PROCESS OF FINDINGS:
Sharpeville and Marikana, two names that will be indelibly written in infamy in the history books of our country. The one took place fifty-four years ago, the other only two years ago. Both exploded into the consciousness of South Africans and the rest of the world. Both names are saturated with blood and controversy. In both cases the police and the government denied responsibility, pleading self-defense, and in both incidents, eyewitness accounts contradicted this. In Sharpeville the press reports was severely censored by the then Apartheid government. In Marikana the free media almost universally laid the blame fairly and squarely at the feet of the SAPS.
At Sharpeville a government inquiry, that was rarely a charade, exonerated the police and there was never any real accountability. No minister resigned, no police chief was fired and no cop was jailed.
At Marikana, a non-governmental commission was established: The Farnham Commission . And now over a year later, it has still not reached its conclusion. Worse, the government has now imposed a deadline which means that no minister, no police chief and no policeman who was directly involved in the massacre will be likely to be called to give evidence.
However there has been one startling event: two weeks ago at the Farnham commission, a senior police officer Lieutenant Colonel Salmon Johannes Vermaak broke ranks with his fellow police officers and in deciding to tell the truth showed how they had all been lying . Colonel Vermaak was in a police helicopter a part of the operations “eye in the sky” observing the events that happened on that fateful day . His job was to record the whole event on film and help direct the police on the ground so that they ...
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...th AMCU and negotiate a pay deal that the miners would consider a living wage. And so the case behind Sharpeville was an outcry from the people, where they were directly challenging the atrocity that was the apartheid state. And Marikana marks the moment when the miners stood up and fought for their privileges. Both actions did not produce the immediate result that they wanted, as it took years for Sharpeville to finally be put to an end only because of the eventual defeat of the Apartheid regime. And it has taken 2 years for the government in South Africa to finally start unraveling the events that took place in August 2012, with the influence of the ongoing fighting of the miners. And with the state still issuing violence to crush those who wish for a dignified life, is a continuity of our past and a reoccurrence of the actions put forth at Sharpeville in 1960.
We will examine the case of NYPD Narcotics Detective Frank Serpico, who was regarded as a snitch and a rat by fellow officers who were on the take, and complete a what would you do dilemma. Serpico's original intent was not to be a "whistleblower" within the Department, but rather all he wanted to do initially was to be a Police Officer and not accept any bribes, payoffs, or favors as a result of his professional position within the community (Petit, 2011). As a consequence of his testimony before the Knapp Commission in 1971, Serpico was ostracized by his peers as a deviant for being conscientious; ergo, although it cannot be proven, it is believed that he was ultimately set up to be shot during a drug raid in which he was seriously wounded. To this day, Frank Serpico questions why fellow cops never called in a code 10-13 officer down after he took a bullet in the face on Feb. 3, 1971 (McShane, 2012).
Independent Online SA, (2012) “Lonmin massacre: a timeline”, 17 August [online] available at www.iol.co.za (Accessed: 25 April 2014).
On February 8th, 1968, shots were fired on a crowd of civil rights protesters and that day became known as one of the saddest days in South Carolina history. Many problems occurred in South Carolina, mostly between blacks and whites over issues about civil rights and segregation. These issues in South Carolina lasted many years and led to many events, protests, and even massacres that all resulted in sometimes very horrible outcomes but also bringing South Carolina one step further to getting rid of segregation. One horrible event that took place in the late 60’s was the Orangeburg Massacre that resulted in a few deaths and some injuries but also furthered integration in Orangeburg. In 1968, due to the conflict between civil rights protestors
It is both a result and a cause of police isolation from the larger society and of police solidarity. Its influence begins early in the new officer’s career when he is told by more experienced officers that the “training given in police academies is irrelevant to ‘real’ police work”. What is relevant, recruits are told, is the experience of senior officers who know the ropes or know how to get around things. Recruits are often told by officers with considerable experience to forget what they learned in the academy and in college and to start learning real police work as soon as they get to their Field Training Officers. Among the first lessons learned are that police officers share secrets among themselves and that those secrets especially when they deal with activities that are questionable in terms of ethics, legality, and departmental policy, are not to be told to others. They also are told that administrators and Internal Affairs officers cannot often be trusted. This emphasis on the police occupational subculture results in many officers regarding themselves as members of a “blue
Villa, Judi. "Incidents Put Police Brutality in Spotlight." Rocky Mountain News. N.p., 2 Feb. 2009. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
The men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 were just ordinary men, from a variety of backgrounds, education, and age. It would appear that they were not selected by any force other than random chance. Their backgrounds and upbringing, however, did little to prepare these men for the horrors they were to witness and participate in.
made, no accusations are known to have rightfully accused the perpetrators and given them a
big problem it is only proved the police wrong when it is clear they are trained to serve and
The movie, Training Day, demonstrates how some police officers take advantage of their positions which is realistic. Mikkelsen states that, ?The new movie Training Day is an excellent fictional demonstration of how the State, in this case the police, provide a ?legalized channel for crime? (Mikkelsen 1).? It is hard to define the line between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing to stop a crime. As Mikkelson explains, ?Many of the events are to be expected: violence against suspects, confiscation and use of drugs and especially money, violations of due process, graft (Mikkelsen 1).? At the end of the movie the main character is murdered and the police department makes up a story venerating his death in a positive manner. In all truth Harris was murdered by the Russians because he lost his temper and killed someone who was ?talking trash? about him. This is shown when Mikkelsen says, ?The state must defend cops, when possible, because publicity about ?bad cops? does not reflect well o...
Let’s take a look at Chicago; in December of 1969 police raided a home of two Black Panther members. During the raid there was a supposed extreme firefight between members of the Panthers and raiding police evidence however, shows that the Black Panthers only fired one shot in comparison to the hundred shots fired by police officers that killed two leaders of the Panthers and injured four. The officers told investigators that the panthers had shot several times through the door of the apartment, later it would be discovered that they had punched holes in the door with a hammer, to cover up what had really happened. Even given the obvious attempt to cover this up, no officer was charged. This kind of facade was not uncommon, in Chicago several other members were imprisoned, with no real evidence against them. In 1980, a New Orleans a white police officer was shot and killed by a black male. The response of the New Orleans police force was to start doing what they called booking, and bagging, this is where they would beat arrested black men with phonebooks and put plastic bags over their heads so they could not breathe. A story much closer to
On the night of March 5th, it is believed that a small group of boys began taunting a British soldier. Over the boys’ nonsense, the soldier battered one of his oppressors with his musket. Soon after the alleged incident a crowd of about fifty or sixty people surrounded the frightened solider. The enraged crowd of people sounded the soldier, encouraging him to call for backup. Soon after calling for help, seven soldiers along with Captain Preston...
A various points throughout the night we came across other officers who were dealing with accidents and various other tasks. Unless there was a rush to respond to a call, Officer Crutchman would slow his cruiser down and check to see if his fellow officers required assistance. Furthermore, after assisting multiple officers from his unit in a potential trespass violation at a local school, instead of driving going about their separate ways the officers began swapping arrest stories and offering their opinions on the progression of the resulting criminal cases. Afterwards, between some hilarious joke telling, the talk moved to personal and professional concerns and issues; one officer had a badly fitting bullet-proof vest that was on loan. Officer Crutchman offered to give his extra armor to his fellow officer since they were around the same
The focus is on the issues of police accountability in modern society, and in particular why their accountability is more important than other professions. This is not surprising considering the amount of power and discretion police officers have, and the level of trust that the public holds with these civil servants. Police officers accountability is the biggest thing in their profession which has been an issue of concern they have to be accountable to the police department who want the officer to be an effective and responsible person, to people in the community who have best expectation from an officer and being accountable to themselves for their acts. An ordinary citizen of a country cannot obtain the powers that police officer’s have.
For much of the 1950s, Mandela was one of the 156 accused in the Treason Trial. After the Sharpeville Massacre on 21 March 1960 and the ANC was banned, and Mandela, still on trial, was still being detained, along with hundreds of others. With the ANC now illegal, Nelson Mandela emerged as the leading figure in this new phase of struggle. Mandela's statement in court during the trial is a classic in the history of the battle with the apartheid, and has been an inspiration to all. "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." He was moved from prison to prison. Released on 11 February 1990, Mandela jumped wholeheartedly into his life's work, determined to obtain the goals he had set out almost fourty years ago. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC which was held inside South Africa after being banned, Nelson Mandela was elected president of the ANC.
Black South Africans experienced lawlessness in their communities. In the text, Mandisa is quite scared of the policeman. During apartheid policemen used to shoot to kill and they used to shoot first and ask questions later. People did not get justice at all, policeman did as they pleased no law was taken. Mandisa explains that in her community they do not like police because of their corruption. “We know that many innocent people have died in their care”,page 56.