COPE CALLS FOR URGENT SUMMIT ON POLICE KILLING

Congress of the People is very disturbed about the continued killing of police officers, on the one hand, and the shooting of people, deliberately or mistakenly, by police on the other. Either way, what is going on is highly problematic and unacceptable. COPE believes that the government must do something very urgently before the crisis becomes a catastrophe.

COPE condemns the frequency with which criminals are attacking police with firearms. We equally condemn the barbaric behaviour of some police officials who act as though South Africa is the new Wild West.

COPE believes that there is clear plan by criminals to launch an onslaught against police to intimidate them. Sixty police officers lost their lives this year in the line of duty. This is a horrendous statistic. No professional police officer must become a statistic. We should give serious attention, within the police service and outside of it, to alter the environment in which they work. Every death of a police officer must serve as a severe shock to us. We must never accept the death of any police officer in the line of duty as business as usual. When we do so, we do so at our own peril.

Police are under attack. Societal security is under threat.

It is the duty of South African citizens to raise their voices in defence of the police against attacks from brazen and dangerous criminals. We cannot look on, indifferently. We certainly cannot tolerate criminality of the type that is now taking root. South Africa must declare war against armed criminals who have no hesitation to shoot at police. This war against armed criminals must begin at once. Operation Fiela does not seem to have quelled the criminals.

COPE believes that the Human Rights Commission has a crucial role to play in assisting the police in understanding the human rights culture entrenched in the constitution. COPE therefore calls upon the HRC and SAPS to convene an urgent  summit where all stakeholders can participate in working out a new strategy on how to assist the police in dealing with this difficult balance of maintaining human rights on the one hand and fighting crime constitutionally on the other. Such a summit can only benefit the police and the country as a whole.

Issued by Dennis Bloem, COPE Spokesperson, 6 November 2015