Are police shooting dead suspected criminals to reduce their admin?
It’s a sensitive question that needs to be addressed with due care.
After all, arresting them will lead to long, drawn-out investigations, valuable days lost attending court proceedings, testifying while being cross examined and then the possible frustration of those violent individuals walking free at the end of it all.
It’s an issue I’m having to address again, after the mass shootings of nine suspects in KwaZulu-Natal and six in Mpumalanga last week.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), which is tasked with investigating police shootings, has again expressed dismay at the increasing number of suspects dying in shootouts with cops.
The body has previously made it clear that it finds some of the deaths suspicious, adding that “criminals are meant to be arrested, not killed.”
Those comments were made the last time there was a spate of shootings that left dozens of suspects dead.
In the previous most recent incident, a total of 18 suspects were shot dead during a gunfight with police in Limpopo last year.
Over a 30 day-period around the same time, KZN police shot and killed at least 19 people in seven separate incidents.
In the most notable single incident in 2022, a lengthy gun battle between police and 25 heavily armed robbers in Joburg, left ten of them dead and four officers wounded.
While the Ipid has a clear mandate, average South Africans made it clear online that they are not sparing a second thought for police killing violent criminals who terrorise us and traumatise our families on a daily basis.
There was an entire thread dedicated to cold and sarcastic commentary about such shootings, with many encouraging cops to go even further and increase the killings of tsotsis.
“Shame man, but I can honestly say I don’t give a toss about the life of a criminal,” read one comment.
“I'm concerned about the high number of criminals not being killed by cops yet. And the high number of innocent cops and people being killed by criminals,” read another.
Others cut even closer to the bone: “Those who deserve to be killed are being killed. I don't know what Ipid is moaning about.”
And a comment deriding Ipid’s ignorance: “Obviously never been shot at and thinks that it's easy to arrest someone shooting at you.”
Respect for the sanctity of life aside, it’s a fine moral line to be walking, but also completely reasonable, considering the PTSD we are all being forced to endure.
Not a day passes without several news stories of brazen crimes being committed in our immediate neighbourhoods.
Just last week, there was a video of two gunmen opening fire outside a scrapyard in Ottery in broad daylight, with no consideration for the innocent bystanders in the line of their fire.
If a SAPS member was present, should he have chased after them and risked his life to make an arrest and deal with the administrative nightmare?
Or should he have opened fire and potentially killed them? Our trauma will lead us to one answer, while our humanity should lead us to another.
While the community also celebrated, some of the relatives of last week’s nine shooting victims in KZN are adamant that they were not criminals and were innocent.
This is part of the problem we need to address - because due process was not followed, we may never know if there’s any truth to the claims.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has again defended officers against allegations of being trigger-happy and using excessive force, putting us in a cycle of finger pointing.
The ultimate truth is that we shouldn’t be this flippant about even just the suspected slaughter of fellow citizens, criminal or not.
But the fact that we are, should tell the Ipid (and government) enough about the corrosive impact the collective trauma of spiralling crime is having on our national morale and value system.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za