You get good cops and bad cops… and then you get brutal cops! Why? Bad training? Power mongers? Corruption ? Attitude? South Africa has been plastered on the front pages and top story slots of the international media over the latest brutality by police in Daveyton. It raises the question, how can cops not effectively place a suspect into the back of police van – that’s even supposing his crime warrants such drastic action!! Why do such cops resort to such barbaric and brutal treatment of another human being? Coupled with the recent cop shootings at Marikana one asks what the hell is going on?
In the apartheid years, those of us who were against the system, felt we were living in a police state. A state filled with fear. Fear for your own views, behaviours, associations, gender, orientation, political stance and so on…!
In the democratic years, those of us who raise our concerns and voices feel we are heading towards a police state. A state filled with fear. Fear for your own views, behaviours, associations, gender, orientation, political stance… and a fear of knowing that in some towns, parking in the wrong place can lead to your death at the hands of those we pay via our taxes and at the hands of those we expect to serve ethically and protect us!
Good cops. Bad cops. Brutal cops ….. try a Brutal fruit at least you might live!
SueCharltonDotCom 
Your article is pertinent and poignant. Those of us who were young adults during the Apartheid era well remember the fear provoked by John Vorster’s security police and the dread BOSS agency. I was “warned” because I had the temerity to suggest in a letter to the Director of Education for the then Transvaal that I be allowed to admit children of darker hue to my school. There were (so-called) Coloured children living across the road from my school who had to travel to Eldorado Park every day to attend a Coloured school.
When one considers the rape and murder victims of just February plus numerous incidents of violence and other criminal activity, it seems as if a wave of barbarity is sweeping over the land. One of the reasons, I believe, is that there are no absolute, established moral standards anymore. So often a person’s behavior is condoned/excused with a sentence beginning, “Well, you know, he was the victim of/ saw …. in his childhood.” Even Oscar Pistorius justified his killing on the basis of his fear of criminals.
I don’t believe any circumstance justifies dishonest/
criminal behaviour. My father grew up in abject poverty in England during the Great Depression and suffered intense deprivation. He was, however, the most upright of men. He always displayed a deep concern for the poor (especially the children of my school) but had no regard for the view that people commit crime because they are poor.
What are your views?