The SAPS don’t have the best reputation around the country and this is in no small way thanks to the particularly high profile police brutality cases that have been so widely publicised. Sadly, this Facebook page for Mowbray police station does little to rectify the damage.

[T]he major function of the site seems to be to share police-related photographs and “memes”: images with text superimposed which spread rapidly online. There is a noticeable theme: the content which is shared on the Facebook page valorises a decidedly “hardline” approach to law enforcement.

The site’s profile picture is a mocked-up warning sign, with an image of a gun, which reads: “ATTENTION THIEVES. PLEASE CARRY ID SO WE CAN NOTIFY NEXT OF KIN”. The implication is that thieves caught should expect to die.

We agree with the Daily Maverick that memes like this would be taken in much better spirits if they didn’t hit quite so close to home. Shoot-to-kill first, ask questions later is a highly problematic approach to law enforcement. While it is unquestionable that the police have got an incredibly difficult and dangerous job, is it really warrented to perpetuate the cycle of violence and disregard for human life this way?

One thought sticks in the mind. If this is the kind of content deemed appropriate for public-facing communication from SAPS, one wonders what kind of stuff does the rounds behind closed doors.

Read more here.

[source: Daily Maverick]