Majority of our police service not fit for purpose
A doctor was picked up by police in Bedfordview while returning from stabilising a relative who was very ill with Covid.
An EMPD officer uses his phone to capture footage while people carry goods as they loot from Cambridge Foods in Vosloorus in Ekurhuleni, 12 July 2021. Several shops are damaged and cars burnt in Johannesburg and surrounding areas following a night of violence. It is unclear if the looting is linked to sporadic protests following the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma. Picture: Citizen.co.za/Michel Bega
It is scarcely comprehensible that, while thousands of police officers stood by last week and watched passively as looting mobs went on the rampage in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, suburban cops could arrest a doctor and throw him in a cell for supposedly breaking the curfew restrictions.
Dr Ivan Jardine was picked up by police in Bedfordview while returning from stabilising a relative who was very ill with Covid … but none of his protestations including confirmation from the hospital where he worked would convince our brave upholders of law and order.
He spent the night in a small cell with three other people, members of a community policing forum who were legally on patrol but had left their permit in another car.
The reality is that a person responding to a medical or security emergency is exempt from the curfew provisions something the cops were either unaware of or chose to ignore in the case of Jardine.
The cops responsible for this illegal and brutal act must be disciplined but we do not think that is likely, given the majority of our police service is not remotely fit for purpose.
Policing needs an urgent overhaul where the emphasis should be on morality and service.
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