C Roy Reynolds
THE NEWS that the police had shot up a fleeing passenger bus was alarming enough but even moreso was the aftermath. We are told there was a vast gathering of policemen at the National Arena to tell or remind policemen how not to act in similar situations.
I would have expected that part of the basic training would have been simulation of various situations and how to deal with them. It is not difficult to have included in such simulations the presence of gunmen on a passenger bus, whether they be invaders or operators.
Such a situation would have analogous to a hostage scenario and anyone who watches cable television must be aware of how such scenarios are intelligently handled. You need only a grain of commonsense to appreciate the fact that the one thing you should not do is to further endanger the safety of innocent people in a captive position.
It is almost miraculous that nobody was killed. And instead of calling a mass meeting to address the occurrence all that should have been needed was a release reminding the police of some section of their training which should have been code-identified, having been such an integral part of basic preparation.
Instead how this episode has been handled must give alarm that there is something woefully deficient in the preparation of policemen to meet predictable situations at street level. We have taken steps to eliminate lead from gasolene as a sensible environmental protection measure, but it seems the police would negate all that by recklessly throwing lead around in public.
A question that arises is: If policemen are apparently so deficient in either training or appreciation of how to handle such a predictable situation, how better prepared are they for happenings which they are bound to encounter in the current lawless environment in which they must operate?
The whole situation points up the dilemma in which police, Government and public are stuck today. It seems to me that we are now at a stage similar to one described in a recent US documentary I saw on television, in which the narrator declared that: "Crime became a test that the Government had to pass or forfeit public confidence."
There is now little evidence that either the Government or the security forces is managing to pass that test and while this worries me intensely I worry even more about what might fill the vacuum.
If the authorities cannot protect businesses, householders or those who have to leave their homes for one reason or another, what will do the job? I have a strong suspicion that the infamous 'death squads' of Latin American fame grew out of such circumstances.
Well-oiled militia
If businessmen must pay thugs protection money why not organise a movement better within their control? Considering the amount currently expended on security guards and security devices which at best offer indifferent protection, why not use the money to pay a well-oiled militia, perhaps drawn from the most effective security officers and gunmen? Many householders, kept prisoners within their own premises after dark, might well join the movement. After all not everybody will be able to migrate and those who must stay cannot afford to continue to live in constant mortal fear. It is the next logical step. And it could be driven by one other factor as well: The utter inability of the authorities to uphold the capital punishment law. You cannot extract what 80 per cent or so of the public regards as just punishment, so you eliminate the culprits at source.
As a matter of fact it is quite possible that the process is already under way. The vigilante militancy evidenced over and over in the country might well be just the most visible tip of the proverbial iceberg. Perhaps that is a reason the police often find it so hard to establish motives.
C. Roy Reynolds is a freelance journalist.
