The Police - People We All Love To Hate
A Touch of Nokoko by Kofi Akumanyi
Jardin was cleared of attempted murder and wounding and Finch was found not guilty of wounding by a jury whose verdict was announced after just one hour, 45 minutes.
Observed one Labour MP: "What I'm very concerned about is to ensure we eradicate any resemblance of Starsky and Hutch mentality that might exist in the Police?' Another Labour MP; Alf Dubs, called the verdicts "absolutely astonishing'. He added: "when Police make armed arrests in the future they may be much more likely to shoot first and ask questions later"
The issue of Police brutality has agitated the minds of many people in this country for quite some time but even though in our part of the world the helpless and defenceless public often faces terrible aggravation from the police official reaction to reports of brutality borders on nonchalance.. I was therefore convinced that the Waldorf case which has raised a lot of heat in this country would have received a different reaction in Africa. The day Old Bailey announced its famous verdict I could not sleep. I picked up the phone and rang Superintendent of Police, Mr Ishmael Donkoh in Accra.
"I'm very disappointed at the attitude of the British Bobby. I mean a once proud and reputable law enforcement body with a widely reputed sense of fair play has no right to behave like a gang of gun-toting cowboys in this day and age," I said, brimming with anger over the wire.
"Did you wake me up in the night just to tell me how wicked the Police is?" He asked sounding equally angry.
"Of course, yes. You people are the same everywhere.....brutal, gun packing and gun-toting bastards who are ready to crack down on poor unarmed public at the slightest provocation"
"All right you pipe down and listen....and listen real good. Do you know that we all reap what we sow?"
"Oh come off it, Superintendent Donkoh, you know very well that this basic rule of nature does not and has never applied to the police in your part of the world," I said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Simply that everybody knows that you people have always been enjoying bounteous harvests on the farms of offending drivers…”
“For Christ's sake, I was speaking metaphorically," he cut in.
"Precisely, but the facts often cannot be hidden in metaphors. The harvest has gone on for far too long. There must be a way to stop the police from being sharecroppers on the farms of law breakers in the society." I said.
"As I was saying, we reap what we sow. The Police in every country is a reflection of the society itself. The police cannot be terribly different from the rest of the people."
"You are saying, then, that those who give the bribe are equally guilty."
"That is the general direction of my argument."
"Where does the issue of police violence fit in here?" I wanted to know.
"It doesn't except that in this kind of job in which violence from criminals is a regular stock in trade, an occasional assault and battery from our side of the fence shouldn't be over dramatised"
"Over-dramatised? People get knocked about and maimed, indeed, some even die in police custody. Look at what happened to Waldorf, and you are telling me that it isn't worth protesting about? Typical"
"Don't get excited over this. You know one very interesting thing about those who protest loudly about the police?", The Superintendent asked, "their attitude change when they have to rely on the same institution for a redress of a wrong"
"Anybody who does that is a down-right hypocrite; brutality is unacceptable, period."
"So be it. Incidentally, did your brother write to you about the burglary case we had been investigating?.... Well, the burglary suspect which you had me locked up has been released for lack of evidence," he announced calmly.
"What? You mean you have let that thief go scot-free when I know for sure that he broke into my house and stole my property? Why the hell didn't you make him talk.... WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THE GODS AT ONCE DIDN'T YOU FORCE HIM TO CONFESS? ..."
