The police brutality: When the protection weapon turned into a deadly weapon!

” I always knew the laws governing this country were most flatted with by those that are in charge to keep them ” – I once said this to a friend

I am writing on an experience of a poor woman who was assaulted mercilessly while having in hand a less than 3 months baby for no tangible reason and even if there is, I do not think it is a right thing to beat a woman of such age.
We leave in a country where security personnels who are suppose to maintain the safety of the citizens are rather inflicting pain on them.

I was shuttered and appalled by the viral video of a Police Officer subjecting a woman and her baby to senseless callous abuse in a banking hall. The horrifying video typifies an untrained, uneducated and unconscionable hoodlum who has no business being a police officer even for a minute second.

My stomach is burning and my heart is beating uncontrollably upon seeing this shocking video and I want to make a few preliminary comments about this by urging every police officer to condemn this in no uncertain terms whilst we wait for the administration to begin the necessary administrative processes to throw this guy out of the service for what he is worth.

He is unfit, ill tempered, ill mannered, indisciplined, and a rascal who doesn’t deserve to put on the police uniform. Not long ago, a reporter from the multimedia group of companies was brutally assaulted by a group of police officers in his line of duty. He not being the only one, there have been many of such cases, some known n others unknown. Coming back to the current incident at hand .

On the 19th of July, 2018, a woman who struggles to earn by selling toffees in the sun just to earn a little for her up keep, ended up being assaulted just because she went to the bank in aim of redrawing whatever she has saved for survival. I have never heard of a banking network going off for over a week. A poor mother with a sick child ,who’s daughter was raped and impregnated as a result, saw the need to care for the little baby who has been delivered having no hope, she decided to sell toffees just so they can feed on .

Through it all she saw the necessity to save even though she doesn’t earn much and see how she was treated as a result of trying to withdraw money so she can pay for her debt and feed her family. This is how people take advantage of the weak , poor and ignorant. And I know this issue wouldn’t have be heard or seen if someone had not taken the trouble to video it. Listening to the lady I got to know he entered the managers to seek better clarification but was listened to, the beating started ” if I may ask, what went on between the manager or whoever he went inside to see and the officer for him to come out with such anger asking the lady if she wants him to lose his job ?” And again does a company have the right to order a police officer to maltreat customers.?

I do not think the police are being trained to disrespect and mistreat the weak so “how did this happen “? Or was it done because she was poor? He is unfit, ill tempered, ill mannered, indisciplined, and a rascal who doesn’t deserve to put on the police uniform.

His behavior is hugely distressing, annoying, and coming on the heals of the Asawasi incident, this is bound to aggravate the anger of the people expressed on various platforms including social media against the service.

I had expected him to calm the lady when she needed an explaining on betterment and not to beat her up.
The most annoying thing is, that company has a manager who was from the lady’s speech present when this incident was happening . Would the manager have neglected her if she were a high profiled person? I know strongly that She would have been nice, so she will earn much into her company .

From time to time officers of security agencies have been involved in one act or the other that infringes on the human rights of the citizenry. These infringements are usually in the form of physical assaults on citizens for allegedly committing one crime or the other.

The perpetrators of such human rights abuses are often personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service. The reports often show personnel of these two security agencies assaulting citizens brazenly and without recourse to the rights of their victims.

These are institutions that are supposed to protect the lives and property of citizens whose taxes pay for the sustenance of these institutions. Again, these are institutions whose personnel are supposed to be conversant with the rights of the citizens as well as cognizant of the implications of infringing on those rights.

With the current situation of human rights abuses which personnel of the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Armed Forces perpetuate, one can only ask if these personnel of these two security agencies ever receive any form of training in human rights or whether they have an understanding of what human rights really means in accordance to local and international standards.

Indubitably, the beating of a woman in a banking hall, the attack on journalists in the course of their duties at national events and demonstrations, the brutalising of citizens who are in possession of military uniforms and a host of other acts of human rights abuses is a reflection that either these security agencies give little or no training in human rights to their personnel.

No true Ghanaian is ever happy about the failures of these two security agencies. In fact, every citizen takes pride in the successes of these two security agencies. At the international level, these two security agencies have made a name for themselves and this is a feat that every citizen takes pride in.

For instance, the Ghana Police Service was rated as among the best 10 on the continent of Africa, while the Ghana Armed Forces has an enviable reputation at the United Nations Peacekeeping Missions.
So how is it that at the international level there’s so much praise for these security agencies and yet in their home country the personnel are always in the news for abusing the human rights of their fellow citizens?

It’s acknowledged that the work of the personnel of these two security agencies can be quite difficult; however, there’s the need for some level of adroitness. This is because the recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peaceful co-existence.

Many of these men in uniform simply have neither the concept of Human Rights, Civility nor Justice in them.They don’t even understand they are paid by the very taxpayers and civilians they abuse and brutalize. In fact, some of them can’t even construct a single grammatically appropriate statement in our officially sanctioned language of communication, yet they are stationed in public institutions where they are required to properly relate with workers and clients to deliver security.

When you see one incident of abuse on camera, you should expect a thousand behind a camera. These abuses have always happened at the blindside of authorities. Even more obscene ones have always been perpetrated by these officers and when they are reported without video evidence such as the one we are lamenting about, they are always tagged as falsehood.

I wait for days when managers of our public and private institutions will begin to value skills, knowledge, diligence and competence over ethnicity, social, religious and political affiliations in the recruitment of workers, especially into our security forces!

Believe it or not, I shed tears uncontrollably listening to her ordeal at the hands of someone who has been entrusted to protect lives and property.

At the moment, we cannot resist but to squall in one voice and beseech the hierarchy of the Ghana Police Service that enough is enough, so they must weed out the uncouth and the Neanderthals in their midst without delay.

Believe it or not, I shed tears uncontrollably listening to her ordeal at the hands of someone who has been entrusted to protect lives and property.

At the moment, we cannot resist but to squall in one voice and beseech the hierarchy of the Ghana Police Service that enough is enough, so they must weed out the uncouth and the Neanderthals in their midst without delay.