From GFSA

[wrm]

Something I can agree with.

http://www.gunfree.org.za/Home/tabid...S/Default.aspx

By: Ben Coetzee, Senior Researcher at Institute for Security Studies Transnational Threats and International Crime, Pretoria Office, 12 January 2012

People who possess firearms in South Africa can generally be separated into three categories. The first group consists of individuals in possession of duly registered firearms. The next group is of greater concern. They are the people who are in illegal possession of firearms.

Not all people who possess firearms that are, according to the letter of the law, illegal are violent criminals.

However, even this armed group is less of a concern than the last type. The third category is reserved for the armed forces, the protectors of State sovereignty and the keepers of the peace.

What is most concerning about this group is that they come into contact with firearms on a daily basis and with daily exposure, comes a certain amount of disrespect for the capabilities of firearms. Disrespect is quickly followed by disregard for firearm safety procedures and the responsibilities that every person in possession of a firearm should continuously keep in mind.

The State is faced with the impossible challenge of ensuring the safety of citizens and, by extension, the safety of their employees from violent crime. It is therefore reasonable to have armed police officers ready to act on threats to the public.

The State, having made the decision to arm police officers, also assumes responsibility for said officers’ actions. Including the use of their service weapons whether the officers are on duty or not.
This challenge is compounded by the stressful circumstances of the job this group is required to do. They are exposed to the results of crime. Daily they witness and experience the worst of what people are capable of doing to one another.

They are expected to resolve volatile issues while continuously being aware that they might suddenly become the target of violent crime themselves. Hundreds of their colleagues are murdered each year in the line of duty and there is no guarantee that they will not be the next victims.

The consequences these conflicting factors can be found in the mainstream media.

There were no less than ten incidents, for the month of December 2011, where trained law enforcement officers,, presumably psychometrically evaluated for psychological deviancies, used their service weapons to shoot and kill unlawfully.

5 December 2011: Karoo cop shoots female colleague.

6 December 2011: Police constable committed suicide with his service pistol.

8 December 2011: An Ulundi policeman lost faith in the criminal justice system after his baby daughter was raped – and now he will spend the rest of his life in jail for murdering two fellow police officers and the alleged culprit.

10 December 2011: Off-duty officer shoots three, police shoot him.

13 December 2011: The police sergeant and driver for the Gauteng Health MEC was shot and killed by police after he went on a shooting spree.

15 December 2011: A police constable committed suicide after wounding his wife four times in the legs.

16 December 2011: Cop opens fire in police station.

22 December 2011: Cop shoots wife, self outside mall.

30 December 2011: Mpumalanga cop kills girlfriend, self.

31 December 2011: Pretoria cop shoots family, kills self

These are the incidents that were brought to the public’s attention because they were deemed newsworthy by the media.

Neither the public nor the State would be aware of instances of intimidation that went unreported. It is impossible to determine the number of police officers’ families that are too terrified to report spousal abuse because they are under the impression that the police would not act against their own, or that if the case were registered, their partner would kill them.

What we do know is that our protectors are under severe stress and that some of them act illogically and violently when confronted by any number of circumstances. What the State should recognise is the threat to public safety posed by armed officials that are nearing breaking point.
From cursory analysis of mainstream media reports it would seem that most of the officers that used their firearms illegally were not on duty.

These questions then remain – why does the State still allow officers to possess firearms when they are not on duty, and why doesn’t the State take better care of the mental health of law enforcement officials that are sent ‘armed and dangerous’ into the streets?

[FrankH]

What a load of horse S*#t. He is saying that the armed forces are more of a concern than the armed criminals in this country and effectively calling for the disarmament of the forces.

[JS4]

I agree with FrankH - while poorly trained, burnt out and unsupported police officers are a very valid concern, violent criminals are a greater threat and cause far more damage IMO.

Then, also, in typical GFSA fashion the author makes some wild jumps in his logic and then proposes a totally incorrect solution to one of the main problems he himself has identified.

The author identified the following problems regarding police firearm handling:

1. Complacency with regards to firearm safety due to daily exposure to firearms;
2. Excess stress caused by continuous exposure to violent crime and having their lives threatened.

While he then, correctly IMO, calls for better psychological care and support for our SAPS members he misses the plot entirely when he insinuates that the poor guys and girls in blue should be disarmed when not on duty.

The only effect that disarming them would have on family violence is IMO that the suicides, violence and other attacks will be committed by different means. But we'll still be reading the same type of news reports.

[Scuba Steve]

basically that would lead to disarming the legal civilians, disarming the protective forces (save those on duty) but leaving the criminals. one of two things then happen based on that scenario, the country is riddled (already is I know) with more violence and is taken over by a warlord, or, we have a military/police power that does what it wants when it wants and the civilians end up having trouble with both.

It is absolutely true however that their is no emotional support (or very little) for our officers though.

[camouflage762]

Scuba & JS +1

IMO the article is also used to justify funding received.

[Bushboy]

What is most concerning about this group is that they come into contact with firearms on a daily basis and with daily exposure, comes a certain amount of disrespect for the capabilities of firearms.

but then he goes onto say

Daily they witness and experience the worst of what people are capable of doing to one another.

So they do indeed see the effects of firearms, up close and personal. The unsafe handling is due to other factors methinks.

They are expected to resolve volatile issues while continuously being aware that they might suddenly become the target of violent crime themselves. Hundreds of their colleagues are murdered each year in the line of duty and there is no guarantee that they will not be the next victims.

So disarming them when they go home at night and are without backup is the solution? At work on duty he is trustworthy, but off duty he cant be trusted?
These folk are either plain evil or plain stupid.

[ikor]

People like this will say whatever they think they have to in order to keep sucking the teat of public funds. He knows full well he is FOS...he just doesn't care because he thinks HE is above all that ikky violent crime and self defense stuff...he just writes about it. People who perpetrate these beliefs when they know they are false are as, or maybe more, evil than the criminals themselves. For damned sure they are less honest!

[Socrates]

GFSA Logic:

Illiteracy is caused by the lack of pencils. Studies have found that people who are illiterate can’t use a pencil; therefore issuing people with pencils will increase the literacy levels.

All doctors know how to use a pencil. Therefore, if you give an illiterate person a pencil, you should call him or her doctor.

Doctors use pens on a daily basis to write scripts. Scripts are made of paper, indecently paper and pencils are made from wood.

Wood is a natural resource. It should be conserved. It has branches and leaves.
This is why monkeys have tails.

[Marekjan]

GFSA Logic:

.....indecently paper and pencils are made from wood....

Yes, indeed o the Wise One. I have always known that making that wood pulp was too sexual...

[Abird]

This is why monkeys have tails.