Some months ago I republished a Message From Station Commissioner (sic) that appeared in the Table View Police newsletter that is circulated in my area. The newest edition of this publication has subsequently arrived. Once again, it contains some bizarre passages.
Snr. Supt. L. E. Nolan assures us:
“Recently, everyone at the station, including administrative personnel, has had their shoulders to the wheel, trying to reduce the levels of crime in our area by conducting crime free weeks.”
Contrast this with an extract from his previous message:
“…all police initiated crimes showed an increase, meaning that the police members worked more than they should have worked!”
I am comforted by the apparent progress. I think.
The rest of the newsletter contains crime prevention advice that reads like the manifesto of a very confused group of fascists. Their credo:
“A suspicious vehicle/person is a vehicle/person that acts in a manner, which may seem to be unusual or strange.” (sic)
Encouraging, don’t you think, to those of us who have unusual habits? I can’t wait for some old toppie from the heard-think group to run me in for wearing a Star Fleet uniform, or listening to unusual music. The last think I need is for Jack Bauer to come round my house to conduct a Crime Free Week. It gets worse, though. Under the heading, “Persons”:
“A suspicious person can be any person that you feel acts in a strange manner. The problem with suspicious persons is that there are no distinguishing features. Hijackers come in any form or shape. Colour, race, sex or age, are not distinguishing features.“The best way to identify a suspicious person is to see all unknown persons as being suspicious.” (sic)
It disturbs me greatly that the South African Police Service espouses such an Orwellian principle. There is not much scope for freedom of expression here, and much less for freedom of movement.
The litany continues under the heading of “Who are these hijackers?”:
“To date, the overwhelming proportion of all the hijackers, have been men, and occasionally women. [...]“These people are sometimes well dressed, but not always. They may wear a jacket or jersey under which they may conceal weapons, mostly handguns and knives, but occasionally AK47 assault rifles.
“The hijackers operate from motorcars, although they have been known to attack on foot. The cars they use vary, but are normally high performance vehicles, sometimes with tinted windows.”
In summary, the hijackers could be anyone who does not belong to the implicit and mysterious third gender. They walk among us, but we cannot recognise them because they are just so darned generic. You may see me walking down the street and never know that I am hiding an AK47 under my jersey*.
Notice the emotive language as the article continues. The italics are present in the original:
“[Immediately after an attack...] They will speed off, driving perhaps nervously and recklessly, but often with an air of bravado as if enjoying or flaunting publicly their total disregard for the law and the innocent person they have just attacked. They might ignore red traffic lights, jump stop streets and weave in and out through traffic, especially on motorways. This renders them highly visible to the public and this is where private citizens can play a vital role in assisting these people’s arrest.” (sic)
One hopes that speeding down the highway would make these criminals highly visible to the police too.
I confess to being exceedingly uncomfortable with the tone of these messages. This generic, ever-present enemy smacks of the Rooi Gevaar, nicely sanded down and repainted a different colour**. The faceless enemy, the suspicion and even the emotive mention of the AK47, a symbol of fear to most South Africans, almost seems calculated to heighten our anxiety. Clip a self-righteous little rant about “total disregard for the law” and innocent victims onto the end and you have something that exactly fits the mould of a speech by P. W. Botha.
Freedom, for me, means something different. It means being able to go to new places without being regarded with suspicion. It means embracing the spirit of nation-building, to which this paranoia is an anathema. It means regarding people as human beings by default and not as criminals. Goodness knows, we have enough to fear from crime in South Africa already without the police making it worse.
*: A standard AK is 870mm in length. The jersey I am wearing at the moment measures 690mm from the tip of my left shoulder to the edge of the seam on my upper right thigh. I would have great difficulty concealing an AK under my jersey, even if it were a one dimensional stick. The idea becomes preposterous when you start to add useful stuff like a magazine, a grip and width.
**: Consider the likelihood of a black person being reported as “suspicious” in a white neighbourhood. Now consider the likelihood of a white person being reported as “suspicious” in a black neighbourhood. I’m not saying that this has anything to do with the matter in hand, but rather asking that you consider it.
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