Thursday, February 21, 2013

No end in sight for police brutality in South Africa...

In July 2009 South Africa's then new police commissioner, Bheki Cele, told a newspaper he wanted the law to be changed to allow police to "shoot to kill" suspects without worrying about "what happens after that".

Two months later a young woman, Olga Kekana, was going out with three friends in a Pretoria township when she was shot through the head. The car she was travelling in was "mistaken" by police for one driven by car hijackers.

Survivors said the police had given no warning. Eight policemen opened fire. The car Kekana was in had 13 bullet holes. The police fled the scene and did not help the injured.

When news broke on Thursday morning that Hilton Botha, the lead detective in the prosecution of Oscar Pistorius, was facing attempted murder charges after firing at a minibus taxi carrying seven passengers in 2009, many began once again to wonder about the state of the South African police.

So soon after the horrific shooting of 34 striking mine workers at Lonmin's Marikana mine last August by police, the Botha charges draw attention to this question: is democratic South Africa's police service turning into a violent force akin to its apartheid predecessors? Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Mine "bloodbath" shocks post-apartheid S.Africa...
  2. At least 18 killed as S. African police open fire on thousands of striking miners
  3. Three Connecticut police officers caught on camera 'kicking and stomping on man...
  4. Texas cops shoot unarmed man 41 times before confiscating witness camera
  5. Michigan cops shoot homeless man 46 times (graphic)

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