IT’S a terribly sad indictment on our society that police officers can be killed in the haven of their own police station – and it doesn’t make front page news for days on end.
Yet, this is precisely what happened on Wednesday morning. A group of armed men entered the Ngcobo police station between Mthatha and Queenstown in the Eastern Cape. They opened fire on the officers on duty. Three of them died instantly. An off-duty soldier was also shot dead.
Two officers were taken hostage in the police van the group stole.
They appear to have been executed 6km down the road. Another police officer died in hospital from injuries sustained in the original shooting.
The police have been quick to respond; the stolen van has been recovered and the net is closing on the suspects – the response by the public, though, appears muted, especially in the mainstream media.
One reason for this could be the remoteness of where the incident took place. Another, more sinister, reason could be that we have become inured to violence.
There are regular campaigns focusing on gender-based and domestic violence but little specific focus on other violence – in particular the plight of police officers who have to navigate a dangerous world every day, where the uniforms are more of a target than a protection.
AFTERMATH: The body of one of the police officers slain at the Engcobo police station is removed from the crime scene.
The details surrounding this horrific attack are still sketchy but it does appear the criminals were hell-bent on seizing the weapons. The immediate, and perhaps natural, response, will be to double security at police stations, making it more difficult for people in distress to access police services quickly and easily.
We should be creating a society where police are seen as our natural guardians, respected and revered as such and feared by criminals. Instead they have become targets. How terribly sad.
THE INDEPENDENT ON SATURDAY