 |
| Photo by Oladipo Adejumo on Unsplash |
If you’re a Nigerian reading this, you most likely saw that video of the police officer who threatened to fire anyone who points a camera at him whenever he is conducting police business. Man even went as far as saying even if whoever does it is in a vehicle, he'd spray the whole thing.
Are these the men policing us?
I once read that the police was never really established to protect the common man. I never really believed that bold claim until recently. I used to be like: "Sure, bad eggs exist in The Police Force—they exist everywhere. That doesn't mean the entire institution isn't on the side of the masses, nah."
Well, it looks like the joke is on me on that one.
I saw the apology video that the police officer in question made. I heard the excuse he gave—they are just that, though. Excuses. They do not change the fact that he actually made that video warning us not to point cameras at him.
Think about it; this man sat down, picked up his phone, went to whatever app he used to record that video, started and finished recording, probably re-watched said video at least once to make sure there were no problems, and then posted it.
And at no point in that entire process did he realize that something was wrong with saying he'd waste another human simply because they POINTED A CAMERA at him.
I'd ask again: Are these the men policing us?
In a better world, this man would be taken out of active duty. Not even necessarily to punish him, after all, I’ll admit he made some valid points. Police work really is tough work; their lives really are on the line. When things get bad, they are often more at risk than the random person in the crowd.
But again, what does any of that have to do with the innocent citizen videoing you and why should that justify you taking their life?
In a better world, this man should be undergoing rehabilitation.
He shows signs of un-dealt-with trauma with potentially explosive repercussions. He showed the bullet hole in his hand; he probably received that in the line of duty. For that, we really are grateful. But with the words that left his mouth in the initial video, I can't help but wonder if he got the care he deserved. Did the country help him heal mentally? Did we even do a good job treating him physically?
In a better world, someone like that would be nowhere near an automatic rifle, talk less of being given authority to wield said weapon with little to no oversite by the State.
But that’s in a better world, and we're obviously not in one of those.
I wonder how many members of the Nigerian Police Force are no different from this man. Come to think of it, was it not just a few weeks before that we all saw another video of a different police officer executing a young man in cold blood, right there on camera?
No conviction. No trial. Not even anything that could really be considered a decent confession. Poor guy was given the worst sentence possible: go straight to the afterlife. And what for?
I'll ask one last time: Are these really the men policing us?
