Dear South Africa
Just a few days ago 2 police officers were tragically killed in England. The continuous reporting and outcry has been broadcasts since the incident took place.
In South Africa, police officers are killed daily. What worries me is the lack of sympathy for these people. Someone has just lost a child / parent / sibling / friend / mentor / hero while defending OUR country, and I make special reference to OUR because it is all of ours to protect, love and enjoy. These police officers have made a commitment to defend, protect and enforce the law on OUR behalf.
Granted, our police force has its problems more often than not we have more bad to say about them than good, but looking deeper into the matter the problems could stem from lack of funding, training and leadership.
Here is a short video clip of the amount of respect that has been shown for the police officer that was killed while responding to a call while on duty in England. This would never happen in SA. But why?
Every child at some point wants to be a police officer or a fire fighter while growing up. Partly because of the uniforms and partly because we are taught that these brave people are respected and do good for people and make a difference in the world. I think as we get older we forget that.
My please to SA is to start changing our attitudes towards out police force, appreciate that SA has a police force to help protect us. Let’s show them a little more respect, a little more appreciation and a little more admiration. Being a police officer in SA is a tough job and it takes a very braver person to go onto the streets of SA to protect a nation that is more often than not against them rather than for them.
Just a few days ago 2 police officers were tragically killed in England. The continuous reporting and outcry has been broadcasts since the incident took place.
In South Africa, police officers are killed daily. What worries me is the lack of sympathy for these people. Someone has just lost a child / parent / sibling / friend / mentor / hero while defending OUR country, and I make special reference to OUR because it is all of ours to protect, love and enjoy. These police officers have made a commitment to defend, protect and enforce the law on OUR behalf.
Granted, our police force has its problems more often than not we have more bad to say about them than good, but looking deeper into the matter the problems could stem from lack of funding, training and leadership.
Here is a short video clip of the amount of respect that has been shown for the police officer that was killed while responding to a call while on duty in England. This would never happen in SA. But why?
Every child at some point wants to be a police officer or a fire fighter while growing up. Partly because of the uniforms and partly because we are taught that these brave people are respected and do good for people and make a difference in the world. I think as we get older we forget that.
My please to SA is to start changing our attitudes towards out police force, appreciate that SA has a police force to help protect us. Let’s show them a little more respect, a little more appreciation and a little more admiration. Being a police officer in SA is a tough job and it takes a very braver person to go onto the streets of SA to protect a nation that is more often than not against them rather than for them.
