Everyone in Zimbabwe is afraid of the police, and the fear is well founded, especially in light of the regular arbitrary arrests of innocent people. In Zimbabwean a person is guilty until the police feel that he is innocent, that is fact.
I live in a small community where the people are too terrified to question the police excesses which include the looting of their “illegal” merchandise. The police take, and nobody questions them. But there is an anger that is slowly building in the people and the case of the slain cop in Glen View is one classic case where people’s anger against the police was manifested. But I sadly doubt that anyone in my community people is going to stand up to the police and demand respect for their rights, they are just too scared.
I recently witnessed the police fill a police truck to the brim with looted vegetables. The vendors stood paralysed, on their faces dejection and despair was imprinted.
Though not officially a police state, in the eyes of ordinary Zimbabweans our country is held hostage by the police. Because our citizens are so scared of the police they would rather stay in doors than socialise outside their homes, because the police can arrest them when they feel like doing so. I would not ever stand in the way of a police officer. Freedom only exists for me if the police allow it.
MDC activists who are currently languishing in prisons are fine examples of what the police can do. We are not free and the police are there not to enforce the law, but to force us into walking under their own interpretation of the law.
Source: This is Zimbabwe by Simon Moyo
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