The sickening killing of 27 year old Mido Macia in South Africa this week brought to mind the white supremacist murders in the US which amounted to ‘lynchings’. This, together with the recent high profile rape and murder of Anene Booysen - and even the Oscar Pistorius case - point to a latent violence in the country that the government seems reluctant to tackle.
The sickening killing of 27 year old Mido Macia in South Africa this week brought to mind the white supremacist murders in the US which amounted to ‘lynchings’.
James Byrd Jr, a black man, was tied to the back of a pickup truck in Texas in 1998 by three men, two of whom were confirmed white supremacists, and dragged at speed to a gruesome death.
As recently as 2010, Anthony Hill, also a black man, was dragged almost ten miles by a white male after being shot, and the matter is now being investigated as a hate crime.
Such killings are the ultimate demonstration of control, power, contempt and hate for the victim.
But in post-Apartheid South Africa, where the police are black, the world, and the people hoped and perhaps dreamed of better.
Black people, who suffered grievously at the hands of the South African police under Apartheid, have a right to expect better. But sadly the corrupting influence of power seems to have transcended racial solidarity in the killing of Macia.
To see black policemen mimic the racist modus operandi of white supremacists is particularly galling. It also sends a clear message to poor blacks that “we are your masters now“.
The brutal video shows that there is good coordination between the policemen who rapidly tether Macia to their vehicle and are chillingly coordinated in their actions. It does not look like the first time they have done it; they appear much practiced in this form of torture and humiliation.
In South Africa, violence is always bubbling just beneath the surface; and when race, poverty, and power are added to the equation things can quickly boil over, as seen in the massacre of Marikana miners of 2012.
As with that atrocity, an investigation has been announced following public outcry, with remarks of condemnation from Jacob Zuma.
The recent high profile rape and murder of Anene Booysen – and even the Oscar Pistorius case – point to a latent violence in the country that the government seems reluctant to tackle in a systematic way. It is time for South Africa to join the dots and see the bigger picture.
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13 Responses to “Why are South African police mimicking white supremacists?”
Mick
That’s right. It’s good to see the baddies go. However, totalitarian Islamic dictatorships remain. In fact, they’ve be re-instated in places like Egypt and even fueled by the very Muslim Brotherhood which Obama, of all people, allies with and employs at home.
We’re not out of the tunnel yet.
Johanna VanDokkum
Correctly, there is massive outrage when the Daveyton #SAPS draged a Mozambican taxidriver to his death behind a police van — in a clearly #xenophobic hate crime www.http://youtube.com/watch?v=xnLNX_UbuHowever why the deafening silence whenever whites are killed that way? I archive the hatecrimes in SA since 1994 and have many such ‘dragging deaths’ on record: such as this young dad, dragged to his death #Farmer pic.twitter.com/tfCEpkxUaY
Bantu_Education
Re: the James Byrd dragging case – James Byrd was not an innocent black man as is always implied – he was a criminal who had abused his later executioner in jail. White men in black-majority jails join white racist gangs for their own protection, otherwise they will become the sex-slave and “bitch” of a black. For most black men, prison is no hardship at all – free food, clothing, medical, gym, and the opportunity to attack whites with impunity. They also live longer in jail, just as caged wild animals do. White men don’t. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/us-prison-blacks-idUSTRE76D71920110714
Dune
In South Africa it’s long past the collateral stage.
If Americans truly know the barbarism going on South Africa would be constant in the news. What is happening in South Africa and the reason for extreme violence is because of the country going through a revolution changing it into a Marxist communist country. Google NDR which stands for national democratic revolution. Google it. Coming to a State near you.
Mick
Indeed. And I think it’s partly stayed that way because the huge media and political focus on South Africa was eased after the regime ended Apartheid.
Despite appearances, the new regime has, shall we say, its own deep flaws and prejudices. Give the Left credit, they’re fantastic noise makers but I think they’ll need to be bullied into harassing the ‘right’ oppressors. (Indeed, the tone of this article reads between the lines as ‘Wow, the light and the way brigade are lowering themselves to act like the lowdown whites? Who’d’ve thunk it?’)