Police Brutality: The Forces Behind it.
I saw it. You saw it, and so we saw it. If you never heard or saw how police officers handled students of the university of Nairobi and voters in Catalonia in Spain then you will live to see another day...I'm not trying to say that it's worth a repeat though. World over, police brutality is known to exist and if the incidents in Kenya, Uganda, USA and Spain are anything to go by then the assertion is true.
Reasons For Excessive Force
We've seen live scenes and even heard stories but then the question begs as to what pushes these law enforcers to prey on their flock? We look at some possible hard-pressers.
1. Politics.
Ruling regimes are known to be wrongly using security enforcing agencies to achieve their political self gain, either to surpress opposition parties, political stakeholders and citizens who may be opposed to some of their undemocratic ideologies. A good example is in Uganda where the opposition party led by Hon. Kiza Besigye has had grenades dropped into its members' homes, this believed to be the government's intention to instill fear in them after the opposition resisted a bill tabled in parliament by a member of the ruling party, National Resistance Party, to remove the presidential age limit barring a person over 75yrs from contesting the presidential race.
2. Social Disjoint
The police are viewed as enemies of the public given how they handle some arrested suspects and using their status to blackmail the public. When dispersing crowds of peaceful demonstrators along streets using teargas canisters, they are seen as enemies by the demonstrators who react by hurling stones at them that could cause bodily harm and injuries. In return, police apply force which is normally lethal so as to restore sanity.
3. Academic Dwarfs Cliche
In many occassions those joining the police force have been deemed to be poor academic performers. Some student leaders while condemning the recent beating of the University of Nairobi students alluded to "some D- form 4 graduates" storming the institution's premises and clobbering students. It is such public perception that makes these officers bitter and hence tend to "revenge" by applying excessive force when called upon to sustain unrests.
4. Sub-culture
Once a soldier always a soldier or so they say and that exactly is what happens with the police fraternity. Having grown up seeing police officers mishandle peace disturbers, when i grow up and happen to join the force I am bound to nothing else but to maintain the culture. If i was a victim of police brutality as well then I can only live to one day revenge should I be recruited into being a police officer. That is the norm.
All in all police brutality is a barbaric act that should not be practised or encouraged because as you do it to someone, a colleague of yours is doing it to one of your family members. Is that what we call tit for tat, a fair game?
I saw it. You saw it, and so we saw it. If you never heard or saw how police officers handled students of the university of Nairobi and voters in Catalonia in Spain then you will live to see another day...I'm not trying to say that it's worth a repeat though. World over, police brutality is known to exist and if the incidents in Kenya, Uganda, USA and Spain are anything to go by then the assertion is true.
Reasons For Excessive Force
We've seen live scenes and even heard stories but then the question begs as to what pushes these law enforcers to prey on their flock? We look at some possible hard-pressers.
1. Politics.
Ruling regimes are known to be wrongly using security enforcing agencies to achieve their political self gain, either to surpress opposition parties, political stakeholders and citizens who may be opposed to some of their undemocratic ideologies. A good example is in Uganda where the opposition party led by Hon. Kiza Besigye has had grenades dropped into its members' homes, this believed to be the government's intention to instill fear in them after the opposition resisted a bill tabled in parliament by a member of the ruling party, National Resistance Party, to remove the presidential age limit barring a person over 75yrs from contesting the presidential race.
2. Social Disjoint
The police are viewed as enemies of the public given how they handle some arrested suspects and using their status to blackmail the public. When dispersing crowds of peaceful demonstrators along streets using teargas canisters, they are seen as enemies by the demonstrators who react by hurling stones at them that could cause bodily harm and injuries. In return, police apply force which is normally lethal so as to restore sanity.
3. Academic Dwarfs Cliche
In many occassions those joining the police force have been deemed to be poor academic performers. Some student leaders while condemning the recent beating of the University of Nairobi students alluded to "some D- form 4 graduates" storming the institution's premises and clobbering students. It is such public perception that makes these officers bitter and hence tend to "revenge" by applying excessive force when called upon to sustain unrests.
4. Sub-culture
Once a soldier always a soldier or so they say and that exactly is what happens with the police fraternity. Having grown up seeing police officers mishandle peace disturbers, when i grow up and happen to join the force I am bound to nothing else but to maintain the culture. If i was a victim of police brutality as well then I can only live to one day revenge should I be recruited into being a police officer. That is the norm.
All in all police brutality is a barbaric act that should not be practised or encouraged because as you do it to someone, a colleague of yours is doing it to one of your family members. Is that what we call tit for tat, a fair game?
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