[imagesource: Brandon Anderson released via Creative Commons]

Happy Friday, everyone.

We begin on a rather depressing note with the crime statistics for the first quarter of the 2021 financial year, as announced by Police Minister Bheki Cele last week.

The same stats showed that the Western Cape has three of the country’s top four hijacking hotspots, by the way.

There is a slight disclaimer to the huge rise in crime numbers you will see below, but we will get to that later.

For now, this simple graphic comes via EWN:

Image: SAPS / EWN

Red arrows everywhere is not a good sign.

Look at those rape and sexual assault numbers, and then remember that only a small percentage of these crimes are ever reported to law enforcement.

So, what’s this disclaimer then?

Wannabe gangster and twat in a hat Bheki Cele made a point of attributed the significant increase in crime to the impact of the adjusted lockdown levels and distorted crime trends.

Here’s The Daily Maverick:

Cele said that while the country had seen a “crime holiday” during the Covid-19 Level 5 lockdown last year, the “pleasant picture” of last year had been compared to a “normal period” of 2019, and hence the comparison had been skewed…

Viewed against the backdrop of the marked drop in crime during the first quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year, the latest crime statistics appear “exaggerated”.

That’s all well and good, but even when compared to the first quarter of 2019/2020, crime has still increased.

Even in isolation, those numbers are unacceptable and point to a police force that is understaffed, under-resourced, and unable to adequately protect the citizens of this country.

[sources:ewn&dailymav]