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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


WATCH: Another JMPD officer gets into wrestling match with suspect

Defiance of those upholding the law, or at least attempting to, has cropped up increasingly in viral footage.


In the wake of several reports this year of Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officers being attacked by the public, and just hours after a funeral for a slain officer, another video has emerged of yet another physical encounter between an officer and a member of the public.

Activist Yusuf Abramjee uploaded the clip on Friday night. A man can be seen struggling with the officer next to a taxi on a busy road. He eventually gets wrestled to the ground as onlookers film the scene and exclaim in shock.

The scene presumably shows the taxi driver resisting the officer, with the passengers looking on, and most of them filming it, but this has not been confirmed.

The officer had a firearm, which remained in his holster during the brief period this footage captures.

Comments on social media have expressed frustration at a general sense of defiance of the law in South Africa.

On Sunday, a female metro police officer was assaulted by a mob at Pan Africa Shopping Centre in Wynberg. Footage showed the officer in the middle of a conflict that ended with one of the officers at the scene being assaulted.

JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minnaar, who confirmed knowledge of the footage, said the officer had a bruised face and body and was taken to Milpark Hospital for treatment, after the apparent attack, and was later discharged.

Minnaar said JMPD officers went back to the scene and arrested two male suspects.

“Officers were impounding illegal trading goods in the area. A bigger follow-up raid will be done on Tuesday to enforce city bylaws outside the mall.”

The officers came under attack from hawkers who did not want officers impounding their goods.

Last week, a 29-year-old metro traffic officer and mother of three was killed when she was driven into by a motorist while directing traffic.

Noluthando Mboneni had been deployed on point duty last Thursday morning on Marlboro Drive and the M1 off-ramp when the car fatally crashed into her.

She died at the scene and a 24-year-old female motorist was arrested and charged.

(Compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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