Police shoot to kill policy ‘wild west’ justice
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: A letter from the diaspora
By Pauline Henson
The ZRP said last week that they now have orders to ‘shoot and kill robbers and car jackers’; we were not told where the orders came from but we can assume they came from the man at the top of the police, Augustine Chihuri, a self-confessed Zanu PF supporter.
The promise – or was it a threat – was made at the memorial service for a policeman who had been shot by a car jacker. The Officer commanding CID, Assistant Commissioner Simon Nyati told criminals that they could expect “the full wrath of the law.”
No doubt, there will be some Zimbabweans who applaud Assistant Commissioner Nyati’s words, believing that they can now sleep safer in their beds knowing that the police are out there shooting robbers and car jackers. They will argue ‘if you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to fear’.
Others may think, as I do, that the Assistant Commissioner’s words have little to do with the rule of law but rather more with revenge in retaliation for yet another murdered policeman. That is understandable in human terms but vengeance is nothing to do with justice and it is a frightening sign of the way things are going in Zimbabwe.
By ‘shooting to kill’ the police are going far beyond their remit which is to protect the citizens and to ensure that law is upheld. Criminals do not cease to be citizens and like other citizens, if they commit a crime they should be arrested, charged and brought before the courts.
It is not the job of the police to determine guilt and inflict instant justice. That sort of ‘wild west’ justice has no place in a modern democratic state. It is the work of a court of law not the police to determine innocence or guilt according to the evidence.
No one can deny that the police have lost many brave officers killed in the course of their duties. There have been four such deaths in the last two years as Assistant Commissioner reminded the congregation at the memorial service, adding that it was only last year when Inspector Petros Mutedza was “killed by hooligans in Glen View”; those suspected ‘hooligans’ are still in prison having been refused bail.
This week, the police shot and killed a suspected ‘cop killer’ in Mount Darwin. The deceased, himself an ex-policeman, was armed and firing at the arresting team. Since they were themselves being fired at, the police were perfectly justified in firing back; police regulations clearly allow them to defend themselves.
But that is not the issue here. This is about the police determining guilt before a trial has taken place. Those 29 people arrested for Inspector Mutedza’s murder were arrested because, from the police viewpoint, they belonged to the ‘wrong’ party.
The fact that no shots were fired does not excuse the overtly partisan stance of the police It is the Police Commissioner himself who has turned this whole issue into a party political matter by openly declaring his support for Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.
The consequence is selective application of the law whereby every member of the MDC picked up by the police is deemed to be guilty because of his political allegiance. The spate of recent cases against human rights workers “has all the signs of being a politically motivated crackdown” as the Amnesty International Deputy Director commented recently.
When a politically partisan police chief states that his officers have orders to ‘shoot and kill’, it is not only criminals who should fear; innocent citizens, too, are in danger of the trigger-happy policeman who equates political allegiance with criminal intent.
With the police claiming the right to kill and the army terrorising villagers around the country, who will protect innocent citizens?
Yours in the (continuing) struggle, Pauline Henson.
