Attacks on police must be repelled

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I was shocked and dismayed by the live images portrayed on the television last Monday. According to the report, a policeman in uniform had stopped a motorist. The motorist exited his vehicle and in a supreme show of contempt for the cop's authority, he proceeded to wrestle the policeman to the ground.

The camera showed the recovery of a machete [?] immediately after five shots were fired - so the weapon could not have been planted.

Personally, I would have prosecuted the policeman for:

Allowing a weapon-wielding man to grab him; and

Discharging his firearm five times. He was being foolishly hesitant to the end of the encounter.

The week before, a policeman had presented himself to me for surgery. He had been bitten by a street vendor whom he had sought to arrest for vending illegally downtown. He was surprised when the man attacked him and more so when a crowd pelted him with cabbage, stale food, and old bananas. He had to be rescued.

Unprovoked assaults

Then four days later, another policeman in the same illegal vending type of arrest was attacked with stones and the arrested man was hit in the head with one of the stones, prompting the crowd to protest that the police were to blame.

The situation must be addressed. We must not allow this state to continue, for the alternative is anarchy.

The judges must take control. Unprovoked assaults on the police must be severely dealt with; when the policeman is wrong, he must be charged.

We are a society governed by laws, administered by the courts, and our protection is the police. We must preserve that.

J.V. FORD

jephthahford@hotmail.com