A man found dead in a police cell from head injuries and internal bleeding, two hours after being dragged 500 metres behind a police van;
A Rhodes student whose pelvis was shattered after being body-slammed onto the pavement by a policeman during last year’s Inter-varsity weekend;
A man found dead in a police cell from head injuries and internal bleeding, two hours after being dragged 500 metres behind a police van;
A Rhodes student whose pelvis was shattered after being body-slammed onto the pavement by a policeman during last year’s Inter-varsity weekend;
Another Rhodes student who needed reconstructive surgery on his face after being beaten by police at last year’s Fish River Canoe Marathon;
Two female Rhodes students arrested without probable cause and physically abused by police officers before being released at the same event;
Unarmed peaceful protester Andries Tatane killed by 12 policemen who beat him with batons, kicked him and shot rubber bullets into his chest at close range;
And the mass murder at Marikana claiming the lives of 34 striking miners.
There is no doubt that police brutality has gone too far and I’m shocked at the lack of sustained public reaction at these atrocities.
Are citizens simply not angry enough? Bystanders take videos on their cell phones; we protest briefly as we demand punishment for the perpetrators; public figures give a big speech and express condolences to victims, who may or may not be compensated, and then life goes on.
Those who don’t protest are quick to turn away from their TV screens, to change channels, flip to another page in the paper, click out of the news site, forget!
We seem to have become so desensitised by these repetitive violent images and news stories that looking away just seems simpler. ‘We have problems of our own you know’.
Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graça Machel, spoke at the memorial service of the Mozambican taxi driver who was dragged behind a police van and later died in custody.
She captures the severity of the violence inflicted upon citizens in this country in her thoughts on the direction we are heading in. “The increasing institutionalisation of violence [is creating a police force]actively aggressive towards a defenceless public,” Machel said.
Defenceless, yes. But a certain level of anger and aggression is present; and it’s rising. Not only because of police brutality, but also because of general poor, low-standard service delivery.
Indeed, as a nation we’re not new to protest. We take to the streets when we are unhappy about something; belting out our concerns. Lately though, these seem to either fall on deaf ears or elicit more police violence.
So is mere public protest enough? Striking seems almost second nature now, but should something more revolutionary be happening – especially with the recent passing of the Protection of Information Bill? If this is a quasi-democratic government that functions by instilling fear in its people, shouldn’t we be treating it as such?
How much more police brutality must there be before we as a nation take a stand and say enough is enough? How frequently must organs of the state fly in the face of our constitution before we get angry?
At the very least we should stop being afraid of criticising the government lest we seem ‘reactionary’, ‘counter revolutionary’, ‘unpatriotic’.
We are a nation with an already gruesome and violent past, which is glossed over by an ever-thinning veneer of ‘rainbow nation’ colours. Only now the rainbow is being washed over by blood.
