Is this an apology from Steve, or an attempt at justifying racial profiling in a mixed-race suburb and free country? Because it reads a lot more like the latter. What constitutes "suspicious" - are there any clearly written up criteria that we as the community can see, or is it just left up to any member's subjective decision in a country where we know racial bias is still a thing? I would have hoped that Obs would be a little more progressive than this and not be actively justifying the racial profiling of people visiting, living in, working in, studying in Obs.
On Thursday, 14 July 2016 11:25:37 UTC+2, chairman wrote: > > Hi Itumeleng, > > Thanks for your mail. > > I can't confirm whether the person that photographed your vehicle > yesterday was one of our members as I am not aware of any pictures of your > vehicle having been posted to any of our platforms. > > However, it is quite likely that it could have been one of our members and > I sorry that you were offended. > > Unfortunately we have recently experienced a number of incidents where > black males use hired vehicles to come into Obs to commit crimes ranging > from house breaking to armed robbery. These vehicles are often new shape > Toyota's, VW's or Chev's and often have EC or GP number plates due them > being rented vehicles. The occupants are usually well dressed and well > spoken. > > Our members will often post pictures of suspicious vehicles/persons onto > our Central Whatsapp Group so that SAPS can check on the registration > details and then together with Law Enforcement, OBSID and the wider > community, monitor their activities while they are in the area. > > Our members are encouraged to be as discreet as possible in taking these > kind of pictures - for their safety and to avoid offending anyone. We(ONW) > are not allowed to stop and search anyone - only SAPS and Law Enforcement > can do that - and you should not have been harassed in any way. > > Once again, I apologise on behalf of the ONW if it was one of our members > who offended you. > > Please report any inappropriate behavior from our members in the future so > we can deal with it. > > Thanks and regards, > Steve > ONW Chair > > > > On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 5:22 PM, molopo riva <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Hello all hope this finds you well, My name is Itumeleng I stay in >> Observatory Pepperquare, Today I experienced an incident were I was treated >> like a culprit by a Caucasian male between the age of 40-45. I had just >> parked my car next to the church on Wesley got out of the car ,waiting for >> a friend , the white man was passed by ,after 20 meters he proceeded to >> take pictures of the car while I was standing next to it. I understand the >> law permits people to freely take photographs in public spaces ,but in this >> instance this it was not artistic. I started wondering wether he would >> have reacted the same if it was a Caucasian male parked in the same manner >> that I was. What if I had reacted to his actions ? I kindly ask that man >> to Please refrain from such actions as being black does not mean criminal. >> attached is a picture of the car I drive, feel free to launch a police >> investigation seeing that you have a lot of time on your hands. This is >> Africa. Regards. >> Itumeleng >> >> -- >> >> >> [image: --] >> >> Itumeleng Kgobokoe >> [image: https://]about.me/itumeleng_kgobokoe >> >> <https://about.me/itumeleng_kgobokoe?promo=email_sig&utm_source=email_sig&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=external_links> >> >> >> -- >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room >> >> TEL: 021-447-1066 or 072-063-1653 >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> EMERGENCIES: 10111 >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> ONW email: [email protected] <javascript:> >> WEB: www.obswatch.org.za >> FACEBOOK: facebook.com/obswatch >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Other Useful Obs Numbers: obs.org.za/obsdir >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> The Observatory Neighbourhood watch group. 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