[imagesource:gencraftai]

We breathe a dubious sigh of relief as comrade Bheki Cele promises four new police stations in the Western Cape in the next two years. The hatted general did a site inspection at police stations under construction on Tuesday, saying he was “deeply encouraged” by the progress made by contractors.

Cele also said two new stations in Tafelsig and Makhaza would “bolster policing and increase the footprint of the police in communities grappling with violent crime and gangsterism in Cape Town”.

That’s good news to Cape Flats Safety Forum secretary Lynn Phillips, who emphasised that crime in the area had “reached a boiling point, with murders happening every day in some parts”, as per News24.

Whilst South Africa might be battling twin foes in a bumbling police force and useless leadership, police in the US seem to be having a spot of trouble with their own vermin.

A New Orleans police chief has reluctantly admitted that conditions at their headquarters are so deplorable that rats have begun munching on the marijuana in their evidence locker, and now the rodents are “all high.” 

“The rats are eating our marijuana, they’re all high.”

Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick described to New Orleans City Council members how rat infestations and decay at the offices that have housed New Orleans police since 1968, even have officers finding rat droppings on their desks.

If this was in South Africa, we’d be setting up commission after commission to eventually just ignore the problem, but the new police chief in New Orleans has now indicated that they plan to just pack up and move the department to a new space. The last copper to leave the building can just light a match.

The chief said her 910 officers come to work to find air-conditioning and elevators broken. She told council members the conditions are demoralising to staff and a turnoff to potential recruits coming for interviews.

“The uncleanliness is off the charts,” Kirkpatrick said, adding that it’s no fault of the department’s janitorial staff. “They deserve an award for trying to clean what is uncleanable.”

Ron Harrison from Orkin Pest Control says the New Orleans situation isn’t completely shocking since rats are omnivores, and that the rats may experience the same effects from the marijuana as humans, depending on what form it was in.

“From understanding the biology of the rat and how it’s somewhat similar to us, I would think based on the amount or concentration they take in, it would be somewhat similar to what humans experience,”

Our police force may have 99 problems, but at least stoned rats aren’t one of them.

[source:news24&abc]