EMPD responds to alleged assault
‘Our image is grossly tarnished by motorists who know very well that almost anything negative reported involving the metro police will be easily believed’
KEMPTON PARK – The metro police’s image is grossly tarnished by motorists who know very well that almost anything negative reported involving the EMPD will be easily believed.
These are the words of Chief Supt Wilfred Kgasago, Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department spokesman, following a report by the Kempton Express in recent weeks regarding alleged metro police brutality.
“As a law enforcement agency we have to investigate any allegations levelled against our officers by way of getting three sides of the incident. The procedure we follow is to interview both the complainant and the officer/s who are accused, as well as independent witnesses before our Integrity and Standards Unit can check the merits of both parties’ claims,” he said.
Also Read: EMPD officer holds gun against woman’s head
“It is crucial for us as an organisation to establish the facts around the incident before we can furnish a complete and comprehensive response.
“It is unfortunate that during the course of our investigations – after responding to the media that investigations are underway, the media on the other hand is at liberty to splash untested allegations from complainants, which invariably place the EMPD in a very bad light in the eyes of the public.
“Our image is grossly tarnished by motorists who know very well that almost anything negative reported involving the metro police will be easily believed by their credulous target publics and cemented by the manner in which the media publicises the incident.
“Another unfortunate part is that by the time we respond after ascertaining the facts surrounding the incident, our image is already tarnished, the public’s thinking is swayed to the detriment of our image and worse still, the media never give our response the same degree of conspicuity it gave when initially reporting the matter,” Kgasago said.
“This kind of behaviour by some motorists is perpetuated because they know that the media will subtly take sides by the manner in which the story is told. The motorists will fabricate stories and throw any far-fetched aspect into the fray to strengthen their contemptible cases.”
Kgasago also supplied details regarding the incident reported on by Kempton Express.
Watch the video which brought the allegations against EMPD
The woman driver was clocked at 114km/h in an 80km/h zone. Procedure necessitates that the officer shows the driver (offender) the reading on the laser speed machine.
At first the driver refused but subsequently agreed. On being informed that she was under arrest, she started her rants by saying there was no law that provided for a driver to be arrested for speeding and stated the laser machine was wrong.
The female passenger, who was on her cellphone, shouted at the officers saying she was a lawyer-in-the-making and her father was an advocate. She further stated that her advocate father told her to leave and not allow the metro police to arrest them.
The passenger actually dragged the driver from the metro police to the vehicle, saying her father (advocate) said they must leave. They drove off. Metro police had to give chase with the driver dangerously playing chicken on the busy Great North Road until she was cornered one kilometre away at the intersection with Highveld Road.
Unbelievably, the two “ladies” started spitting profanities and racial slurs, stating they would not be arrested by black officers. As for the pointing and cocking of a firearm and assault as well as the claim of being called “white bitches”, it was just a dirty ploy to make their case look weighty in the eyes of the public.
Read the full story on the Kempton Express
