Last Friday evening I accompanied a friend to a police station in Windhoek to have her documents certified. And, as you know, it was pay day for police officers and teachers. Pay day or pay weekend means drinking and having parties for many and as you can imagine the streets of some parts of Katutura were a hive of activity.
Well, we arrived at the police station and it was obviously busy. As protocol dictates we each had to patiently wait until those who arrived before us were assisted. As we impatiently waited for our turn to be assisted, I listened in to a conversation between a woman who wanted to open a case of abuse and theft of property and a police officer.
As the woman shared her version of the story, the visibly lazy female police officer kept interrupting rudely. The female police officer made a mockery of the woman’s situation by making very insensitive remarks to the woman in full view of other people at the station.
It was obvious that the woman who wanted to open a case against her alleged abuser seemed uncomfortable. But, she braced herself until she finished explaining to the officer what happened.
At around the same time a young woman also went to the same station to report a case of assault. “To tell you the truth officer I don’t have a relationship with the man who beat me. We just had a one night stand a few months ago,” said the woman who had bruises and blood on her body.
Instead of helping the woman, the officers first laughed at what the woman said and mocked “a one night stand”. This time, however, the young woman seemed unfazed by the remarks and asked to be assisted.
It was disappointing to see that police officers who deal with such cases every day chose to embarrass the two women instead of doing their work “without fear of favour”. The general service of the people who are supposed to uphold the law and serve people without judging them or making a mockery of their situations that night was poor and showed immaturity on the part of those officers.
People go to police stations to seek help and if police officers mock them instead of helping them they are discouraging them from seeking for help and in the end lives will be lost because people do not have faith when reporting criminal activities or life threatening matters to the police. Imagine being tormented by a thug or abuser and still having to go through some sort of victimisation in the form of unpleasant remarks by insensitive police officers.
Police officers should uphold the law, maintain peace and stability. Their environment should be one that encourages people to seek their services without fear of victimisation.