Musamba! You must stop police thuggery against media, innocent Zambians

By Daily Revelation Editor

The police in Kitwe again harassed journalists and deleted footage from their gadgets because they did not want the public to see their barbarism against the reporters and the other people they had gone to cover.

This conduct from the police is not new, it is something that has been happening repeatedly and we agree with the Media Liaison Committee that we should now start identifying the police officers to name and shame them and have them reported to their bosses and other relevant bodies over this abuse.

The journalists they got the gadgets from were simply doing their job, and we are therefore wondering whether doing one’s job has now become a crime in this country.

It’s even more saddening that when these abuses happen there is actually no word condemning them, let alone any action against the officers by their superiors, which makes us conclude that such abuses have the blessings from the very top. Otherwise police officers would not continue on the same path if stringent mechanisms were put in place within the police service.

We are wondering what is becoming of this country. The event those police officers went to disrupt where Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Mwenda Kasonde was addressing a press briefing is not a crime, on top of that, police officers then went ahead, confiscated the cameras from the journalists and summoned Mwenda to the police station for simply trying to communicate his thoughts with the Zambian people.

It is very saddening that people fail to learn from history. Haven’t the same police officers learnt how their own excited colleagues during the PF administration were handled after the UPND came to office? And who tells them that they would not face the same fate if there were to be a change of government in this country? Just be professional. You won’t sustain your job by being a cadre. And then these are people who even cry ‘victimisation’ for being taken to account over their own misconduct when there is change of government.

We refer to what State Counsel John Sangwa said recently that he did not think that things could get any worse with the coming of UPND into office. Zambians surely did not vote so that policing standards should continue worsening. Zambians voted out the PF because they wanted to see change in the manner state institutions operate. They wanted to see change for the better, for instance in the manner the police is managed. They wanted to see change in terms of how the judiciary dispenses justice in the country, how parliament should be properly governed and in terms of how the executive handles national matters.

If this were a normal society, the conduct of those police officers would be receiving massive repudiation by now, not only from media and opposition parties, but the government itself and the police service in particular. We would by now be hearing about the action those in government, particularly the police administration has taken against their own officers.

There is so much the police should be expending their energies on in the country, than concerning themselves with what an opposition leader will say at some press conference or what footage the media has gotten from the same event.

Graphel Musamba, you must stop this police thuggery against the media and other innocent members of society.