Police must act with civility
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, might have set the hearts of many Ghanaians at ease when he condemned in no uncertain terms the impunity by some party activists and functionaries, who take it upon themselves to seize public property which they perceive to be in the hands of wrong persons, those they perceive to belong to opposition parties.
It means that our security institutions, in this case, the Police Service and its officers and men, do not have any excuse in looking on passively as hoodlums in the name of political loyalty commit atrocities against citizens in the name of partisan politics. More important, it must mark a beginning for politicians to realise the necessity not to use partisanship to defend and protect deviants and bestiality.
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But that must equally be a signal to security personnel that they are not above the law and must operate within the law. Indeed our security personnel had won international acclaim for their sense of professionalism in their peacekeeping duties, even under some of the most frustrating circumstances. They must apply the same sense of responsibility and respect for the rule of law in handling our citizens whenever they are called upon to deal with lawlessness and acts of vandalism.
The police cannot act in a manner that George Orwell would have described as double speak, they cannot appeal to our people to act legitimately and lawfully whilst they resort to lawlessness in dealing with the people. The police are justifiably looking for some suspects who subjected a suspected thief, a lady, to inhuman treatment. That is as it should be. However, the police cannot justify the conduct of those personnel who had to deal with the rioting students of the Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) or that policeman who is alleged to have knocked down a woman on the Accra-Kasoa road and descended heavily on a witness who attempted to take a photograph of the incident. Another example is the alleged conduct of the Kasoa police which resulted in the death of a journalist.
From all accounts, what happened at the KTI was lawlessness and nothing in the interest of maintaining law and order. While it is not proper for the students to have blocked a road, whether busy or idle, the response is not visiting total mayhem and anarchy on them. It is true that police officers and men are human beings with emotions and feelings. There is blood running through their veins. But they are supposed to have been trained and imbued with discipline. That is why they are allowed to carry weapons of destruction which are denied ordinary citizens. The meaning is that they would demonstrate absolute and exceptional self-control and tolerance and not abuse the privilege extended to them.
Anytime I see drivers of any of our security services abusing road traffic regulations, especially driving on the wrong side of the road, not because they are on any emergency assignment but as a means of dodging traffic, I cringe because it undermines their capacity to deal effectively with deviant drivers. There are policemen who ride motorbikes without helmets and move between vehicles making it look as if those who ride motorbikes that way are right. That is why some of them have the effrontery to insult and abuse vehicles which are so close that they cannot ride between them.
One thing that many Ghanaians will remember Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor for, when he was Minister for the Interior and Defence, was the readiness of the system to deal with security personnel who took the law into their own hands.
It is on that note that I want to appeal to the three key persons who I consider to have the responsibility to tame police officers and men who are now acting beyond the law to act to stem the tide before public anger mounts against the new government to do so unequivocally. Our policemen must act professionally. They can be firm without being ruthless.
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The three all-perfect gentlemen and embodiments of nobility and respect for the rule of law, justice and fairness are the Inspector General of Police, Mr David Asante-Appeatu, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, and the Minister of National Security, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah. They must act because as Dr Martin Luther King has noted, “an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Our policemen and women cannot be educating our people to be law-abiding while they resort to impunity in law enforcement. We stand to lose the trust of the public in helping the police to effectively and efficiently maintain law and order.