Attacks on police alarming

THE shocking scenes of members of a church in Hillbrow brazenly assaulting a Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officer confirms the risk of moral degeneration we are facing as a society.

This follows similar scenes in Vanderbijlpark a few months ago, where video footage showed an alleged gang of drug dealers assaulting members of the SAPS. One of the thugs is seen brandishing a gun in full view of the policemen.

Also, in Cape Town, a video circulated showing SAPS members on the Cape Flats being chased by angry members of the public. The policemen are seen scurrying to their van and speeding off.

Obviously these scenes are too few to suggest complete lawlessness. However, it should be a cause for concern in any society when a policeman, acting within the law as it is evident in the Hillbrow incident, is dared, pushed to the ground, trampled on and beaten to a pulp.

It is a serious cause for alarm. Such criminality has the potential to erode the trust we have in our lawenforcement structures. If not nipped in the bud, such outrageous tendencies may, to the delight of criminals, push us down a slippery slope to anarchy.

We should react with utter condemnation of such incidents and not only exchange footage as subjects of social media chats. I hope the perpetrators will be brought to book.

To our JMPD officers: rest assured the law-abiding residents of Joburg are behind your relentless efforts to rid our streets of rogue elements. Wendywood