Sikaman Cops and mob justice

When your driving license expires and a policeman “cranks” you, there are two options. You can decide to scratch the policeman’s back and he will in turn scratch your back. It is a brotherly agreement, and you can go on driv­ing until you are caught by another policeman.

The back-scratching solution to traffic offences is known in official gasettes as corruption. The act itself is known as bribery.

The second option is that you’ll be processed for court, for you to go and tell the judge why you think you are above the law. Normally, the judges don’t mind who you are or think you are. They’ll bunch you up with taxi drivers who are color-blind and cannot distinguished between red-light and green-light.

Others in your company will be articulated truck drivers who are specialists in parking in the middle of the road to cause accidents. At least, you’ll find one lady driver among the 30 offenders in court, and she’ll be shivering uncontrollably. She can’t bear the sight of the judge. A serial traffic offender will be in the group. In his back-pocket is cash to pay the fine.

In some courts, traffic offenders are so many that the judge can be tempted to give them the same fine so as not to burden the court.

NUISANCE

If you are in court for a traffic offence, it is best if you plead guilty, pay a fine and go back to continue breaking the law. Recalcitrance is a way of life on the roads, and some people regard the court fines as a mere nuisance and not something that can reform them.

Now, going back to back-scratch­ing, the Sikaman policemen is proba­bly one of the most miserable you can find in the world. A whole policeman with a wife and four kids has a salary that can only motivate him to take bribe.

Some policemen can’t even afford a cup of coffee before they go to di­rect traffic to control the early morn­ing rush. At about 9:30 a.m. he must find direction to the nearest kokonte bar to face the wall, otherwise he’ll collapse in the middle of the road. If he doesn’t drink soup, it will not be well with him. Sometimes, people give cash to policemen not because they want to bribe them, but because they feel pity for them. I used to have a Chief Inspector friend who is now re­tired. He once showed me his pay slip and I had to admit that such a man can only survive by magic or through corruption.

It is the belief that every police­man who is well-paid will not take bribe. If he does, then he is doing so not because he is in need, but be­cause he is either a greedy cop or a criminal from birth.

IMAGE

So corruption within the police service must be looked at vis-a-vis remuneration for all ranks. At least, if a sergeant gets GH¢3.5m a month, he won’t take GH¢2,000 from a driver to denigrate the image of the service.

As a result of the low level of remuneration, many funny things happen and this affects police-public relations. For example, there is the infamous “complainant turns accused” syndrome. It all has to do with the highest bidder becoming the com­plainant, no matter the nature of the case.

A friend had a case with some Spanish nationals who threatened to kill him when a business deal went awry. He reported to the police and they locked up the Spanish guys.

The next morning I went to the police station and I was shocked. The Spanish guys had been released and in their place was my friend, cooling off.

When people start losing confi­dence in the police and the law, then whenever they seek justice, they will take the law into their own hands. That is why mob justice is normally prevalent where the police are either incapable or are too corrupt to deal with crime.

So when a criminal is caught, he is either lynched or beaten senseless. Police stations are invaded or burnt down, policemen are attacked and harmed and there is a general public outcry against police methods, brutal­ity, unfairness and even procedures of granting bail.

It is good that policemen are being transferred so that they do not be­come too familiar with people in their areas of operation.

Generally, however, the police have conducted themselves well, pushing criminals right to the wall and scoring good points on the roads, easing traffic. The robotic police man readily comes to mind.

He used breakdancing to direct traffic and almost turned his job into a crowd-pulling venture in the cap­ital. Motorists even slowed down or stopped to catch a glimpse of the action.

However, in the field of detection, I think there is more. I remember when I was a kid in the north, we were all so fond of my father’s driver, but we didn’t know he was a smuggler turned fugitive.

DETECTIVE

One vacation, he drove us to our hometown and said he wanted to see a relation in Ho. That was the last time we saw him. We did not know that a young detective had been searching for him ever since he es­caped arrest three years back.

My father later learnt that the man was drinking beer with a girlfriend in a bar when the detective pounced on him like a cheetah. He was too surprised and wondered how for three years, a detective could be on his trail.

I was about 11 years at the time, and although I felt sorry for the driver, I also doffed my hat to the detec­tive-corporal. He knew his job. I hope we have more of such guys today in the service.

This article was first published

on Saturday, July 16, 2005