The thing I find ironic is that if it was a normal guy pushing another normal bloke and no uniforms were involved this probably would not have made the papers.
I as most of you know come from south africa where our police are ripe with corruption and to top it all off...they got guns, Luckily we can carry guns to defends ourselves.
As a person that has been living here for 7 years I have seen the world from both sides.
In south africa you sh*t yourself when the police stop you, you speak to him and refer to him as sir, you do as he says- not because you respect him, but rather you respect the fact that he is there to serve the law and putting his life at risk.
Here I have witnessed(staying in a dodgy part) that police would be sworn at spat at and on one occasion I called them in as the violence in the streets were threatening to explode into a full on riot. They drove up in the car one got out asked the people to move on where they replied f*ck off. He turned around got back in his car and left. When they started smashing car windows and setting alight a caravan(5ft away from my bike) I phoned them again to be told they aware of the situation....that ran out of steam when they started sobering up.
I think the biggest problem here is that criminals have rights, I feel to become a criminal you took away the right of someone else and therefore should not have rights, we also not to treat prisoners badly in jail, they need to feel safe and cared for(jail used to be a deterrent) If i was a copper and I knew that if I arrested someone they would be out quicker than I can complete the paperwork...why bother?
I digressed..
The point I am trying to make is that in that position you are rushing on adrenaline and your eyes are constantly sweeping the crowds on edge waiting for something to happen. Someone breaks your comfort zone and you over react and end up in the newspapers. Is it the coppers fault or the fault of the people that put him there? In south africa we have special units, as the guy thats good dealing with riots is shite with paperwork, the pen pushers shits himself if you clap hands and might snap. I was in the army and in special circumstances we were called out to assist the riot police if things got a bit hot and I will honestly tell you those guys rock, being shot at thrown with petrol bombs and not showing the slightest bit of fear being outnumbered 100 to 1..why cause they were trained for the job.
Wonder what this particular officer did when he was not in riot gear? walking a beat answering phones????
For those who want to see the different units in action check out youtube I put the afrikaans terms to make it easier to locate the south african videos:
Blitspatrollie (rapid response squad)
Vasbyt (intensive training for both police and army)
or simply search SAPS(South African Police Service) SANDF (South African National Defence Force)
The point I am trying to make is that we should not be focussing on the guy on the frontline,but rather the people that put him there and also our policies on dealing with crime. Banning a person from driving for 3 years after being caught driving whilst on a ban??? ooh thats so mean! :wank: