On Wednesday night at around 11pm, I was walking home from Obs cafe along Nuttall road (towards Mowbray) and was harassed and illegally searched by two plain clothes police officers - no sooner had I turned off Trill Road, right, into Nuttall than a white bakkie pulled up next to me and these two guys shone a light in my face and demanded I stop. Their car had no ID and they were wearing plain clothes so I assumed they were about to rob me, especially since they got out of the bakkie and both had guns in holsters. Only when I started off, did they identify themselves as police, and aggressively demanded to search me - I asked why (since they legally require a reason) and one of them said "we saw you taking drugs from him" pointing to some scruffy/homeless (?) looking guy in the back of the bakkie whom I had never seen before. Only after demanding to see their ID did one of them flash a badge and then they frisked me and looked in pockets etc. They were very aggressive and simply wouldn't take no for an answer - I got the impression that if I didn't cooperate I'd end up arrested on some bulls**t charge or simply beaten up or pushed around. Their claim to have seen me "taking drugs" was ludicrous, as I had walked less then 50m straight from leaving a busy pub, and I hadn't seen another soul on Trill or Nuttall road, and they were clearly lying in wait in Nuttall road.
I understand that the police need to do their job (which is difficult at the best of times), but that should never include stamping on the rights of the public, through illegally stopping people or intimidation. Above that, since their reason for searching me was clearly false, I can only assume they were randomly searching people (illegally) hoping to find somebody with something illegal on them. If this is indeed the case, what good is that in curbing crime in Obs? That certainly isn't going to do much to stop car theft, car break-ins, assaults, violence, etc etc - the only thing it would accomplish is maybe getting a few arrests for minor drug possession and meeting police arrest quotas. Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing? Sadly the only thing it has done for me is tarnished the reputation of the police further in my eyes (a few visits to report crimes at Woodstock police station have already left me pretty disillusioned concerning the competence and attitude of local law enforcement). -- OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room ---------------------------------------------- 021-447-1066 072-063-1653 For all emergencies please dial 10111 ---------------------------------------------- ONW: 082 081 0142, ONW email: [email protected] WEB: www.obswatch.org.za ---------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups The Observatory Neighbourhood watch group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/obsnw?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
