Police must be given the means to protect themselves and community

Now is perhaps not the best time to discuss police public order policing, given that the cops were conspicuous by their absence, or their ability to do anything, in the recent chaos in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The insurrection did, however, underline the need to have well-trained and well-equipped police units who specialise in crowd control and in containing this type of anarchy.

Yet, from a cop’s point of view, they (in public order policing) are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

While people have the constitutional right to protest, few of them know about, or appreciate, the constitution’s injunction that these protests must be peaceful and that people should not be armed.

Police are often greatly outnumbered and rely on weapons such as rubber bullets to disperse crowds and deter looters, thereby executing the police’s constitutional mandate to protect lives and property.

Now, they see many critics shouting loudly that these weapons should be outlawed. This, the cops argue, would leave them as sitting ducks for bloodthirsty mobs.

Interestingly, just five people have died because of rubber bullets in more than 7 000 protests over the past 8 years.

The police must be given the means to protect themselves and us.