|
Its thumbs up for our Police Force
2006-12-20 09:25:45
By Editor
In the purely professional context, a teacher, engineer, medical doctor, carpenter, architect, and a member of a score of other professions, is almost certain to return home safely after work, into the warm embrace of one’s family.
The life of any of those may be terminated through such nasty occurrences as motor vehicle accidents, but then, that’s nothing to do with a given profession.
There’s one profession, though among very few, that stands out as an exception: field policing.
There’s no absolute certainty that police officers on patrol, or those dispatched from stations or posts to scenes of actual or planned crime, will return home alive after duty.
Many, perhaps most non-police force-associated families may not know the anxiety that those in that setting have to put up with on a virtual daily basis, given the real likelihood of one beloved member, who may happen to be the bread winner, being gunned down during a shoot-out with bandits.
It is probable, also, that after several years of a given police officer returning home safely, by cheating death narrowly in the wake of encounters with armed bandits, one’s family may begin nursing the idea that all is well now and for ever.
The bottom line, however, is that while police officers are legally mandated to use firearms in defending themselves against stubborn, armed bandits, they are not protected against death by a presumed divine contract.
Several of them have died in such encounters, and several of their colleagues have either been maimed or have recovered after spending long periods in hospitals nursing wounds.
But since a ”Police-less” situation would be tantamount to sanctioning lawlessness, there ought to be, as part of the nation’s security apparatus, police officers assigned to patrol streets, business and commercial centres, as well as residential and neighbourhoods, to tame criminals or engage them in battle when the need arises.
Those officers are literally putting their lives on the firing line.
We salute them. We salute them, and mourn those who have died in service, at the cruel hands of bandits.
One of the latest in the list of honour is PC Godwin, who died in a shoot-out with bandits during a 48m/- robbery in Dar es Salaam last week-end.
How we wish the police officer would be the last to have his life end on such a brutal note.
That, though, is a wild wish, given that armed bandity is not a phenomenon whose end is on the horizon.
Curbing armed banditry, and crime as a whole, is a combination of an epic battle and a bitter war that has to be sustained, and which our gallant law enforcers are highly spirited in doing.
We commend them for that, and wish to chip in the fact that tackling armed bandits in the field is being reinforced with superb detective skills.
In the case in question, for instance, it is praiseworthy that in a matter of two days, some eight suspects had been netted.
This powerfully demonstrates diligence and skills on the part of the police force and shames those in our midst who tend to belittle or mock them, by implying that the anti-crime zeal has started cooling off.
It is an uncontestable fact that criminal syndicates and the network of banditry have been tremendously weakened. But as factual, too, crime hasn’t been stamped out entirely.
Which means that pockets of criminals are lurking somewhere and will continue to pop out their ugly heads, and the police will be all out to literally chop them off.
While praising the law enforcers for their good work —- which involves readiness to sacrifice their precious lives —-it is incumbent upon the general public to give them full moral support, plus, more inportantly, where possible, to volunteer tips on criminal elements or planned crimes.
But in-between, equally important, those given to belittling Police achievemnts or cyncically mocking their performance, must undertale moral re-adjustment.
|
