for possession of marijuana off campus.
The officer involved in the shooting, whose name has not been released, has been placed on routine administrative leave, Sgt. Pierce said.
Labels: POLICE BRUTALITY, STUDENTS, USA
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COMMENT - Police behaviour and prison conditions need to change.
Suspect dies at PHI amid torture reports
By Joseph Mwenda
Tue 27 Mar. 2012, 12:59 CAT
A 20-year-old suspect has died in police cells at Lusaka's Bennie Mwiinga police station following alleged torture. But Lusaka Province police commissioner Charity Katanga says it was not right to claim that police were responsible for the death of Boniface Mukupa.
And Munali member of parliament Professor Nkandu Luo thanked family members and Presidential Housing Initiative (PHI) residents for remaining calm on Sunday when the incident happened.
According to a police docket recorded at Bennie Mwiinga police station on Sunday, Peter Chilwana of house number 23683 PHI reported a case of burglary and theft involving a laptop valued at K4 million and other items worth about K1 million.
The records indicate that Mukupa was reported to police as a suspect in the company of another man identified as Kelvin at around 06:00 and was formally arrested at 11:00 hours.
"He complained of not feeling well and later started producing white staff from the mouth and was pronounced dead on arrival at the University Teaching Hospital," read the document.
Sources said the suspect was interrogated and beaten after he was reported to police.
"It's like he was beaten before he was arrested and the police also beat him because he was denying the allegations. So he died in police cells. Family members even brought food for the suspect at lunch only to be told that he had died," sources said.
When contacted for a comment, Katanga, who was at the scene, said only a post-mortem would determine the real cause of death.
"It seems the suspect was beaten before he was brought to police but because he died here at the police station, members of the family got aggrieved and demanded that a funeral be held here at the police but we have advised them to wait until a post-mortem is conducted. The problem is that there was no medical examination done on him to see how fit he was before his arrest," said Katanga.
And speaking shortly after she was briefed about the incident, Prof Luo, who is also local government minister, said it was wrong for citizens to take the law into their own hands.
"As area MP, I have offered to contribute to the funeral requirements so that we can give the boy a descent burial. We have spoken to the family members to remain calm until a post-mortem is done," said Luo.
Helpless PHI residents watched as Bennie Mwiinga police station received re-enforcement from other commands to beef up security in the area on Sunday evening.
Labels: NKANDU LUO, POLICE BRUTALITY, TORTURE
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Smoking cannabis a religious right, man tells court
14/03/2012 00:00:00
by Phyllis Mbanje
A RASTAFARIAN held on drug possession charges has told a court that smoking cannabis is part of his religion. Amos Mupfudza, through his lawyer, asked Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini on Wednesday to refer his case to the Supreme Court.
Mupfudza, 39, was arrested by detectives acting on a tip-off in Greendale, Harare, on January 22. He had cannabis stashed in seven small plastic packets which investigators believe he intended to sell on the streets.
His lawyer, Tawanda Zhuwarara, of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told a Harare magistrate Mupfudza had been tortured while in police custody.
"My client will not receive a fair trial in this court and we ask that the case be referred to the Supreme Court because his arrest and subsequent torture in police custody were a violation of his constitutional rights,” Zhuwarara argued.
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court made a landmark decision in 2009 when it halted the trial of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who had been charged with banditry, sabotage and terrorism after ruling that her illegal detention and torture by police was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Mupfudza, the lawyer added, would also ask the Supreme Court to recognise his use of cannabis as part of his Section 19 constitutional right to “freedom of thought and of religion... and freedom, whether alone or in community with others, and whether in public or in private, to manifest and propagate his religion or belief through worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
The magistrate will rule on the application for referral on Thursday.
Earlier this year, a dreadlocked four-year-old who had been barred from attending school was readmitted after his father appealed to the High Court.
Mbalenhle Dube was turned away from Masiyephambili Junior School in Bulawayo for breaking the school’s hair policy.
His father, Khumbulani Dube, argued that his family was Rastafarian, and dreadlocks were part of their religion.
High Court judge Martin Makonese granted the appeal, and the young boy returned to school.
Labels: CANNABIS, COURTS, POLICE BRUTALITY
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Probe Mongu riots cops' sexual abuses - report
By Mwala Kalaluka and Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 05 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT
THE Rodger Chongwe commission of inquiry on the Mongu killings says the Judicial Complaints Authority should investigate the magistrates who tried Mongu riot suspects in Mumbwa because of the inhuman treatment and injustice the accused suffered.
And the Chongwe commission says criminal investigations should be instituted against police officers alleged to have committed sexual offences against women and schoolgirls as a way of prosecuting them over last year's Mongu riots.
In its summary of conclusions and recommendations contained in its confidential report presented to President Michael Sata last week and accessed by The Post, the Chongwe commission of inquiry, however, says the Judicial Complaints Authority JCA just exists on paper.
"The Judicial Complaints Authority should investigate the conduct ofthe magistrates who tried Mongu riot suspects in Mumbwa, especially in the case of a reformation order against a juvenile without a report from the Social Welfare Department or guardian of such juvenile present," the report reads.
Among the magistrates that presided over the Barotseland Agreement-related Mongu riot cases in Mumbwa are current Lusaka chief resident magistrate Joshua Banda, Lusaka magistrate Lameck Ng'ambi, now deceased Lusaka magistrate Lwiindi Hatwiko and Mumbwa-based magistrate Christopher Matipa.
The commission of inquiry told President Sata that while it was possible to recommend the charging of the judicial officers involved in the Mongu riot cases in Mumbwa through the JCA, it would be appropriate to recommend that Zambia undertakes major judicial reforms.
"It is hoped that the new administration will embark on this as a matter of extreme urgency," the report read in part.
The commission of inquiry observed that the Pixie Yangailo-led Human Rights Commission and the Chief Justice Ernest Sakala-led Judiciary did not discharge their duties in accordance with the law in the Mongu riots case.
"The Human Rights Commission, being a key organisation in promoting and protecting human rights, should be seen to be independent and uphold human rights," the report reads further.
The Commission recommended that in view of the foregoing, there was a strong case to support the demand for compensation for all victims on account of the loss of lives, property, livelihoods, injuries sustained, torture and wrongful arrests and detentions.
"All the victims of Police brutality and negligence should undergo thorough medical examination at first level or referral hospital at government expense to ascertain their medical status," the commission recommended.
"Government should offer an unconditional apology to the victims and/or families for the loss of lives and property as well as trauma they suffered as a result of failure of the leadership to protect life and property."
The commission of inquiry also recommended that the government facilitate the return to schools of, and offer full bursaries to, detainees who were school-going at the time of their arrest.
And in one of its conclusions, the commission of inquiry recommended that investigations be instituted against police officers alleged to have defiled, raped and impregnated women and schoolgirls with a view of prosecution.
"The police and other law enforcement agencies should work in full consultation with the Provincial Administration. It appears that the Provincial Administration played a significant role in this matter," the report reads.
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, MONGU, POLICE BRUTALITY
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A female cop squeezed my manhood, reveals ex-Barotse detainee
By Mwala Kalaluka in Mongu
Sun 30 Oct. 2011, 13:50 CAT
A female police officer squeezed my manhood, former Barotse detainee tells inquiry commissioners. And the Roman Catholic Church in Mongu says former president Rupiah Banda and his vice, George Kunda, interfered in the judicial process and declared Barotse detainees guilty before the court process was exhausted.
There were gasps of disbelief when a 30-year-old Barotse activist narrated how a named Mongu female police officer squeezed his manhood before arresting him over January's Mongu riots.
Submitting before the commission During the second day of sittings by the Rodger Chongwe-chaired Commission of Inquiry into the Mongu riots at the Provincial Minister's Conference Hall in Mongu yesterday, former Barotse detainee, Eugene Kapatiso, a 28-year-old traditional doctor of Mongu's Imwiko North Park, named the police that brutally went to arrest him on January 14.
Kapatiso said the four police officers were all local people.
Kapatiso mentioned the first police officer who went to his house to pick him up as Akushanga who had since been transferred from the province because it was feared he would be in serious problems.
"The other one was Audrey. This one also brutalised me and she got hold of my manhood and started beating it. I was undressed," said Kapatiso as some people murmured. "She was squeezing and pulling my manhood and beating it, saying this was what was making me to be foolish."
Asked by Commissioner In'utu Suba if he could identify the policewoman who ‘played' with his manhood, Kapatiso said he could and that he had seen her that morning.
He said the other police officer who took part in brutalising him despite not having anything to do with the said riots was a man identified as Nyirenda.
Kapatiso said he lost US$2,000 and K3.5 million in the process of being brutalised at his house and that during his detention in Mumbwa Prison, he sustained a handicap as a result of the bad conditions he was exposed to.
Kapatiso, who was discharged on medical grounds, told the commission that prison authorities prematurely removed him from his admission ward in Mumbwa Hospital for fear that Post journalists would discover him there and requested the commission to help him retrieve the items that he uses in his traditional practice from the police, adding that if he had a gun on January 14, he would have retaliated against the police brutality.
And Fr Gregory Muliya said a miscalculated action by the armed paramilitary and police sparked the Mongu riots.
Fr Muliya, who is the Diocesan Priests' Council chairperson, said the immediate causes of the January 14, 2011 Mongu riots was the denial of a police permit to hold public meetings on the Barotseland Agreement issue.
"The unwarranted refusal by the police to grant permission to activists to hold meetings angered them to unbearable levels," Fr Muliya said.
"The presence of armed security officers was irritating and made the environment volatile… The paramilitary are known to be heavy-handed and uncompromising. Their presence was seen as a preparation for violent policing and not crowd control policing."
He said the root cause of the Mongu fracas was the abrogation of the Barotseland Agreement, which was a critical need that some people in the area were ready to fight for.
"The authorities that denied the activist groups permission to meet and stopped them from exercising their right to express their views caused the riots. The police were responsible for the riot; they handled the situation in a very provocative manner," said Fr Muliya as the crowd applauded.
"It was surprising that armed paramilitary police were deployed in Mongu before the riots. Some people were arrested on the 13th January 2011, the day before the riots."
Fr Muliya said all detainees were entitled to damages and should be considered as prisoners of conscience.
"It appears there was interference in the due process by the executive. When Hon Mkhondo Lungu, the then Minister of Home of Affairs addressed detainees in Mongu Prison, he stated that the case will go very far, some detainees would be released and others would not be released. These words could be interpreted as interference in the due process," Fr Muliya said.
"On several occasions the then president of Zambia, Mr. Rupiah Banda commented on the matter. His comments appeared to declare the detainees guilty before the logical conclusion of the due process of the law."
He said on several occasions the then vice-president George Kunda, clearly stated that the detainees were guilty of riotous behaviour and associated offences and that the police acted professionally.
"However, we note with appreciation the initiative taken by the new government through the commission, which might result in improved relation between the government and BRE Barotse Royal Establishment," said Fr Muliya. "It was the desire of Mongu Diocese to be part and parcel of the solution to problems that arose because of the refusal by the National Constitutional Conference to include the Barotseland Agreement of 1964."
Labels: BAROTSE FREEDOM MOVEMENT, POLICE BRUTALITY, RUPIAH BANDA
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Former Lusaka police chief welcomes reforms
TIME PUBLISHED - Monday, October 17, 2011, 9:52 am
FORMER Lusaka Division police commanding officer, Chendela Musonda has welcomed President Michael Sata’s announcement to implement police reforms in the country.
In an interview with the Times yesterday, Mr Musonda said the reforms would help the police to expand and at the same time improve its operations, which in turn would benefit the general public.
He said he was hopeful that President Sata would deliver on his promise to reform the Zambia Police Service, adding that reforms had been long overdue.
Mr Musonda said the delay in implementing the reforms had contributed to failure by the police service to be transformed.
lack of transport at police stations was another issue that hampered the efforts of the police to effectively fight crime in the communities.It was frustrating for police officers to fail to rush to a crime scene or even be able to respond to emergency calls from the public because the service had no vehicles for its officers to use.
President Sata said, when he announced the police reforms, that big police divisions would be headed by police commissioners, which would add to efficiency of the police instead of deputy police commissioners as was currently the case.
Mr Musonda, who is currently working as a senior legal consultant for the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) in Lusaka, also called for motivation of police officers to be made a top priority in order to avoid making them vulnerable to corruption and enhance the fight against rising crime.
“There is need to motivate the police officers such as giving them better perks, accommodation and other tools to prevent them from falling prey to the vice of corruption,” he said.
He said crime, which was relatively high especially in Lusaka Province, needed the combined efforts of the police and the general public to be able to wipe it out.
Mr Musonda said lack of transport at police stations was another issue that hampered the efforts of the police to effectively fight crime in the communities.
He said it was frustrating for police officers to fail to rush to a crime scene or even be able to respond to emergency calls from the public because the service had no vehicles for its officers to use.
Mr Musonda further called for intensive training programmes from the police top brass to the reserve police in order for them to update themselves on new policing methods and the law.
He said experience alone was not enough but constant upgrading would help the service improve its services.
Mr Musonda said that the nation would not develop if there was no investment in good security.
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, POLICE, POLICE BRUTALITY
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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
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L/stone police brutalise NGO boss
By Edwin Mbulo
Wed 13 July 2011, 12:00 CAT
A Livingstone man is nursing fractured legs sustained following alleged police brutality on suspicion that he had obtained K22 million by false pretences. Joseph Moyo, who is the director of the Lifestyle Health Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, said in an interview that some Livingstone police officers brutally beat him up after arresting him last month.
Moyo said police officers went to his house on Mosi-oa-Tunya Road on June 17 and requested that he accompanies them to the Central Police Station to answer a few questions.
“Two officers came to my home and I recognised officer Mazyopa. They requested that I accompany them to the station to answer some few questions, but since I had flu I requested that they postpone engagement to Monday but they insisted, so I complied and walked to the vehicle,” Moyo said.
He said upon arrival at the police station, the officers said they were going to detain him for obtaining money by false pretences.
“They said I had obtained K22 million from Mr Vagera by false pretences and I told them to call Mr Vagera as I agreed that we had dealings which were cancelled but they did not comply and detained me,” he said.
Moyo narrated that the following night, three officers in the company of Mazyopa took him to another room which was being used for feeding suspects.
“They made me sit on a table and started to beat me saying I had caused them sleepless nights as they were being told by senior officers they were not being effective. They dragged me up some stairs and when I fell, they started to beat me using a pipe until I lost consciousness,” Moyo narrated.
He said when he woke up, he found himself near the road outside the police station and failed to get up as he experienced pain in his legs.
“I started to drag myself towards the enquiries desk but when I got by the stairs, I could not proceed until some officer came to my aid and took me to the hospital,” he said.
Moyo said he was later told that his legs were fractured and after reporting to police and obtaining a medical report, nothing has been done to date.
“…The police say a police officer who I have not even seen is handling the case,” said Moyo.
Southern Province police commanding officer Lemmy Kajoba could not comment on the matter as his mobile phone went unanswered while police spokesperson Ndandula Siamana said she needed to get details from Kajoba.
Labels: LIVINGSTONE, NGOs, POLICE BRUTALITY, SOUTHERN PROVINCE
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(Democracy Now!)
Political Crisis in Greece Amidst Revolt Against Massive Budget Cuts and Tax HikesFrom DM: "Greece was rocked Wednesday by massive street protests and a strike of millions of workers against the government’s austerity plans. In response, embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced he will reshuffle his cabinet to try to achieve consensus on how to address the country’s crippling debt crisis. The new austerity package for Greece includes $9.4 billion in tax hikes, doubling past measures agreed to with bailout lenders that have pushed unemployment to a record 16.2 percent and extended a deep recession into its third year. We speak with Hara Kouki, a doctoral student based in Athens who has been writing about the protests, and with Costas Panayotakis, associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology at CUNY. [includes rush transcript]
Labels: IMF, NEOLIBERALISM, POLICE BRUTALITY, SAP, World Bank
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