We can’t afford cops who are thugs

It is a sad reflection on the state of our police system, and of the rampant corruption throughout our civil service, that the newest scam to emerge is one where people deliberately get themselves arrested, claim they were abused in police custody and then sue the state.

Accomplices in the state attorney’s office – as we report today – then basically plead “no contest” to those claims and pay them out.

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has already uncovered more than R24 million worth of dodgy awards made against the police for wrongful arrest, detention, assault and malicious prosecution in addition to the elaborate scams in which people are evidently trying to get themselves locked up so they can claim damages.

The unit has earmarked 300 questionable claims for further investigation. One has to grudgingly admire the cheek of the con artists to carry out these rip-offs right at the heart of the justice system.

But it is also worrying that those people in the heart of the system – who are supposed to be some of society’s proverbial guardians at the gates – are so bent themselves. This state of affairs has two serious repercussions.

Firstly, ordinary people lose what little faith they still had in the criminal justice system. If the rot is so deeply ingrained, people might think, what is the point of even reporting crime?

And they might be tempted to join the criminal hordes themselves. Secondly, and perhaps of even more concern, the prevalence of fraud in wrongful arrest cases could lessen the impact or importance of those cases in which the cops do genuinely abuse their power.

Ordinary citizens, perhaps even journalists, might be tempted to ignore complaints because of the surrounding air of dishonesty. That would be tragic because no democracy can afford police members who are thugs.

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