“I will conclude, Sir, by saying a few words about the Gold Coast Police. I am very fond of the police. I think they are a fine sort of men. Your Excellency, I gave this warning in the Select Committee and wish to repeat it here, that a Government which seems nervous, which will always be relying upon the arms of the police to get their people to like them, is a Government that always finds itself unsuitable and unable to carry out its duties. Dr J.B. Danquah, Legislative Assembly, April 13, 1949.
Sixty-six years have elapsed since these words were uttered by a doyen of local politics. They, as good and relevant as they were when British officers led our all-escort police force, discharged men from WWI Gold Coast Constabulary and WWII Royal West African Frontier Force.
Trained to obey and undertake brawny duties, robot-like if you like, they were despised by many. An 1874 or thereabout Methodist Times of Cape Coast had a story headlined, “Hausa Police Brutalities.” The story was about the brutalities meted out to the locals.
The British used them to subdue the natives, as people of the colonies, territories and protectorates were called.
The unprovoked brutality stole the headlines from a march for a new voter register last Wednesday. For the umpteenth time, bad police officers doing the bidding of their devilish politicians in power went beyond the frontiers of civility to beat and show their political colours.
Professional police officers could only stand by in awe at the unfolding carnage. We have said it before that when politicians do not allow law enforcement officers to discharge their functions, unprofessional conduct takes over the civility that personnel must spot at all times even under stress.
It sounds unfair when the good police officers who toil day and night to uphold the image of the law enforcement institution must share the uncharitable references to the whole of the Ghana Police Service.
Naa Yakubu of the Formed Police Unit (FPU) should understand that come what may, the extension he is enjoying would one day end: indeed, his conduct is unbecoming of a professional cop and stains the civilised officers serving the nation with all their hearts.
Those who joined him to maltreat the demonstrators were fortunately captured by smart phones, their destruction of chips containing images of the sordid mayhem not total as in such cases.
It is regrettable that after years of painstaking efforts to change the face of law enforcement in the country by especially UN-rated top officers, others have allowed themselves to be used by politicians to do their bidding.
The continuous interference in policing by politicians is threatening dangerously the critical occupation of law enforcement.
Why a cop would continue to chase a fleeing person with a whip is beyond our ken: it shows how their appetite had risen for such brazenness.
The recent efforts by a section of the Police Administration to give the law enforcement agency a good name and save it from hanging in the public domain has suffered a rude shock.
Even bystanders were not spared the blood-thirstiness conduct of some law enforcement agents on that fateful date.
We salute those who saw in the action of the politically-minded cops, imbecility and obsession to serve their political masters and therefore shunned Naa Yakubu’s orders, but condemn in equal measure those who used whips to beat their compatriots and inflicted unnecessary harm on them. We shall return.
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