Lokkie was no threat to any trained, armed, policeman

As she sat on the small shabby sofa, she couldn’t talk about what happened.

So one of her male relatives told me what the cops had said to her about finding the body of her mentally-impaired son on the railway line nearby.

“Come and take your rubbish away!” were the exact words to the shocked mother. I was shocked, too.

But the people in the small, poverty stricken household in the Daxina section of Lenasia (then it was where the poorer people in the “Indian” suburb lived) were not shocked at all.

This is how they – poor and seemingly without any rights – were always treated by the police … even their “own”, cops who were Indians themselves.

I saw this on other occasions in the early 1990s in coloured and Indian suburbs around Gauteng.

The abuse came from all sides – from white cops (who were racists), African cops (who thought Coloureds and Indians were getting the better of the race-based deal and were aware times were changing) … and even from their own people (because their poverty or lack of education embarrassed them by reminding them where they came from).

It was with a sense of déjà vu, then, that I regarded the events last week, when cops allegedly shot and killed a 16-year-old coloured kid called Nathaniel Julies, in Eldorado Park.

I’ve seen some videos of “Lokkie”, as the people in the community called him. And what you see in those images is of a trusting, naïve boy who laughs quickly and easily at the smallest things, even though he can’t express himself in words you or I would understand.

Lokkie, for all his problems, looked to me like a child who personified the word joy … that basic emotion many of us have forgotten about because we so seldom experience it.

What Lokkie was not, and never would be, was a threat to any trained, and armed, policeman. That’s what the community said – and that’s why they were so angry they took to the streets to protest last week.

And why they, effectively, told Police Minister Bheki Cele to “voetsek!” when he tried to offer his clumsy, PR-inspired condolences.

Now, it is increasingly looking as though they are right.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), even as it started investigating the shooting, revealed that the crime scene had been tampered with.

This reinforced the community’s claim that Nathaniel’s body had been dumped in the back of a cop van (“like trash” was the way one person put it) and taken to Baragwanath Hospital where it was also left unattended.

Ipid has brought charges against two cops, who are scheduled to appear in court today.

At the time of writing, there was a charge against the suspects – of possessing “illegal ammunition” – which raise even more questions.

I can only take this to mean that they had some form of “hollow point” or “dum-dum” bullets on them. These bullets are deliberately meant to kill or maim, doing enormous soft tissue damage.

How on earth can you shoot a 16-year-old boy with a hollow-point round?

I am also sickened by the immediate attempt at damage control by the office of Gauteng Premier David Makhura, which claimed the shooting had occurred during “crossfire” between police and gangsters.

The bottom line: if you are not rich and do not come from the “right side of town” don’t expect anything approaching humane treatment from our police.

Brendan Seery

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