You get shot by criminals or by police, "choice" is yours! Thabo Mbeki's administration has vehemently kept denying that crime situation in SA is as bad as it was.This new government has at least recognized that it is safer to live in Iraq or Afghanistan than in South Africa, and they decided not to wave human rights charter in front of criminals' faces, but to shoot instead. No doubt, some members of police force will use and some will abuse this newfound "freedom" to shoot, and tragedies will happen, innocents and law abiding will not be enjoying their deserved peace and security any time soon. There are still many lessons to be learned, hopefully those in charge will realize that shooting the innocents in order to free them from crime is not the answer. I fully support policy of "shoot to kill" in regard to criminals, I believe that is the only way to bring South Africa back to normality. But policies and and mechanisms to prevent tragic shootings of innocent people must be devised and implemented as a matter of urgency. I agree it's much easier to say than to do it, but policy of "shoot to kill" in regard to criminals is the only hope for South Africa.

What bloody rubbish. A policeman will have NO justification in shooting, without reason. I trust the misinteperation of the law is clear cut, more so for the criminals and NOT the law abiding citizens.

I got pulled over by police on Saturday night and believe it or not the whole entire time the police spoke to me and searched me and the car, i had my hands up in the air VOLUNTARY. My cellphone rang at some stage and i just let it ring through out the entire ordeal. What a good laugh the police had,

That is the best article, it was well said, I'm not against Cops killing criminals but i'm against Cops killing innocent Children as a parent, a normal 3 years old wont be able to carry a gun that is common sense and i believe that everyone who is a good parent wont allow their children to carry guns especially 3 years old, To me this was cruel and ruthless, Let us put ourselves in the parenst position of a 3 years who was shot, we mustn't say that the innocent will die because Cops will be doing their Jobs, What if it was you Child, would you say that? I looked at child everyday and imagine what if it was him, Our police servcive is worthless and needs proper training, Lets wake up and realise that we are in trouble if kids are going to die because of duties

John, I say run towards the "more dangerous" criminals and use them as human shields. In attempting to take us out they will inadvertently do their job. PS. I wouldn't eat dough-nuts in public either...if the American cliche has filtered through to us we might get shot for this tasty treat.

i cannot understand y plp are making fuss out of this, our police officers have always been eliminators of innocent plp. do u remember the case of maake?? shoot to kill does not make sense @ all. arrest is not an ultimate goal itself, it's only a means to achieve the end(bringing a suspect to court in order to prove that he is guilty or not). killing a suspect is surely an effective way of making sure that he doesn't appear in court to answer to the allegations. what about Section 7 Judicial Matter Second Amendment Bill???? walter's case????? incompetent police officers will be off the hook as they would just kill a suspect in order to avoid being grilled by a judge. these aare consequences of appointing plp who their IQ are below average.

Jeez you people are easy to please, this article almost made me smile...but not quite. boring. shudup john and stick to your day job - ie not writing,

The article is fire blaze!!!

Absolutely brilliant. and no we are not whingey whiners, we just believe that a well-trained, competent policeforce would not need to use a "shoot to kill" policy. Part of the reason for the current call is that the police don't know how to investigate crime or apprehend criminals so, "just shoot them, then we dont have to appear in court and get crapped on by the judge for not investigating properly". Anyhow, why cant tasers be used as they are in parts of the USA. The zap the crim with thousands of volts and drop em like a stone

I dont understand if the person who wrote this article is "For" the Police or "against" the Police. I hope you support what they are doing, killing innocent people is unfortunate but they must keep on shooting whoever they suspect of doing criminal activities.