Unless we object to this type of crude provocation of whites [and white farmers in particular] in the strongest terms, the ANC terrorists will view our silence to mean weakness and capitulation.
Had this heavy-handed overreaction by the police been meted to a black farmer by a white government and police, the world would have been in an uproar but instead we have cowardly silence from politicians and the mainstream media who report, yes, but go no further.
The media's role is to act as the checks and balances on governmental abuse. When it stops in this duty to dig deeper, to prod, to query, to harass politicians for answers, they fail us. The mainstream media in South Africa are cowards. When people like Zapiro and David Bullard are attacked by politicians, fellow reporters cower instead of supporting their colleagues' right to free speech.
I blame the mainstream media for the calamitous state of South Africa because it has failed to hold the government to account - for the hundreds of thousands of deaths due to Aids and crime - for the misuse of public funds - for the breakdown of law and order - for the collapse of service delivery - for so many things that they should have kept on the front burner.
Journalists in foreign countries would froth at the mouth were they given such ample material by their politicians. What the MSM in South Africa must understand is that it is insufficient to report and leave be. It needs to press government for answers.
Another concern is the MSM's fascination with certain news stories involving white on black indiscretions such as the hullabaloo that followed the drunken fracas between rugby supporters and a black spectator, the peeing in food childish prank, the recent Facebook white pride sissy fit demonstrating yet again the imbalance that exists with regard to reporting real issues affecting South Africans and the tabloid crap that our so-called journos pass as 'news'.
That said, we too, as the public, must be held responsible for the situation. By purchasing newspapers that publish such nonsense encourages them to continue. Instead we should be boycotting papers, writing to editors, demanding serious journalism, commenting, being active in voicing our concerns about the style and standard of reporting.
Alas, I know I am wasting my time saying these things, and I know that nothing will change until we say - collectively - enough!
We also need to stop the collective stupidity that we exhibit when we ask inane questions like, "..why the police had found it necessary to use so many heavily-armed police officers to swoop down on the farm in an expensive police helicopter to arrest a man who had himself reported the incident to the police station in the first place".
We know why.
It is intended to put the white man in his place, to show that the black man is in charge. Well, fuck that. I am as much part of this country as the next person and I refuse to be treated as a second-class citizen, that's all there is to it.
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Oct 23 2008 LICHTENBURG, NW -- The Democratic Alliance has sharply criticised the need to use such a large, heavily-armed task force and an expensive police helicopter to arrest one single Afrikaner farmer who had reported a shooting on his farm and was 'co-operating completely' with the police.
The dramatic arrest was carried out on the farm Graslaagte near Lichtenburg after a 19-year-old suspected chicken-thief was found dead in a maize-field.
The farm was bristling with aggressive police officers who had swooped down on the farmer Johan Nel, 44, arresting him after he'd fired several warning shots towards a maize field.
Workers had told him just minutes before the shooting that several chicken-thieves had been seen fleeing into the field and he just wanted to scare them off - not intending to shoot anyone. He then also immediately telephoned the police himself and co-operated with them fully in their investigation of the incident after the body of a Lichtenburg man, 19-year-old Oupa Willem Ntsako, was found nearby.
Police then made their dramatic arrest with the police helicopter and dragged the farmer into the local law court on a charge of murder.
DA leader for North West Chris Hattingh said he couldn't understand why the police had found it necessary to use so many heavily-armed police officers to swoop down on the farm in an expensive police helicopter to arrest a man who had himself reported the incident to the police station in the first place.
"He'd been totally cooperative with police from the word go", said Hattingh. Nel's case was remanded to 14 November after he was released on bail of R5,000.
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What normally follows in a questionable death is the following:
- A police forensic expert has to examine the body of the dead person to determine the actual cause of death.
- Following that, an inquest would be held to determine whether the farmer should be charged with culpable homicide or murder -- but only if a bullet wound from the farmer's gun was actually found to have been the cause of the death. In other words, the police should have waited for the forensic examiner to take a look at the body - and then the police would have had to wait for the inquest court to decide whether the farmer should be charged.
Source courtesy of Crime Busters of South Africa
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