Cops need to protect us

ALTHOUGH largely confirming what is common knowledge, the Victims of Crime Survey released by statistician-general Pali Lehohla made for fascinating and chilling reading.

Many of us live in prisons we call our homes due to the levels of personal security one has to attach to everyday life in South Africa. It would be nigh impossible to find anyone in this country who has not been a victim of crime one way or the other.

Given the unacceptably high levels of crime in our communities, it is baffling – on the face of it – that we find little comfort in the very people tasked with our safety and security, the police.

Lehohla told the nation that when a sample of about 30 000 of us were asked why they did not turn to law enforcers after falling victim to or witnessing crime, many answered that “the police cannot do anything about it” and “are useless”.

Lehohla said: “And that is, I think, a serious indictment that people have lost hope that the police can do something about things.” We couldn’t agree more.

The question, however, remains what then do those who feel under siege and helpless do in the face of a seemingly relentless barrage of often violent crime?

The answer is what we witnessed taking place in the southern Johannesburg working class suburb of Rosettenville at the weekend.

Fed-up with the brazen criminality they witness daily in their own backyard, community members went on the rampage, torching at least 16 houses believed to harbour drug dealers and prostitutes.

Community members told the media of efforts, a week earlier, of seeking police assistance to rid their neighbourhood of crime and its source.

It was a lost opportunity for state law enforcement to demonstrate that it cared and was willing to serve and protect as it’s expected of the police in a normal, functional society.

As if to lend credence to Lehohla’s report that was to be released a few a days later, nothing was done about residents’ concerns and the result was people taking the law into their own hands.

It is a slippery slope we can ill afford to tread if we hope to bring a semblance of order back to our communities by eradicating crime and taking back our streets and indeed our lives.

Of course, it’s not true that police are useless and do nothing about crime. A police spokesman pointed out that our prisons would not be as overcrowded as they are if that were the case. So, the perception that police are not in control is just that, perception.

But perception is the reality that people live in their immediate environs, and right now that informs them that they don’t have a protector and servant in the police.

And that is the kind of news that doesn’t help the fight against crime.