Two hundred and ninety-four new police recruits are passing out today, after completing about a year-long training at the Police Training College.
In case you have forgotten, these are the guys who demonstrated unparalleled thuggery during this past festive season, when they were let loose in the name of augmenting efforts to combat festive crime.
Well, they did very little to cover themselves in glory as they unleashed a reign of terror never seen in a long time. They mercilessly harassed and assaulted men and women on the streets of Maseru as punishment for not wearing protective masks or crossing the road on undesignated spots.
It was therefore comical that police spokesperson Mpiti Mopeli could have the audacity to tell the media (and the nation) that this particular batch of trainees has been taught about human rights and how to respect them.
Just to refresh your memory Monsieur Mopeli, not so long ago after the thugs posing as police officers assailed journalists covering a youth peaceful protest, you were asked if riot control and respect of human rights are part of the police curriculum, you boldly proclaimed: ‘yes’.
We have noted the self-contradiction. Again Mopeli claims the police only use force to subdue a suspect who resists arrest.
Not all of us are amnesic. The whole nation knows that at least 70 people died in police custody between 2017 and 2020. Also, a man was tortured so bad under interrogation that he soiled himself. It did not end there, his assailants (cops) made him eat his faeces.
The LMPS should desist from spewing misleading information to the public, and focus on reigning those cops that behave like wild dogs and hyenas that just escaped from a zoo.
